Opus 2019-143: Expiration Dates, part 1 of 5

I am beginning to think that cities have reached their expiration dates.  They seem to have become the lint traps of culture.  Perhaps a better picture might be sumps, as in sump pump.  Perhaps we might think of the settling tank on a septic system.  Perhaps we need to develop a system for putting the “best is used by” label on those signs that mark the city limits and give the population.

Cities once had a function.  They developed because there was a logical need.  When people only got around by walking it was often necessary for the baker to be close to the flower mill.  The blacksmith set up his home/forge by the inn so that his business could thrive.  Those horses changed things.  You now had problems with road apples and the need to clean them up.  It has been a competition between benefit and liability ever since.  I think we have tipped the balance.

What brings this to mind is Congressman Al Green repeatedly bringing articles of impeachment to the House of Representatives.  I am embarrassed to confess that Green is from Texas.  What caught my attention was that he was from Houston, a major city.  As I look at the list of government officials who seem to be out to destroy the liberty of Americans they seem to come from big cities.  Politicians from big cities seem to be into every form of bribing for votes that it is possible to imagine.  Big cities are bottomless pits of welfare spending and government subsidies.  They now have enough votes to enshrine the practice. 

We saw the break up of ATT.  People are concerned about Google and Amazon.  Maybe it is time to do the same to the cities.

To be continued...

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