Quote Originally Posted by j to the jeremy View Post
The 'failure and decay' you see only exists because of the lack of proper urban investment, planning, and community building our governments do. We're not talking about entitlements here, we're talking about things like subsidizing effective transit instead of highways and the military [[to make sure our cars don't run out of gas).

The key is that you "want to use [[your taxes) to pay for your own quality of life". This national attitude of is a main reason the American Dream of a suburban home was so easily sold to the [[white) middle and upper classes. Of course this mindset also furthers racial and economic segregation, since people with money can choose to live wherever they want and lower their taxes as much as they want, and those with smaller budgets will always be forced to carry the regional tax burden in places like Detroit. Cities raise the tax revenues for new road construction, utilities, infrastructure, etc in rural and exurban areas. It's ok for them to get a new dock once in a while.
I get the impression you are bitter about something and want me to pay for it. And as you have introduced color into the discussion I'd like to confirm for you I'm very proudly white and [[partly) living My Dream; my work dictating I live in S.E.Michigan and my wealth [[less taxes) allowing me to not having to live in Detroit. You are right that my mindset does not cover the left wing sycobabble that blames everybody else for their lack of success . I believe in risk, reward, enterprise, business, personal responsibility and the like. I do not believe in rewarding failure and decay just because I can.