Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Paul Murray's avatar

Baltimore, the canary in our national coal mine! I lasted two years in that hell-hole of a city. That was in 1974-76. I snuck out of town on Preakness Saturday in May, 1976 and never looked back. I was there briefly in June 1998 to visit Camden Yards (big deal, and it didn't "save" downtown, either) and show Fort McHenry to my sons. I have passed, gladly, on other chances to return.

When "wealth that was earned" becomes a "dirty" subject, when terms like "fairness" and "equality" begin to take precedence in a supposedly "free" society, you know your time is up. A society cannot create wealth, cannot attain greatness, if "fairness" is its operating principle. Why? Because life isn't fair or equal. When it gets to that point, all you are doing is telling achievers, builders, innovators, and visionaries, "Go elsewhere". And guess what? They do. And your cities fill up with the opposite.

One other thing before I go: the constant observation by Bill Bonner in this latest essay is "fat"

and "poor". How does that happen? It happens, when government sets out to own you via indulgent vote-buying, what the Romans called "bread and circus". The government marks are too stupid, unmotivated, indoctrinated, and subsidized to notice. Best always. PM

P.S. In the interim from May 1976 to now, my hometown, Louisville, KY, became what I call "Little Baltimore". I seldom go there. I go out of my way NOT to go there. PM

Expand full comment
Ken's avatar

A memorable line.....

And there are young people — often students at the nearby ‘arts’ school — who are wondering if they should switch majors, switch schools, or switch sexes.

Expand full comment
75 more comments...

No posts