To understand what is going to happen to America's health care delivery system, we must first understand what has happened to Detroit.
Detroit is dying. Yes, I know that there are lots of books on "The Death of. . . ." That word sells books. But Detroit really is dying. It is the first metropolis in the United States to be facing extinction. We have never seen anything like this in American history. It is happening under our noses, but the media refuse to discuss it. To do so would be politically incorrect. Two factors tell us that Detroit is dying. The first is the departure of 900,000 people – over half the city's population – since 1950. It peaked at 1.8 million in 1950. It is down to about 900,000 today.
In 1994, the median sales price of a house in Detroit was about $41,000. The housing bubble pushed it up to about $98,000 in 2003. In March 2009, the price was $13,600. Today, the price is $7,000.
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We are unfamiliar with anything like this. The media are silent. The Powers That Be are not interested in reporting on this, because readers might ask the obvious question: "How did this happen?" Obvious questions tend to lead to obvious answers.
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The city planners, the Federal government's subsidy defenders, and the welfare state aficionados are all discreetly silent about Detroit.
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When a city simply shuts down from the effects of government mismanagement, the media say nothing. Detroit has become the poster child of government regulation, welfare systems, and a population that has given up hope.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Government Killed Detroit
...and it is going to kill health care:
Health Care and Detroit: Killed By Government
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America's inability to make a car anyone outside the US would drive killed Detroit. The market spoke and Detroit didn't listen. They were too busy convincing Americans SUVs were amazing.
ReplyDeleteI live close to Detroit and used to hitch hike over to go to shows at the old Grandee:
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when I was a kid in the sixties. In those days, just after the riots, there was a riot cop on every corner and Black Panthers patrolled the streets. It has gone downhill steadily since then. I haven't been over for about eight years as I'm now required to have a passport and a biometric ID Card to cross the border. In the sixties I didn't need any ID to get across.... See More
The decline of Detroit mirrors that of the automotive industry, Starting in the late sixties when they started importing cheap laminated steel from Japan that was prone to rust. Folks lost confidence in American cars just when the Japanese started selling their cheaper cars made from better steel. Coincidence? Since then outsourcing and off shoring have killed the industry and the city.
The only thing Detroit has going for it now is its proximity to the Great Lakes and all that water. As the aquifer in the US Southwest dries up populations will either have to move to where the water is, or pipe it down to them from the Great Lakes which, at present, is illegal under international agreement.
Outsourcing is not a response to American labor practices, it is a response by automakers who will make a car anywhere as long as it increases profit margins (sales, safety, and quality be damned). If there were massive flaws in American labor laws, the Japanese wouldn't build factories that produce auto parts here in the US. Honda and Toyota both produce parts here. It is flawed US business practices which drove American auto makers to the point of being the laughing stock of the world.
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