Detroit is an &quot;Albatross Around Michigan's Neck&quot;. Detroit was once a thriving metropolitan area and one of the largest cities in the country with a robust economy. After the riots of 1967 all of that changed due in large part to LBJ's Great Society and the liberal policies of Detroit's mayors.<br />
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The following are excerpts from an editorial by Thomas Sowell at detnews.com on the failure of welfare politics. <br />
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<span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><i>&quot;Detroit is perhaps the most striking example of a once thriving city ruined by years of liberal social policies. Before the ghetto riots of 1967, Detroit's black population had the highest rate of home ownership of any black urban population in the country, and their unemployment rate was just 3.4 percent.<br />
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<span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><i>It was not despair that fueled the riot. It was the riot which marked the beginning of the decline of Detroit to its current state of despair. Detroit's population today is only half of what it once was, and its most productive people have been the ones who fled.<br />
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<span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><i>Treating businesses and affluent people as prey, rather than assets, often pays off politically in the short run &mdash; and elections are held in the short run. Killing the goose that lays the golden egg is a viable political strategy.<br />
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<span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><i>As whites were the first to start leaving Detroit, its then-Mayor Coleman Young saw this only as an exodus of people who were likely to vote against him, enhancing his re-election prospects.<br />
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<span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><i>But what was good for Mayor Young was disastrous for Detroit.<br />
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<span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><i>There is a lesson here somewhere, but it is very doubtful if either the intelligentsia or the politicians will learn it.&quot;<br />
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For the complete story, from <em><strong><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">detnew.com</span></strong></em> by guest columnist Thomas Sowell, click on the following story link titled: &quot;<a href="http://detnews.com/article/20110403/OPINION03/104030302/Detroit-decline-a-lesson-in-welfare-politics"><em><strong>Detroit decline a lesson in welfare politics</strong></em></a><em>&quot;.</em><br />
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