As a Chicago native, I have watched my home city unravel under the policies of Mayor Brandon Johnson and the ultra-left city council. Controlled by groups like the teachers’ union, the city has continued to spend lavishly on progressive causes and bloated pension funds while destroying its own economy. The city has a more than $1 billion budget gap, with a roughly $150 million deficit. Roughly, two-fifths of the budget is now going toward debt service and pension costs. The city council is following a familiar death spiral. It is turning to higher taxes against the very industries that it needs to drive the economy. That now includes a roughly 20 percent tourist tax on hotels. These politicians are doing what the Chicago fire failed to achieve: kill a major city.
Johnson has been pushing for irresponsible measures to grab cash now and pay later schemes. Johnson and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) lost a fight to secure a $200 million loan to avoid having to reduce the budget or staff. Johnson and the union pushed for a corporate “head tax.” Barely able to convince many companies to stay in the state, Chicago would actually make it more costly to hire Chicagoans with an additional $ 21-per-employee tax.
The city council just approved an $830 million borrowing plan to finance infrastructure projects by selling bonds. Notably, the council had to bar Johnson from giving the money to the teachers’ union, given his history of dependency on the union. However, the bond will now make the debt crisis even more acute. The bond agreement allows someone else to pay the massive accrued debt after 20 years.
Chicago now spends 40% of its money on debt servicing.
At the same time, Johnson has pushed for city-run grocery stores, and his government has stopped buying treasury bonds for political reasons.
Now, pursuant to Ordinance 2026-0022544, the city will raise the tax on hotel rooms within that district to 19% from 17.5%, which includes a combined city, county, and state tax, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The increase will apply to any hotels with more than 100 rooms.
Hotel costs are already prohibitively high, and the added tax hits the convention tourism side of the economy.
The editorial board of the Washington Post took note of Chicago’s worsening situation and wrote “it takes a long time to kill a city, and the bigger the city, the longer it takes.”
I’ll just leave this right here:
📉 Top states losing the most people
California
~250,000–300,000 net loss
New York
~130,000–150,000 net loss
Illinois
~80,000–100,000 net loss
New Jersey
~50,000–70,000 net loss
Massachusetts
~40,000–60,000 net loss
Give them a map to Canada, please. They bring their politics with them.
Yes. . .the liberals who run big cities are in it for two things. . . .power and money . .and in that order. They’re taught by other liberals that they are the chosen ones to rule the world . . .and of course, they would be sipping champaign in their 2nd or 3rd homes and paying pennies to those whom they employ to clean their homes, trim the grass, etc.
The Founders and Framers provided the Constitution and Bill of Rights, which were to be supported and perpetuated by honorable and successful leaders of resolve who were elected by citizens who were enabled to vote by state legislatures.
Democracy was of the restricted-vote variety from inception in Greece; one-man, one-vote democracy was never proposed or considered rational.
America is nothing without the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the restricted vote, and resolute leaders.
Voters must have been 21 with a net worth of 50 lbs. Sterling in 1788, which is equal to ~$14K today, and turnout was ~11.6%.
Estimates are that ~15% of the population today should be voting.
All citizens in the U.S. today should be benefiting from the rights, freedoms, privileges, and immunities of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Sorry for your hometown, Professor, but the cleansing was bound to happen once residents started electing those tax/spend Democrats, and it will continue as long as they refuse to learn from their mistakes.
Countless examples of why they should not drive out the job creators notwithstanding, they still insist on continuing the downward spiral from which there can be no recovery.
Whether it’s CA, IL, NY or any of their major cities, the best things that will come from their total collapse will be the change in voting habits when (not if) it happens, and the shining examples of why Socialism still doesn’t work, to show these teachers union-indoctrinated students. 🙂
I read PT article and it’s summed up in one of his sentences- grab the money now before the collapse (paraphrased).
Piranha and there’s chum in the water. It’s a frantic feast, cliff j.
Turley– “Controlled by groups like the teachers’ union, the city has continued to spend lavishly on progressive causes”
Why are teachers unions even allowed? They are scorpion nests. Abolish them.
Unions are unconstitutional criminal organizations that must be struck down and eliminated.
Public school is unconstitutional as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause by denying citizens their liberty to determine and obtain educations for their children, and public schools must be privatized.
