[Editor's Note: The following post is by TDV's resident advice columnist, Slavey, whose columns appear monthly in TDV Homegrown. For more articles like this, please subscribe to Homegrown here. Have a question for Dear Slavey? Email to tdv@dollarvigilante.com.]
Dear Slavey,
I live in Detroit and I wonder what the heck is going to happen to us now. Did you know that we can only get 9-1-1 service during business hours?! And our poor city workers, I imagine their pensions are out the window. Are there any silver linings for us in the Motor City after the bankruptcy?
Don in Detroit
Dear Don,
You bet there are silver linings for you folks in Detroit. You have little or no functional government! That means for the most part, Big Brother is off your back. I’ve been doing some digging to find out if that’s been bad for Detroit, and the answer is (yeah, except for the older people depending on their city pensions) that it’s all GOOD. Private enterprise is taking over government services that are now in chaos and they’re doing amazingly well.
There’s a company called TMC providing an alternative to the government run police in some sections of the city. The government operated Detroit Police have been far too busy trying to collect money for the city through traffic tickets and drug raids to spend much time taking care of people, so TMC filled the void with a VERY TDV style approach. The owner, Dale Brown, makes sure he hires people who see violence as a last resort. Here’s a great quote from a recent article about TMC: “While governments threaten their citizens with compulsion, fines, and jail if they don't hand over their money, TMC's funding is voluntary and subject to the profit-loss test; if Brown doesn't provide the services his customers want, he goes out of business.
This means that Brown is not interested in no-knock paramilitary SWAT raids, "officer safety" as the highest priority, bloated union pensions, or harassing people for what they have in their bloodstream. TMC works with its customers on the prevention of crime as well rather than showing up after the fact to take notes like historians.”
You also have DBC, the Detroit Bus Company. No money in the city coffers means no money for transit, but there’s a great private bus service that will come pick you up if you ask them to come by using a smart phone app, no more waiting at the bus stop, and, “all the buses feature Wi-Fi, music, and you can even drink your own alcohol on board! The payment system is, of course, far cheaper and fairer.”
Another fresh dose of anarchy in Detroit these days is coming from the “food rebels.” They’re taking over a ton of abandoned properties to grow food in community gardens overflowing with so much food produced extremely cheaply (and without any scary pesticide or chemicals added), that they’re able to almost give it away and feed many people. Which is good, since a lot of the grocery stores in Detroit have closed anyway!
It’s not surprising when government steps out of the picture, a community is free to get organized and build a more functional social structure on their own… And the bankrupt Detroit government is too much in chaos to try to shut any of it down. Keep at it, Detroit!
[Editor's Note: To read this article, and others like it, in its entirety, please subscribe to TDV Homegrown here. ]
Slavey makes his middle class living on a contract basis in Southern California. He's not poor but definitely not rich – and plans to stay in California for the duration of the economic collapse. The opinions and advice in Dear Slavey should always be checked by your own experts, but has guerrilla style street-smart advice for middle class people on how to negotiate their way through the Police State of America. For more check out TDV Homegrown where Slavey is a regular contributor.
Have a question for Dear Slavey? Email to tdv@dollarvigilante.com.
