Someone is shot every couple of hours in Chicago. Chicago gangs murder about two people a day. Chicago politicians blame everyone else for their problems. Chicago politicians say guns are the problem. They say that these guns come from other states and cause crime in Chicago. For some strange reason, other states don’t see the kind of carnage we see each in Chicago each night. Other states don’t see it even though they have guns there too.
In Chicago, the middle class grows thinner every day. The unlucky ones are shot. The lucky ones move. The middle class working family is called greedy and racist as they pick up and leave, yet these same citizens don’t act greedy or racist once they finally escape Chicago. The problem is that Chicago can’t escape itself.
America is still a world-class manufacturer, though you wouldn’t know it if you asked the politicians. Chicago used to be filled with manufacturing businesses, both large and small. Politicians fixed that. You see, small shops couldn’t pay enough protection money to the Socialists party. For a long time, larger employers could, and did. The politicians passed regulations that penalized the small shops in favor of the larger unionized businesses. Politicians didn’t care if the small shops were driven away, so long as the large unionized shops stayed and continued to make their political payoffs. That was a winning scheme for the Democrat politicians. We saw the same scheme in Detroit and other deep blue cities.
Big businesses and unions competed for inside contracts with the city and state rather than competing to satisfy customers around the world. Small business couldn’t tolerate the high taxes, extensive regulation and political graft. Smaller employers moved out of crooked Cook County. Since they were moving, many of them simply kept going and moved out of Illinois entirely. I don’t blame them.
The corrupt scheme was a successful model for Democrat politicians, but is stole the entry level jobs that young people needed to get started on their own. Corruption leached away the high paying jobs that young couples needed to start a family. The middle class followed the jobs.
The politicians increased their demands, and so did the union bosses. Eventually the large unionized shops were driven out of business or were forced slim down and buy from out-of-state suppliers to try and stay competitive. Even large employers were forced to leave once they were one of the few firms left alive. Each year it got harder and harder to pay for all the promises made by Illinois politicians back through the decades.
What is a corrupt progressive/socialist/democrat politician to do as his city thins out and dies? Today, the socialist politicians in our deep blue cities have to import illegal immigrants to keep their legislative districts from hollowing out and collapsing. The politicians follow the California model and promise higher welfare benefits so the imported poor won’t leave when faced with rising poverty and rising crime.
Chicago politicians blame racism for their cities failure. Chicago politicians blame guns for the firefights that claim a dozen a night. Those are the symptoms, not the cause.
The problem is Chicago. This is the same problem we see in Socialists governments everywhere. They did it to themselves, and never take the blame. Chicago, you built that.
photo credit: swanksalot Crime Scene via photopin (license)