Unions and public schools are quite simply mindless adherents to the inane maxim “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” of the wholly unconstitutional Communist Manifesto.
Under these circumstances, why would anyone loan money to Chicago? I can only think of one thing: the hope that the federal government will come to the rescue and bail the city out and in that way get back their money at whatever terms the city promised. Of course, that is only possible if the Democrats get control of the White House and Congress again at the same time. The State of Illinois cannot help since it is in pretty bad fiscal shape itself and for many of the same reasons, so if they do extend help it will also be with the hope of a federal bail out for the state. Every rational person should oppose any form of a federal bail out. Let them stew in their own juices.
Perhaps some of Pritzger’s NGOs will step and help.
Whatever you call the political ideology, it can best be described as incompetent management. My own observation, growing up in Detroit, is that it starts with crime. Increasing crime chases out families who can afford to move. The same incompetence takes over the schools and ruins what was once a great school system. Another reason to leave. As businesses begin suffering both from the impact of crime and their customers moving out, they move their businesses. The city depopulates, the people who do not pay taxes elect people who promise to increase tax rates to make up for the loss in revenues. Union members help elect leaders who increase pay and benefits to union members, even if it makes no sense economically. And everything spirals toward bankruptcy. Instead of blaming leadership, the remaining population blames the people and businesses that were chased out or the new leaders who are trying to fix the problem. The people who caused the problem never get blamed or held accountable. The saddest thing that is rarely mentioned, is the loss of all the stores and homes the prior generations (including many immigrants) built to create a beautiful city with a great economy. A good indicator might be charting numbers of building permits over the years…
Anon, incompetent management? Oh no, sir, these are best and brightest thieves in all universes. These are the locust.
Crime increased when the jobs left because the billionaires in charge of the auto industry didn’t re-invest in the product and made garbage for decades. When the Japanese makers said “Build it to last” the billionaires doubled down and made cars even more unreliable. The soaked the workforce for all they could and soaked the American buying public for all they could and then abandoned the city to build cars in China.
And those pesky “billionaires” gave you an excellent opportunity to compete. Did you? You know, nature abhors a vacuum. Did you fill it?
You’re exponentially worse than that parasitic, sickly drunkard, and invalid Karl Marx.
The Founders gave Americans the one thing they should have: Freedom.
But you sit around and b—— and beg.
Anon, poor planning. At the advent of Japanese compact cars and American auto sales drop, Detroit should have hustled to bring in new industry. Motown didn’t take up the slack. Middle class left Detroit as autos shut down. They escaped.
Remember the Vega.
Jezzzzzzzzzz.
The —-ing UAW conducted constant idiotic and illegal strikes driving automakers out.
Unions are illegal and unconstitutional criminal organizations.
What were you driving? German or Italian?
So Orange Caligula started a new war in the Middle East against Iran, then lifted sanctions on Russian and Iranian oil because Iranian retaliation caused global oil prices to spike.
The Iranians thought they could beat us by raising the global price of energy, but Trump is way too smart for that and he’s fighting back by lifting sanctions on Iranian oil exports to ease the supply crunch and lower the price.
Only Trump would lift sanctions against a country AFTER starting a war with them.
Art of the deal.
Going to war with a country, then immediately floating the idea of lifting sanctions on its oil to prevent your own economic collapse, is the very definition of strategic failure
Trump is playing one-dimensional Tiddlywinks.
My name is Donald J. Trump.
The J stands for genius.
He’s literally funneling cash to the Iranian government by lifting sanctions, so they can use it to kill American soldiers.
You are clueless about the terms of that temporary sanction waiver.
Are we at war with Russia ?
And don’t forget, the only ships getting past the Straights of Hormuz are those ships Iran wants to get through. Thanks dear leader. Your war is making the enemy stronger.
Why does WordPress censor?
“. . . the only ships getting past . . .”
You, too, are clueless about the terms of the temporary sanction waiver.
How clueless?
The waiver explicitly excludes new production and new delivery of Iranian oil.
do you live in reality ? The US is not at war with Russia – despite Biden’s efforts.
Sanctions against Iran were not lifted, SOME very specific sanctions against Russian oil were temporarily lifted – these are benefiting Europe and India – but overall have provided little benefit to Russia and none to Iran.
As James Carville notes – the most important thing for the american people is “its the economy stupid”.
