Death of a City

Michigan Central Station, Detroit. Long abandoned, this beautiful building stands as a stark symbol of what has happened to Detroit over the last 3 decades, and to a lesser degree, much of the United States. There's lots of depressing photo series detailing the destruction of what was once America's 4th most populous city (population in the 2 millions in the 1950's - it stands at 700K now). Here's one. Why? What has happened? I posit two main reasons:

Race. The late 60's featured race related riots in many American cities, Detroit prime among them.

 "White Flight" was a phenomena across the urban North, and many cities were dealt severe blows. The ones that recovered - NYC, for example - did so based on transitioning to the new economy, the so called "Service" industries. Which covers investments, banks, and so on. The cities that have not done well relied on manufacturing. Which brings me to the second reason:

Outsourcing of America's manufacturing base. This has gutted many cities, regions, states. Abandoned factories fill our cold Northern lands. The jobs all went to Japan, then Taiwan, now China, with Vietnam climbing swiftly.

Suicide nets at a Foxconn dormitory. Foxconn made my Mac, and my iPhone, and your iPad, by the way.

In summary, the Conservative movement we live under today was forged in the 60's with the rise of Goldwater and the Birchers. This movement gained power in the states throughout the 70's on the wave of white fear of blacks, and urbanity in general. Also egghead, godless hippy elites. With Reagan came the revolution nationwide, and the scouring of our country. For the sake of profits, our manufacturing industries were shipped overseas and the Unions were busted and everyone (except the 1%) got poorer even though they were working more than ever, and lies became Truth on Fox News, and the Washington Village said it was good.

And thus cities like Detroit fall to ruin in the middle of what is supposedly the richest country in the world, and we all look the other way. But hey! Shit's cheap at Wal-Mart, right?