(My new American Thinker post)
Chicago, Portland, Milwaukee, etc. are all a big mess. It goes like this: the taxpayers move out and the public sector unions elect their man. So what happens now? We will see, but this may be a blessing in disguise because the finances of these cities are going nowhere.
I like what Stephen Moore wrote about the situation:
The nation’s 10 largest counties have lost more than 1 million residents since 2019. The biggest losers have been the counties that are home to New York and San Francisco and Chicago’s Cook County. Even Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous county, with just under 10 million people, is now contracting.
Welcome to the real-world impact of progressivism. Instead of worker paradises, the Left has transitioned our once-shining cities into slums, murder zones, homeless encampments and boarded-up stores. They have become cults of economic and political quackery -- and tragically, few Democrats have the courage to speak out. They are worried about being called racists when the reality is that the victims -- of terrible public schools, high murder rates and an anti-business creed -- are the minorities they say they care so much about.
The three poisons of America’s leftist cities are 1) high taxes, 2) schools that don’t educate and 3) crime running rampant.
Yes, and the good news is that the money won't be there. At some point, many of these cities will run out of money because the check from the state legislature, or COVID, is not in the mail. The businesses will move out and take their taxes with them. And the schools will collapse because they can't cover costs. You can strike all you want but the teachers of Chicago may have to make concessions or lose their jobs. That's not what they voted for but that's what they will get.
So reality is around the corner and it's not pretty. At some point, Mayor Brandon Johnson will have to tell his base that there is no money and that layoffs are coming. He will also have to deal with the reality of unfunded pensions -- the key word here is “unfunded.”
So we wish the residents of Chicago the best, but it won't be pretty because public sector unions can't print money. Thank God for that.
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