That said – in the first year of Trump 47 – Venezeualla, Russia, Cuba, Iran and China have all been substantially disempowered globally.
We do not have a perfect relationship with Venzeulla – but we do have an improved one.
The Cuban regime is negotiating in ways it has not done in 60 years.
Russia is the weakest it has been ever, and China is also in trouble – neither are projecting power – both have far too many problems at home.
We have yet to see what the outcome in Iran will be – but we have already significantly destroyed Iran’s ability to threaten its neighbors and destabalize the world.
If we stopped tomorow, if the current regime continued to stteal from its people to develop nuclear weapons, then we would have to come back and do this all again later.
But that would still be later not now. Regardless, we have a weakened regime that may not be able to keep down its own people any longer when we stop.
The world is different than in 2024 – and substantially better – if still far from perfect.
He is just one of many sources debunking this nonsense.
Russia is being HURT by the conflict in Iran. While it ha raised oil prices, it has also raised the cost of Russian oil.
Russia is making less on oil exports now than before the war.
Further, Iran supplied 40% of Russia’s munitions – Russia’s spring campaign is tanking, Ukraine is actually gaining ground,
We may be at a tipping point in which russia’s small advantaging in a war of attrition flips to being a disadvantageous.
Regardless, the net impact of the conflict in Iran is NEGATIVE for Russia.
I would further note – it appears to have a negative impact on China as well – there is reporting of anti-regime riots in China that make those in Iran look tiny.
“Robert Mueller just died,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
Says the guy that sent a missile into. school filled with girls.
Please tell us dear leader. What was the crime those school girls were involved in?
^ idiot troll, ignore ^
Try to stick with verified facts.
Idiocy has now reached problematic proportions in State, County, City and Federal governments. We have fools that think adding borrowed funding to government operations is any kind of solution for a successful future. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is most assuredly the road to ruination and draconian corrective measures, similar to Draco’s harsh punishing measures. I hate to use what-about-ism but the propensity to have a blind eye mainly applies to the Political Left, whereas the Political Right have Rose colored glasses that have spots of clarity of the risks of paying Paul.
Now to the State of New York: the state has +/- 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas locked away in the Marcellus Shale. Closing price for Natural Gas NYMEX Friday 20th, $3.09, the state charges 2% severance tax on production, [go figure] why is it locked away, all because they do not understand or accept sub-surface science concerning drilling and water separation. Oh, Dear you’re going frac!
America’s Windy City has picked up a putrid smell of the failure yet to come and will soon be asking for a Dollar scented aerosol to hide the coming collapse.
New York State would benefit from extracting fossil fuels from the Marcellus Shale with new drilling technologies. Pennsylvania, another Marcellus Shale state, is an example where the state government is sane enough to realize that. But the voters of NY would rather virtue signal and pretend that not exploiting their vast natural resources is somehow going to help climate change, when in fact it will make no appreciable difference. Air and electricity cross state lines with ease, and the climate issue is going to be decided in Asia, Africa, and South America regardless of whether NY State inflicts itself with an economic wound.
Governments have long issued bonds – basically borrowing – for decades. The US Federal government sold War Bonds, for example.
Yes – pump all the natural gas right this minute. Drop the prices. Sell low. Then, when other supplies run low, have nothing to offset that. Great way to think it through. Plus, the added benefit of pumping toxic materials into the groundwater, toxins the frackers are not required to divulge, so that decades later hundreds of thousands to millions of people may get cancers from untraceable water contamination. The billionaires make quick cash and everyone else suffers.
A blinded democratic for sure without an answer. New York and Houston city bonds at one time were crap pure junk, I’m not sure the feds would supply support when fed debt will be $40 trillion plus.
Well GW, they certainly aren’t polite about it. After they’ve robbed they break your legs as a thanks for the money, chump.
I was just thinking about the massive fraud everywhere from huge fraud to little guy fraud. Imagine a group of criminal fraudsters suddenly foisted into official positions looking at the enormous system of entitlements the US created. They drooled. 😂.
Enter the hated DOGE.
That’s your epitaph- They Drooled.
Old song says, they should never have taken the very best.
If we could just get people to take off their political jerseys for a moment and admit there is a problem, we might actually get somewhere. From there the work is classic root‑cause analysis: there are many problems with many causes, but is there one root cause. You test each proposed cause by asking, “If this were eliminated, would all the problems go away.” If the answer is no, then that cause is downstream and you have to keep moving upstream until you finally reach the root.
