…is that America’s 10 poorest cities, as defined by the highest rates of poverty, are all run by a Democrat machine and have been for 20 years or more.

Naturally that’s the case. Democrat machines steal the wealth from the productive class and buy votes with that swag, and the productive class eventually becomes weary of being fleeced and decamps for the suburbs – or another city altogether.

When such government is practiced on a national level, the inevitable result tends to be the secret police and the Berlin Wall in an effort to keep people in. On a more local level, it’s the constant agitation for a regional tax of some kind, so that the machine can get at the wealth of those who work in town but refuse to live there.

A failed model? Yes it is.

Rather than lament the poverty and destruction of a Detroit or Cleveland, however, we should celebrate it. The market works its will, and the market is a good thing. If we would just listen to what it’s telling us, a Detroit would not be necessary.