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Robert Reich, a public policy crusader who was Bill Clinton's labor secretary from 1993-97, has made a post-Cabinet career of scolding America about economic unfairness.
His lectures at the University of California-Berkeley and around the country are shown in "Inequality for All," a 2013 documentary. Now he frames Detroit's bankruptcy case as an example of urban-suburban inequity.
Robert Reich: "The whiter and more affluent suburbs (and the banks that serve them) are off the hook."
"Detroit is really a model for how wealthier and whiter Americans escape the costs of public goods they’d otherwise share with poorer and darker Americans," Reich writes at his website under the headline "The Bankruptcy of Detroit and the Division of America."
Buried within the bankruptcy of Detroit is a fundamental political and moral question: Who are “we,” and what are our obligations to one another?
Are Detroit, its public employees, poor residents, and bondholders the only ones who should sacrifice when “Detroit” can’t pay its bills? Or does the relevant sphere of responsibility include Detroit’s affluent suburbs — to which many of the city’s wealthier resident fled as the city declined, along with the banks that serve them?
Judge [Steven] Rhodes won’t address these questions. But as Americans continue to segregate by income into places becoming either wealthier or poorer, the rest of us will have to answer questions like these, eventually.
Reich gripes that "boundaries can make all the difference," and says something that applies to many geographic borders:
Official boundaries are often hard to see. If you head north on Woodward Avenue, away from downtown Detroit, you wouldn’t know exactly when you left the city and crossed over into Oakland County — except for a small sign.
That observation -- arguable as it may be -- is the professor's springboard for a gravity-defying leap into income redistribution:
Had the official boundary been drawn differently to encompass both Oakland County and Detroit – creating, say, a “Greater Detroit” – Oakland’s more affluent citizens would have some responsibility to address Detroit’s problems, and Detroit would likely have enough money to pay all its bills and provide its residents with adequate public services.
But because Detroit’s boundary surrounds only the poor inner city, those inside it have to deal with their compounded problems themselves. The whiter and more affluent suburbs (and the banks that serve them) are off the hook.
Any hint they should take some responsibility has invited righteous indignation.
Don't let the professor be the only one to play "what if" Fantasyland -- we suggest three ways to join his leap.
See what he does there? Had the official boundary be drawn differently . . .
Well, yes . . . had 16 Mile been used instead of 8 Mile, Detroit wouldn't be Detroit.
If his game of Fantasyland seems like weekend fun, you can play, too. Just complete these if only sentences:
- Had the city negotiated a different deal for a new hockey arena . . .
- Had the Tigers signed different pitchers . . .
- Had the owners of Detroit's daily papers reacted differently to the Internet . . .
Whatever you come up with is as correct as imagining the result if mythical map lines "encompass both Oakland County and Detroit."