OLLY
Astoundingly shallow thinking from our resident pseudo-intellectual know-it-all who actually knows nothing and tries to simplify every problem to fit his preconceived notions of a failure of self-government.
As every engineer will tell you, root cause analysis can only work when everyone agrees on the nature of the problem. In fact, I would go further and say that it can only work if everyone agrees that there actually is a problem in the first place.
Obviously, to any intelligent observer there is absolutely no agreement whatsoever on the nature of the problem that is being posited by Turley and the rest of the MAGA mob. Turley’s own comments and the divergent comments here perfectly illustrate that there is absolutely no agreement about the nature of the alleged problem.
In the absence of an agreed problem, then root cause analysis is simply an exercise in futility.
Of course, ill-informed people such as Olly can hypothesize about the nature of the problem and attempt a futile root cause analysis. The problem with that approach is that if an individual defines the problem in terms of his preconceived biases, then the result will simply be an exercise in confirmation bias rather than a neutral root cause analysis.
Astoundingly you say. First, it does not take an engineer to see there is a problem. If anyone insists there is no problem at all, that denial is itself part of the problem. And for the record, no competent engineer will tell you that root cause analysis only works once everyone already agrees on the nature of the problem; the whole point of the exercise is that people do not agree and need a disciplined way to test their competing hypotheses. Hypothesizing about the nature of the problem simply means someone has finally moved from Step 1 to Step 2. After admitting a problem, the next step is to identify all the problems, not skip ahead to preferred solutions. Refusing to do root cause analysis because “no one agrees what the problems are” is itself a problem, so put it on the list. The reflex to inject a jersey into every discussion is a problem, so put it on the list. The habit of name‑calling and blame‑shifting is a problem, so put it on the list. At some point we either admit those patterns are dysfunctional and start dissecting them, or we admit we are not actually serious about solving anything.
I’ll be honest, Olly, and repeat the problem is citizen capacity and the lack of capacity to self govern. You’re so much smarter than normal i cant understand. You drive me 🤪.
Not buying your book, Olly, to find out, either.
Anonymous, if “citizen capacity” is the problem, go ahead and add your comment to the list. “You’re too smart, I don’t get it, I won’t read more, and by the way I’m advertising your book” is not a rebuttal; it’s Exhibit A and a free plug. Thanks
Just not your book 😂. Start dissecting, Olly. Defined civic capacity and now solve the lack of it. Begin, I’m all ears.
Nice retort Olly (-:
OLLY
The more you pontificate about RCA, the more you simply reveal that you have no fundamental understanding of what RCA actually is, and what it can do.
As I said, RCA is only possible when all stakeholders agree that there is a problem, and also agree on the nature of the problem. To say that disagreement among the stakeholders as to the nature of the problem is an actual problem that is amenable to RCA is a literal absurdity. That very statement illustrates perfectly that you have absolutely no understanding of RCA.
RCA cannot be used to test competing hypotheses from those who disagree about the very nature of the problem itself. That statement of yours is also absurd.
The stakeholders here in this example from Turley are of opposite political beliefs. They fundamentally disagree on the nature of the problem. Therefore it is impossible to apply the principles of RCA, because it never was intended to IDENTIFY problems, and indeed, it is fundamentally incapable of identifying specific problems. RCA was developed to identify the CAUSES of problems upon which all the stakeholders agree already exist.
If you simply try to apply RCA principles to a problem that only one side believes to be a problem, then all you end up doing is confirming preexisting biases, in other words, confirmation bias.
For the record, I am a consulting engineer who does RCA for a living.
Here is a basic outline of what RCA actually is, and what it can do.
https://www.splunk.com/en_us/blog/learn/root-cause-analysis.html
Note the following extracts that tell you how to start RCA:
“Begin by clearly defining the problem statement and its symptoms”.
“Involve key stakeholders in the problem definition process”
“Ensure that the problem statement is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound”
Anonymous, you are treating “agree on the nature of the problem” as a precondition for analysis instead of the thing that has to be earned by doing analysis. The initial “what are all the possible problems” work is the brainstorm step inside a root cause process, not the purpose of the process.
