They're All Detroit Democrats Now

The American Spectator reports:

In 1950, the population of Detroit stood at 1.8 million people, and the city enjoyed the highest median income of all major cities in America. Over the ensuing decades in which the city's politics was a competition solely among the government unions and the most extreme left-wing of the Democrat party, working people, the middle class, businesses small and large, and capital investment increasingly fled the city and its high taxes, oppressive regulations, and poor services. Today the city is a shrunken, hallowed out shell of its former self, with less than half of its former population at 871,000 people. Moreover, its median household income now ranks 66th among major American cities.

The city government itself is the second largest employer in Detroit, right behind the city's public school system. In fact, of the city's 25 biggest employers, the state, county and city governments account for 40 percent of all jobs. The city employs one worker for every 50 city residents remaining, compared to Indianapolis which employs one worker for every 223 residents.

This municipal socialism is not working. In late 2010, unemployment in Detroit was stuck at 13.4%, 40% higher than the national average at the time. This reflected not a cyclical problem, but a long-term depression in Detroit. One-third of Detroit residents live in poverty.

Less than one-fourth of the public school students in Detroit graduate on time from high school, the lowest graduation rate in the country. Yet spending per pupil in Detroit public schools is higher than in wealthy Marin County, California, where the high school graduation rate is 97%. Indeed, for their performance, Detroit public school teachers enjoy the highest pay in the country among major metropolitan areas, at $47.28 per hour. Yet, citing supposed budget reductions, the Detroit public schools actually asked parents to provide toilet paper for the schools.

An article well worth your time.