Urban Bonanza

Posted by Larry Miller on March 5, 2009 under Why | Be the First to Comment

This morning I watched the news as three urban mayors sat grinning and licking their chops at the thought of even more federal dollars coming their way. The more I listen to the explanations of the various bundles of cash flowing out of Washington, the more I understand that another direction of the income redistribution is from rural to urban areas, from primarily red areas to primarily blue areas.

This should come as no surprise as the Democrats have a long and proud history of favoring their constituents. Their schemes may not lift the poor out of poverty, but they give them occasional goodies and the occasional satisfaction that those who are better off would now be less better off and experiencing some pain as well. It’s payoff time in the cities. Besides, if they ever did resolve the problem of poverty, they understand that people no longer looking for a handout gravitate to the other party.

The inequity of distribution is aggravated by the fact that these cities tend to be the least efficient and most corrupt governments in the country. There is even talk about the cities getting the funds directly from Washington and not having to submit to the adult supervision of state governments.

Where is this money going? Part of it is going to maintain bloated city budgets and retention of the overpopulation of municipal workers. Union workers, I might add… dare we say more of the money flowing to Obama supporters. Another part of it is going to build infrastructure and amenities for city dwellers.

This needs to be viewed in the light of the bigger picture and makes one wonder about the overall goals and a possibly hidden agenda from the administration. Let’s take a look at several pearls of Washington wisdom.

First we see this rerouting of cash to urban centers… never mind that most city governments are incapable of using it wisely. This will go for increased services and amenities. City dwellers tend to be renters as opposed to home owners. Beyond this, we see the beginning of the reduction of the home mortgage interest deduction. It is difficult to believe that this is the end as the current administration appears to have an insatiable appetite for money to pay for it’s excesses.

So we see taxpayer dollars spent to make city life more tolerable and home ownership less desirable. It has long been the goal of the dirt loving tree huggers to stop suburban sprawl and move people back to the cities where we can all enjoy the wonders of public transportation and live stacked to the sky in high rise apartment buildings. When we combine this activity with other legislation coming down the pike such as cap and trade with will push energy prices, including gas, higher and higher. Then, there is even talk about adding to the tax on every gallon of gasoline.

One has to wonder if we are not witnessing the execution of the radical environmentalist agenda. Each of the elements is wrong in and of itself, but when combined, promise even further negative changes in our society. City dwellers tend to be inherently more dependent on government services and less capable of taking care of themselves. They tend to be more narcissistic and disconnected as opposed to suburban and rural residents and these changes to not bode well for our country.

Sometimes it’s a good idea to stifle the outrage at each individual assault on our liberty and freedom of choice while we step back and look at the bigger picture. Each nibble at our ability to live the American dream when combined with all the others can take an even bigger bite out of what we each thought was our future. It’s called synergy in action.