Well, this is ironic.
The political monopolists who have kept Tucson poor and dependent on government table scraps for decades are celebrating another federal handout. This time, it is $11.5 million to rehabilitate mobile homes and provide mobile home residents with legal assistance—this in a city that has twice the percentage of mobile homes as other cities in the West.
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, who grew up in a mobile home, is a celebrant and one of the monopolists.
The Arizona Daily Star covered the story, which can be found here.
To his credit, reporter Charles Borla lists in the penultimate paragraph of the story all of the agencies and NGOs that had a hand in this and probably took a cut. If they didn’t take a cut in this case, then it’s almost a certainty that they did in other cases.
It’s a form of trickle-down economics. By the time everyone at the top of the social-justice pyramid takes a cut, $2.99 is left for the intended beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, even more ironically, the US version of Circus Maximus just took place in Washington, in the theater of the absurd, in a dramatic play called passing a budget, a play in which Trumpers and anti-Trumpers, Democrats and Republicans, left wingers and right wingers, play their respective roles and blame each other, while the crackerjack national media, whether legacy or not, critique the play instead of the $35 trillion pig named Deficit that is ravaging the Republic.
In keeping with his porcine ways, Deficit has not only devoured the nation’s seed corn but the seed corn of future generations. Iowa farmers love the insatiable pig.
Democracy is broken, our constitutional republic is broken, and Congress is broken. When 72% of spending is on automatic pilot and heading for a fiscal cliff—and taking the dollar as the world’s reserve currency over the cliff with it—our elected representatives have handed over 72% of their power and decision-making to unaccountable agencies and the Federal Reserve.
Speaking of the Fed, do an internet search on how its balance sheet has ballooned over recent years. This has been the top cause of inflation. The connection between money printing and inflation is something that previous generations understood, although few Americans had college degrees back then. Now, the more college education, the less understanding.
To that point, Mayor Romero is reported to have choked up when discussing what it was like to grow up in a mobile home in the heat of summer. Not to play one-upmanship or who suffered the most, but I grew up in a tiny, poorly-insulated brick home in St. Louis that wasn’t air-conditioned until I was in my teens. The house was like an oven in the summer days of 90 degrees and 90% humidity. I still remember the bed sheets sticking to me.
Sweat was abundant, and so was sweat equity. Conversely, federal housing handouts were nonexistent. My dad would come home sweaty from a day of laying tile and get sweatier by working on the dilapidated house to make it more livable. Dust and live electric wires hanging about were ubiquitous in my childhood.
I’m not whining. A compelling case can be made that Italians and other ethnic/racial minorities of yesteryear assimilated and climbed the socioeconomic ladder faster in the absence of federal largess and paternalism. Likewise, housing was more affordable and available before HUD was given the mission to make it more affordable and available.
Sure, we should try to understand the perspective of Mayor Romero and other Mexican Americans, but a little reciprocity would be nice. She should try to understand what life was like in other parts of country for other minorities and how they overcame their disadvantages.
Yes, the others were minorities in spite of their whitish complexion. Some of them, especially Italians, weren’t seen as white until the latter half of the twentieth century.
This history doesn’t appear to be taught at the University of Arizona and certainly not understood by the DEI regime there and elsewhere.
Again, the more education, the less understanding.
Mr. Cantoni can be reached at [email protected].
