http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/20...r-henry-potter

For Gilbert - like many of his uber-rich brethren - his own prodigious fortune is proof that Detroit's only hope lies in following the same economic blueprint that guided his own rise to power. As with many self-anointed prophets come to lead the faithful out of poverty and darkness, one must drink the Kool-Aid to share the vision. But his formula for the city's rejuvenation amounts to the same cocktail of cheap land, low taxes and entrepreneurial moonshine that intoxicated Detroit for decades. Always, the binge has resulted in an impressive payday for the wealthy - those who need it least - and an endless hangover of poverty and desperation for the majority of the city's residents.
Of all the players promising to lead Detroit out of its doldrums, realty, mortgage and lending entities like Quicken should be the most suspect. Historically, Detroit's real estate and loan industries have played a crucial role for many decades in its institutionalized racism and segregation by offering moral and logistical support to blatantly racist "home improvement associations" and redlining practices. These did much to balkanize the city's populace into white and black enclaves, and little was done to stop them until the federal government intervened in 1958 with questionable results. These real-estate agents and lenders may or may not have been personally invested in the racism and segregation they enabled, but they certainly profited from the property values they helped to keep inflated with the fear and paranoia they engendered. Follow the money.
Why is Quicken's workplace important? Because it speaks to the deterioration of work, the American workplace, and the erosion of the middle class - a phenomenon that runs, not coincidentally, parallel with the demise of manufacturing and the union movement and the ascendance of the service and financial sectors as the dominant players in the US economy since the Reagan era. It is important because neither Detroit nor the country has any hope without a workforce that's economically secure and empowered.
Is this guy really our savior?