New Orleans a victim of "economic apartheid;" America is a "pretty theory" but...

today's (tues, 6 september) times of london has a very thought-provoking article by martin samuel...

With no idea how to improve a situation, government, instead of assuming a responsibility for resolving it, turns a blind eye. [...] New Orleans has existed under the not-so-watchful eye of benign neglect for decades.

[...]

There is no miminum wage and the waiters and dishwashers propping up the tourist trade are not well rewarded.. [...] The suggestion has been that the breakdown of society witnessed in New Orleans could not happen elsewhere. Wrong. The city has extreme problems of violence and deprivation, but the economic apartheid inflicted on America is a wrong turn away in most cities. Go west of Constitution between central Washington and the RFK Stadium, walk the length of Broadway, get lost in Detroit. The all-consuming civilisation that America wishes to export globally is no more than a pretty theory. Like Marxism, in practice it mutates horribly.

harsh but, imho, pretty accurate...

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