Wages of Sin

Several Rhode Island cities and towns entered into or face bankruptcy: Central Falls, Coventry, East Providence, Johnston, Narragansett, Newport, Providence, and West Warwick. Distressed municipalities result from all sorts of reasons, but usually it comes down to either malfeasance or mismanagement. Seems no reason for this cancer not to spread throughout, since state has suspended municipal aid. It’s too easy to divert money from the treasury into pockets when times are good. Mayors or overseers often overestimate future revenues and promise too much to workforce in retirement entitlements. A less understood reason lies in an insufficiency of scale. If you give breaks to businesses for locating or staying within your borders, it restricts residential taxes you could assess and shrinks footprint for other investments. Foremost, people must somehow be able to secure gainful employment, which explains these acts of desperation.

Empty mills can be filled with artist lofts, entrepreneurial startups, or residential apartments instead of given away to subsidiaries of big businesses who employ ever fewer workers locally. Abandoned or neglected properties contributing nothing also waste resources when they burn or collapse. Centuries of oil dripping from machines make mills tinderboxes with massive remediation necessity. Holding companies interminably dodge responsibilities and taxes. Knocking them down could solve several problems at once. As long as they aren’t toxic brownfields, sell the land for revenue producing construction.

Taxpayers and voters who absorb all the costs figure they have something to say about such fiascos. They can complain all they want, but it won’t do anything. The next mayor will inherit intractable obligations forged over decades. Better state arrests, incarcerates and seizes assets of miscreant bureaucrats formerly entrenched, but that, though possible, hardly ever happens. Better voters recall seated officials before holes get too deep, but that’s even more unlikely. Lasting solutions require foresight and intelligence, attributes forever in short supply. Progress is only possible when unsophisticated people work very hard on personal dreams in a cooperative society. Modernity is littered with educated slackers and greedy loners reacting to a dystopian plight. The medical adage of "do no harm but neglect no need" applies to every relationship, especially leadership.

In you can believe generalities and rankings, Forbes lists Rhode Island as the 8th worst place to make a living despite top 10 for livability. Sure, if you’ve got deep pockets and never need to work, buy a capitol city townhouse and lounge around aimlessly. Employers here sustain less than half of Rhode Island's residents. A disproportionate number of jobs are minimum wage and part time. One in six is illiterate in any language. About the same percentage has already retired. About 15% work in neighboring states. Economic development, though paid millions to a private organization in recent decades, has mostly been neglected for a half century. Despite efforts to improve Providence, most of Little Rhody decayed and shrank, in particular Pawtucket, West Warwick and Woonsocket. Census in 2010 revealed a 10% exodus with people leaving for opportunities elsewhere.

Shortly after land was granted to Roger Williams to establish these so-called plantations, his associate William Coddington, revered for founding Portsmouth then Newport, tried to sell it back to Massachusetts Bay Colony. Maybe Coddington was onto something. When a state is too small to exist on its own, annexing it cures many ills at once. Importantly, it sweeps away bad governance and patronage jobs. For what seems forever, state has been state’s biggest employer. Those currently holding elected office will speak eloquently for independence and pride of place, yet won’t ever deliver on promises for an unemployment percentage below 35%. Laughably,they boast it's below 6% based on new UI claims from thousands who exhausted eligibility. Furthermore, they entice unskilled immigrants and newcomers with benefits by taking them away from long time residents who established them through blood and sweat. Handouts and privileges cost someone, usually those hanging on by their fingernails.

Centuries before mills dotted adjacent villages, each a small fiefdom run by Anthonys, Browns, Knights, Slaters, Spragues, and such ambitious capitalists. Hardscrabble farmers and hungry immigrants flocked to mills for the promise of survival for which they traded backbreaking labor during 7-day workweeks. But geopolitical catastrophes, including Civil War and WWI, shuffled places where work could be done profitably. Unprepared to remake themselves to meet changing needs, owners closed shops. Well healed already, what did they care? Their patriarchal attitudes toward workers also led to devastating strikes, which further bolstered competition elsewhere. This remains one of the biggest risks facing business developers. It’s not that needs don’t exist for which manufacturers provide answers. It’s that getting humans to interact is fraught with abject failures and inappropriate responses. But it's sinful not to try. History proves that populations are best sustained by agriculture, manufacturing and mining. RI's decline is directly linked to destroying these 3 core industries that create all wealth and embracing "clean" finance institutions (banking, insurance) which contribute no profits and only count proceeds. One might argue Rhode Island lost resolve to sustain profitable enterprise long ago: factories relocated overseas, farms became golf courses and tract developments, and mines were emptied.

Today you can't visit any village without dozens of empty storefronts and fading FOR SALE signs. Antique retailers, bike recyclers, and dingy diners (folks still need to eat) are about all that's left. The wages of sin are distrust, reluctance, suffering, and this vicious downward spiral. Burnt so many times by business and governance, citizens find it nearly impossible to get enthusiastic and rally loyally. This is when dictators and theocrats appear and seize power. Conservative and religious hate has become planet's greatest threat. You never know just how bad things can get until you stop caring for equality and freedom. The sleep of reason produces monsters.