COTD(QOTD)

Statism is turning America into Detroit – Ayn Rand's Starnesville come to life – Telegraph Blogs: "Alexis de Tocqueville wrote 150 years ago:

"After having thus taken each individual one by one into its powerful hands, and having molded him as it pleases, the sovereign power extends its arms over the entire society; it covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated, minute, and uniform rules, which the most original minds and the most vigorous souls cannot break through to go beyond the crowd; it does not break wills, but it softens them, bends them and directs them; it rarely forces action, but it constantly opposes your acting; it does not destroy, it prevents birth; it does not tyrannize, it hinders, it represses, it enervates, it extinguishes, it stupifies, and finally it reduces each nation to being nothing more than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."

Just as the intellectual life-blood of Ayn Rand's Starnesville fled despotic rule, Detroit's productive have similarly abandoned their city. Just as de Tocqueville suggested Detroit lies in ruin and the remaining sheep are at risk from the gangs of despots who remain."

And yes, you need to read Hannan's piece also...