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Will Chicago Become the Next Detroit?
If it does, don’t blame crime or taxes; blame over-globalization.
Chicago city leaders and officials are sounding the alarm about dropping population rates. The WSJ reported last week that the “blue-state exodus” is accelerating apace as cities like Chicago, Portland, and San Francisco lose millions of people to states like Texas and Florida.
Residents and businesses are leaving Chicago in such numbers, economists and members of the press are worried that the Windy City could soon become the next Detroit.
Once upon a time, Detroit was the jewel of the American manufacturing belt. It was a thriving city, perfectly geolocated for the convenience of the dueling auto industry titans who made their headquarters in Michigan.
But while Ford, Chevy, and the General Motor Corporation battled it out for dominance, and Detroit prospered — along with other major American cities — Washington had other ideas.
Globalism — a compassionate, curious, and flexible social philosophy designed to make us all, as professional tennis champion Arthur Ashe once put it, “citizens of the world” — was quietly replaced by globalization. It was the ultimate bait and switch.
While globalism strived to make citizens of separate nations into one human family, globalization had the…