Dear Friends,
It seems to me willful blindness is the most dangerous form of blindness there is. Those who turn their eyes off, intentionally, subject themselves to every form of invasion of their rights and liberties imaginable, moreover, their willful blindness puts all of our rights and liberties at risk. No amount of goading, will get someone who has turned off their ability to sense truth from fiction, to restart their sense of perspective. This can only lead humanity to ruin.
Detroit is a perfect example of this in action. The example of Detroit’s downfall at the hands of progressives, can be extrapolated to any other city, state, country or even our entire planet. The results of progressive doctrines are empirically shown in the failure of the once most prosperous city in the United States. The nightly news programs, show the progressive faction in both parties going through logical calisthenics to divert blame from themselves, to anyone else, and the hope is enough of us are sufficiently blind to accept it.
They blame the faction that has not wielded power in Detroit for more than a generation. This argument is clearly sophistry writ large, but the total lack of critical thinking in the unbiased press, allow such nonsense to be spouted without so much as batting an eye or cracking a smile. That the media claims to be unbiased, while promoting an obvious agenda, has been known for a long time. Their complete lack of critical thinking, willful blindness, is not only a danger to their ratings, (statistics show the ratings, both in viewership and in trust, plummeting to new lows daily), but to our republic as well. Only a fool of the highest order, could possibly believe that the faction that has run a city, has no culpability in that city’s collapse.
Detroit was once the most prosperous city in the United States… and possibly the World. The automobile industry was started in Detroit and made that city great. Progressives promised the working people a better life if they voted them in. Once in, the progressives did everything they could, to drive all industry out of the city. At first, the emplaced manufacturing plants made it uneconomical to move to other more inviting cities, so the shell game went on. However, as plants needed to be upgraded and the cost of doing business in Detroit skyrocketed, plants and therefore jobs, moved out of the city and the state. The proof that it was the policies of progressives, and not the collapse of the auto industry, is the fact that the Auto industry still exists and is producing cars at a good clip… just not in Detroit.
Policies that undermine the ability of the market to function are the bread and butter of progressivism. Progressives are cut from the same cloth as communists. In fact, the only real difference between progressives and communists, is communist’s belief in the “revolution.” Progressives, as their name implies, believe they can progress society and government into communism, without the bloodshed of a revolution. The means are different but the ends are the same… a socialist nation where the goods of society are distributed by political favor, instead of merit. As such the policies of progressives have a decided anti capitalist slant.
What is certain, is that when a city passes a whole slew of anti capitalist policies, regulations and laws, it becomes more and more expensive to do business there. Companies don’t have the benefit of government’s monopoly on power however and must compete in the marketplace. As a company that is based in a progressive city’s costs go up, they are less able to compete with those firms in less expensive cities. The result is, either the company moves to a more business friendly city, or it goes out of business. This is a basic law of the market and only a fool is blind to it.
As the policies and regulations of Detroit’s progressives drove firms to other cities, and even countries, the income to fund the huge redistribution ideas of progressives dried up. This must become a downward spiral, because progressives never cut spending, they only raise taxes and regulations. Higher taxes and regulations increase the cost to firms, driving those that have toughed it out, because of their commitment to the city. As the funding for big welfare dries up, while the population that had become dependent on government services rises, due to the lack of jobs, the shortfall necessarily goes up. Again, this is basic common sense… but alas, it has become less and less common.
Nationally, progressives must believe that if only the entire country goes their way, firms will not be able to migrate jobs to less expensive cities and states. Obama being the poster child for this fallacy. What they lack in understanding however… is that firms must compete internationally. Those that are stuck in high cost countries simply cannot compete with those in less costly countries. So, despite the nationalization of stupidity, the economy will still suffer. The country that embraces progressivism, must fail economically, then culturally and socially. Perhaps this is why progressives seek World government. They believe that if their idiocy is made to cover the entire World, businesses will eventually all go away, and the starving populations will have to turn to socialism. This would progress the people of the world to total government, where there is no escape… except to space. Like I said, willful blindness is the most dangerous form of blindness there is.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
