No personal car, no hot water. Is Toledo headed this way?

This is a particular commentary on Toledo for two reasons.

One, the Lords of Capital have long given upon on this city. Maintaining an industrial city is too much of a cost. That's why the Capitalist scum prefer to move around a lot. They rely now on municipalities, states and nations to subsidize their investment phase, and by the time the real maintenance costs hit, they just cash out and leave the expensive, polluted ruins to the suckers of last resort (i.e. the taxpayer) to cover. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Two, there are enough people in Toledo who have already foregone things which are commonly considered a First World standard. Health insurance. Late-model vehicles. Maintained housing. Phone service. Hot water. Even winter heat.

I've mentioned before that Toledo is like having Albania inside the USA. We're there already, and those who express confusion about this assertion are merely part of the DENIAL part of that equation. As a culture, we already suspect that we're "falling and can't get up". Our industrial power has collapsed beyond all doubt, and we have nothing to replace it with. A few major factories keep a few thousand of us employed, and health care and government occupy another few thousand ... leaving our 100K households largely unsupported by prosperity. They are left to the tender mercies of retail operations and small businesses, which are fickle and unfair to workers in the extreme. So, drugs are dealt, taxes are cheated on, and building codes seem more ignored than otherwise. Gergen had it right when he effectively laughed at what he saw when he passed through Toledo. We're rusty and useless in the ever decreasing circle of monied prosperity.

Since we can't actually force people to invest in Toledo, you'd THINK that Toledoans would recognize this de-capitalized future and prepare for it. Think of it like preparing Toledo to be retired. You already know your income will be either reduced or fixed, and your expenses will rise dramatically in certain areas. That future demands a reduction in overheads costs ... GOVERNMENT, in other words.

But instead of dispensing with these layers of expensive, oppressive government, we've been doing the opposite. Ironically so, we even came up with the idea of an "economic development" government -- sort of like planning to continue working a career once you retire. But the energy isn't there, and these old bones have to stop running the Rat Race and start settling down into those reduced functions they can support.

In a sane society, you'd have to own your own home in order to properly prepare for retirement. So we taxpayers have to do the same with Toledo -- WE have to own it, not the spend-spend-spend politicians and the rich developers like Dillin who back them. Government functions have to be minimized to the level of maintenance, not "growth" and all that partying crap. Other than enforcement and maintenance and collections, there just can't be ANY other function performed by city and county government. It doesn't even require a mayor. The council can meet weekly or monthly for an evening, public meeting of oversight on what a small set of city supervisors have done for the last period and will do for the next.

If a corporation of about 3000 people can control costs, then WE can do it, as shareholders in our city corporation.

In conclusion: REMEMBER that even if you disagree with my characterizations of Toledo, you cannot sanely disagree with the concept of FISCAL CONSERVATISM. The expense of government is too high, and must be reduced since we as taxpayers have every right to ensure that. We DESERVE value for our money. WE are the customers, not the fucking developers and not the hell-spawned politician class.