In every serious field that uses something like root cause analysis, disagreements about what the problem even is are routine. The point of a disciplined method is to surface competing descriptions, attach testable hypotheses to them, and see which ones survive contact with reality, not to declare at the outset that this cannot be done because people disagree. Your own source does not say “all stakeholders must already agree on the nature of the problem.” It says to begin by clearly defining the problem statement and its symptoms, and to involve key stakeholders in the problem definition process. That is an instruction to do the hard work of definition, not a requirement that everyone walk in already aligned.
When I say that disagreement about the nature of the problem is itself a problem amenable to analysis, I am not claiming that “disagreement” is the only problem. I am saying that if one faction insists there is no problem while another sees manifest dysfunction, that pattern of denial and conflict is a real-world condition that can be described, measured, and explained. You can ask who denies what, on what evidence, with what incentives, and with what downstream effects. That is not absurd; it is how adults approach contested systems.
You also insist that root cause analysis was never intended to identify problems at all. In practice, every serious root cause exercise begins with people discovering that their initial “problem statements” are vague, contested, or wrong. The method forces them to refine those statements, split one vague “problem” into several concrete ones, and sometimes admit that what they thought was the problem is only a symptom. That iterative clarification is exactly what you are trying to rule out. If you define root cause analysis as a tool that only applies after everyone already agrees on the problem, you have described a method that will never be used in any domain where disagreement is the norm, which is to say, most of public life.
There are thousands of problems. Name one that you see.
Just from this story itself: The city has a more than $1 billion budget gap, with a roughly $150 million deficit.
Ano
root cause analysis.
____________________
Something like forgetting to install the bolts that hold the door plug (Boeing)
That’s great engineering!
“As every engineer will tell you, root cause analysis can only work *when everyone agrees* on the nature of the problem.” (emphasis added)
BS.
RCA has nothing to do with your collectivist premise of group agreement. It specifically tells an investigator to focus on two fundamental issues: the facts of the situation and the fundamental *cause*.
When Tesla discovered the problems with DC power, there was no “everyone agrees.”
When Pasteur discovered the underlying cause of certain diseases, there was no “everyone agrees.” (And, yes, RCA applies to medical problems.)
Yet both were right. And both were perfect examples of using elements of RCA.
You’re a hostile poser who butchered RCA to satisfy a desire to smear the opposition.
What is the root cause in 5 words or less, Olly? Citizen capacity isn’t a choice unless a list of required components of citizen capacity is given.
Anonymous, you do not understand how root cause analysis works. What is the root cause in five words or less, Olly? is not analysis; it is a parlor game. Calling “citizen capacity” the root cause is not a conclusion, it is only a hypothesis. I am happy to put my definition of citizen capacity on the table and even to argue that my diagnosis is correct, but the exercise is still about testing that claim, not treating it as revealed truth. You are free to ask for an operational definition, but even if you get one, the next step is not to declare victory; it is to examine whether those components are actually missing, why they are missing, and where upstream the system is failing to produce them.
[When I say citizen capacity, I mean the level of formation a person has for self-government over time, both governing oneself and participating in governing with others, with the knowledge, judgment, and habits needed to discern facts, make sound political choices, and act for the common good.]
Those involved must be citizens. Define citizen. You’ve used the word. I’ll start– a citizen has the authority by law to engage civic duties and systems.
Anything else?
If one is dying from lack of food and water and only water is given, since that doesn’t solve all the problems, then why not withhold the water? Better to start nowhere and do nothing.
If you really think “give no water unless you can give food too” is a serious model for policy, you are making my point about citizen capacity for me.
I must alter the citizen by law offering because it’s popular opinion that birth (soil) constitutes citizenry. Altered to read either by law or popular opinion….
Om on the way with food unknown to those thirsting and a hunger. ☺. Give water.
Redistributive change schemes, Equivocation, and Incompetence, are first-order forcings of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Government Warming… and climate change.
The $87k per homeless person is deceiving. They are spending that money on actual homeless people, they are spending it on six-figure salaries for city bureaucrats. I would venture to say that little of that money trickles down to those for which it is intended. It is only a “homeless” program in that it ensures that Democrat apparatchiks make the mortgage payments on their Brownstones.
If you’re going to say that, Jeff, give a blow by blow break down.
