In the movie “Revenge of the Nerds,” one of the nerds asked an interesting question: “Would you rather live in the ascendancy of a civilization or during its decline?” Alas, those who remain in Detroit know very well what the later is like.
A Detroit councilwoman has declared that since Detroit voted for Obama, he is supposed to bail out the city.
Aside from the fact that this is just an explicit and vocal declaration of how a welfare state with a large dependent population works, this is also an example of what happens when you run out of other people’s money: Decay on the order not seen since the fall of the Western Roman Empire. In his “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Edward Gibbons described what became of Rome after the Western Empire fell:
“Survey the other hills of the city, the vacant space is interrupted only by ruins and gardens. The forum of the Roman people, where they assembled to enact their laws and elect their magistrates, is now enclosed for the cultivation of pot-herbs, or thrown open for the reception of swine and buffaloes. The public and private edifices, that were founded for eternity, lie prostrate, naked, and broken, like the limbs of a mighty giant; and the ruin is the more visible, from the stupendous relics that have survived the injuries of time and fortune.”
The comparison of this description of post-Empire Rome with Detroit is not hyperbole. If anything, Detroit is worse:
Images of decay and disintegration can be seen here and here. For a particularly striking contrast, compare Hiroshima and Detroit, both after WWII, and today; it is enough hope for Detroit to be nuked from orbit…
Things in Detroit have gotten so bad, that the state of Michigan is considering abolishing the city as an entity entirely; essentially, this would be euthanasia their local government.
Perhaps it would have been best if we had just listened to, and accepted the offer of, Omni-Consumer Products:
Despite the insane and drug-addicted giant cyborg, it’d still be more peaceful and safe then Detroit is now…
This will not end well…
