Detroit bankruptcy opens up private-sector opportunities

by John Seiler | July 24, 2013 11:04 am

Spirit of Detroit statue, wikimedia[1]Detroit’s bankruptcy will reverberate for years — all across America to California. Writing on LewRockwell.com[2], a good analysis comes from James Ostrowski, who has written books on libertarian activism. He writes:

“Progressives have run Detroit for many decades.  Progressives, with considerable assistance from conservative Republicans on the state and national levels, are responsible for the numerous policy failures that combined to turn a once great city into ruins.  Those policies include: government schools and busing, welfare, the drug war, public employee unions, oppressive taxes and regulations on business and citizens, and the overall concept of government as the political means of acquiring wealth as opposed to the old-fashioned approach of productive work. This is a great opportunity for libertarians to explain, as the media will not, how progressivism destroyed Detroit.  It is a great opportunity to promote libertarian solutions to Detroit’s problems.”

As with his books, his solutions involve acting outside the government system. The schools are terrible? Then put your kids in private or parochial schools, or home-school them.

The cops won’t protect you? Get a gun and a concealed-carry permit, which is easy to do in Michigan (unlike repressed California).

Ostrowski:

We need to respond to the collapse of Detroit and other large Americans cities not by electing reform candidates or lobbying or circulating petitions but by direct action and entrepreneurship.  We need to withdraw from failed government institutions such as government schools and urge others to do likewise.  We need to encourage people to figure out how to solve their own problems without looking to politicians.  We need to figure out how to start business firms that compete with the failed government “services” such as the police.

“As Karen De Coster[3] has documented on this site, this movement is already well underway in Detroit.  The State’s collapse is the Liberty Movement’s opportunity.  Let’s not waste a crisis.”

De Coster’s blog, Detroit: From Dust to Riches[4], details the wonderful ways entrepreneurs are turning the massive failure of government in Detroit into opportunities to provide a service — and to make money doing it.

Government failure is not a bad thing. It’s a good thing. It’s an opportunity to brush aside our oppressors and begin a life that’s new and free.

Soon we’ll be doing the same when California goes bust…

Endnotes:
  1. [Image]: http://calwatchdog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Spirit-of-Detroit-statue-wikimedia.jpg
  2. Writing on LewRockwell.com: http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/07/james-ostrowski/progressivism-declares-bankruptcy/
  3. Karen De Coster: http://archive.lewrockwell.com/decoster/decoster-arch.html
  4. Detroit: From Dust to Riches: http://detroitrusttoriches.blogspot.com/

Source URL: https://calwatchdog.com/2013/07/24/detroit-bankruptcy-opens-up-private-sector-opportunities/