It is the Homeless and Illegal Immigrant Industrial Complex. The corrupt and moraly bankrupt get more seats in congress, they rob taxpayers blind, they don’t prosecute criminals and they allow foreign actors to fund the Anarchy thugs. It is about power. Pure, power.
What could go wrong with that?
” Now [Gov. Hochul] is bewailing that her tax base is collapsing. This week, she asked “high-net-worth” people to support the “generous social programs we want to have in our state” and go to Florida to “see who you can bring back home, because our tax has been eroded.”” Notice that there is something missing in Gov. Hochul’s plea – she only states how important the “high-net-worth” ex-New Yorkers are to the New York state government. She never gives any indication that New York state will provide new or better services or benefits to these ex-New Yorkers. She never questions the extent or the need of the “generous social programs we want to have in our state”. And that last “we” was the “royal we”. This is about as tone deaf as anything that the French royalty was saying at the start of the French revolution.
Arnold, I saw that! If it weren’t so tragic, I would laugh. Dave Ramsey has a radio program and he interviews self-made millionaires. He asks all of them, “How much did you spend on your last pair of jeans? and “How old is your current car?” Almost all of them wear bargain jeans and drive cars that have years of use. The point is that most people who are self-made millionaires are not trust fund babies but people who have a mindset to do better for themselves, are frugal and over many, many years acquire wealth. There are a few of the “wonder kids” who have an amazing upstart, but most wealth is built through self discipline and a certain mindset.
They aren’t stupid. Why would someone want to be robbed of their gains only to have it squandered by these left-wing lunes? They won’t and they won’t return until New York votes out these insane people.
I live in a radical blue state and am planning my escape even though our family ties here are approaching six generations. It is sad, but the state is so gerrymandered that it is a very heavy lift to undo the damage.
How sad a world we live in. The communist, lunatic wing of the Democratic Party have lost their collective minds and have loud megaphone right now.
And they control the party.
Yes. The self-made millionaires. Do they live in a one-bedroom apartment with plumbing that fails and electricity that goes out and heating that doesn’t work in the Winter? How close to the bone of existence are the self-made millionaires really cutting it? If they spent money on a new car, would that mean they would not make rent and would have to live in that car? They didn’t get rich being frugal. They got rich by amplifying some aspect of society; many use wage control tactics or simply commit fraud to gain benefits from desperate workers.
I am blessed to call two places home. One is Chicago,where I was born and the other Palm Springs where I retired after living decades in LA. Both cities are in decay. Chicago is where my heart is. I am in Chicago once a month. I am jazzed about Chicago. There is a new energy started not by the politcans but by developers and regular citizens. I see it and feel it everytime I go back and forth. Here is now whats happening along state. There is a 3 story book store opening in June where Old Navy was. There is a Petriollos opening, TJ Max is renovating the old Wiebolts building and the State Street area was just named Arts and Culture by State Street council. That organization was started by Fields and State Street businesses have joined for years. The big thing this year was the salute by Macys to Marshall Fields. The store looked and felt like Fields. Customers came and the energy was incredible. Will they keep it up? Additionally developers from out of state are buying the empty buildings around State for redevelopment. That is so Chicago too. Chicago was never developed by local architects after the Great Fire. Burham, Adler. Sullivan the list is endless of those who came to build Everytime I go back I see it and i feel it. In April, I am going to the newly reopened Tea Room in a section of the Marshall Fields Walnut Room. How exciting!
Alexander Fraser Tytler
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
― Alexander Fraser Tytler
Wiseoldlawyer, thank you for bringing Tytler into the discussion. That quote maps almost perfectly onto the three‑legged stool I keep coming back to: ignorance, apathy, and dependency. It also aligns with the sober lesson of prior republics and democracies. They did not fall because the mechanics of elections stopped working, but because citizens drifted from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to apathy, and from apathy to dependence, then used the ballot box to lock those habits in. Step 1, as in any twelve‑step program, is to admit we have a problem with how we are forming citizens. Until we are willing to say that out loud, nothing else we try is going to change the trajectory.
