The Crash of the Big Units

A while back I did a couple of blogs on the sad fate of Detroit, Michigan. It has gone from the nation's 5th largest city to a gutted and decrepit shadow of its former self. in 1950 Detroit had 1.85 million people but by 2010 only 714,000. There are 78,000 vacant structures and 60,000 vacant parcels of land within city limits. A state-appointed emergency fiscal manager has displaced the mayor and city council and reported that barring a miracle, the city has only 45 days before it will have to file bankruptcy. Michael Barone has an interesting post mortem about what happened and the relevance to the U.S. today, which is captured in the phrase "Big Units."

What Barone means by this term is Big Business, Big Labor, and Big Government. They ran Detroit with a "command control" structure - others jumped and they said how high. It worked in WW II and up until around 1960, but then the sand began to slide out under their feet, imperceptibly at first, then faster and faster. Big Business lost touch with its customers (remember the Japanese invasion starting in the 1970s) and its costs with fat labor contracts that haunt it even today. Big Labor lost sight of the fact that Detroit wasn't the only game in town and lost jobs over time to the Asian car industry and the non-union South in this country. Big Government - well some of the results are listed above. It lost its grip on reality. 

Why this is relevant today is that Obama and much of the so-called Progressive Left think that a Big Unit economy is just what we need. When you hear this, remember Detroit and pay heed to George Santayana - those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.   Then answer with a resounding "NO" at the ballot box and every other way that you can.  

townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2013/06/03/tragedy-of-detroit-shows-big-unit-america-is-out-of-gas-n1610728