Dubious Attribution: There is no evidence in Tytler’s written works (18th-century Scottish historian) that he ever wrote this. It is often attributed to him erroneously.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FYI
The Prentis Cycle
In a 1943 address to the University of Pennsylvania entitled The Cult of Competency (later reprinted as Industrial Management in a Republic) Prentis described what has become known as The Prentis Cycle in which, he asserted, “popular self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within”, as:
From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to apathy; from apathy to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more.[5]
In a 1946 book, Prentis renamed one stage of the cycle and added two stages. The cycle, as revised, is:
From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to freedom; from freedom to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to fear; from fear to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more.[6]
– Wiki
Thank you for the clarification on the Prentis attribution. As Prentis put it in 1946: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to freedom; from freedom to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to fear; from fear to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more. The attribution needed correcting, but the underlying point still stands: republics do generate disintegrating forces from within if citizens lose the capacity for self‑government.
Selfishness as self interest? A religion with self interest as the key virtue. Might work…
Professor Turley, Please let us know in an updated post, future post, or as a commenter how you would specifically address these Chicago budget issues in the the short term, medium term, and long term.
Answer: Do what Florida does; don’t do what Florida doesn’t do.
Right? Four years ago Governor Hochul told Republicans to “get out of town “ and go to Florida because “you don’t belong here, you’re not New Yorkers” (I guess her inclusivity czar was on vacation that day). Now she’s begging those new Floridians to come back because New York needs their tax dollars.
I am not Prof. Turley but here are some.
Stop pandering to the special interests, balanced budget with quarterly audits, no unfunded liabilities for state unions, support U.S. citizens only.
“no unfunded liabilities for state unions”
In other words, default on the contracts they signed.
Actually two things.
1. Do not enter a contract you cannot pay for.
2. I am not a lawyer but, when Chicago goes bankrupt all kinds of contracts will be up for new negotiation or cancellation.
If they haven’t got the money how are they going to get paid.
Is that clear enough or is you comment just to get paid an extra few cents?
In a bankruptcy, all contracts are renegotiable.
He isn’t interested in saving Chicago. They are simply a target for the raging right to complain about and a way to gain an audience. They hate that the largest cities aren’t and never will be conservative.
The Consumer Electronics Show used to fill McCormick Place every summer, despite arcane union rules that required a union carpenter to tack a poster to a booth wall, or a union painter to attach it with tape. AND union electricians to plug speakers into switching boxes.
Then the Winter CES was started, in anything goes Las Vegas. The Summer CES disappeared.
“despite arcane union rules ”
For decades, Atlantic City, NJ was a prime convention venue (after the advent of air travel siphoned off rich vacation travelers to Florida) with similar union rules. Then those rules, along with decades of corrupt neglect, lost AC the convention trade, as well. By the time the casinos arrived in 1978, the unions no longer had much clout at all, and while they do employ union workers, they have had the smarts to play serious hardball with the unions over such matters. However, corrupt government incompetence seems to trump just about everything else, and the city is once again circling the bowl.
Was it the Unions in Chicago, which has nothing to do with Chicago government, or was it the number of hookers in Las Vegas?
I’m sure that all the people who fled New York are very eager to rush back so that they can fund all those social programs! Really?! Incredible lack of common sense shown here. Unbelievable!
treequickly,
Yeah, I found that pretty telling, and rich, of Hochul begging for all those people she helped drive out to come back to pay for her failed policies or soon to be failed policies. She is right now trying to get the 2019 Climate act she helped pass delayed till after the governor’s election. The NY State Energy and Research Authority wrote a paper detailing how the 2019 Climate act will cost NYers some $4,000 more a year in energy costs. Right now she is trying to spin it as the fault of Trump but the paper was written well before the current conflict.
If governments would stick to their core mission to simply provide for security and maintain law and order, budgets and taxes could be managed responsibly.
However, the citizenry has demanded government step in and compensate them for any slight or hardship even as many of these are due to the choices of the citizens themselves. Sure take care of the truly needy, but our social welfare state has evolved where many if not a majority of the people (and growing) are net takers from government spending.
The citizens expect vast social spending but don’t want to pay for it. So politicians are left with the canard that “the rich should pay their fair share”. This as the top 1-2% pay most of the taxes, and nearly all social programs are a net transfer from the higher earners to the middle and lower class including social security, Medicare, education, etc.
The budget problem will not be solved if the politicians continue to pander to voters by offering them more and more benefits.
Observer, I agree with your description of the bargain. Voters have been trained to expect expansive social spending for themselves, to assume “the rich” will cover the cost, and to punish anyone who tries to align benefits with taxes. In short, we built a welfare state on top of a weak civic state, and the math is finally catching up.