From: AE
Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2016 9:48 AM
To: walter block
Subject: Help with a question
Good morning Mr. Block, I hope this email finds you doing well. I was wondering if you might be able to help me with something. An individual who could best be described as part of the “alt right” has challenged me on the concept of democratic policies leading to economic collapse. The individual has posited the argument that it is not democratic policies in and of themselves that are the reason for collapse, but rather democratic run cities whose majority population is not white. It should be worth noting the individual is not a proponent of Austrian economics, and judging by previous comments by him, I tend to believe he is economically ignorant to begin with. My initial argument was that any race of people is incapable of altering the laws of economics, but perhaps that whites are better at expanding the bubble for a longer period of time before it pops. In regards to his reply, I knew exactly where this conversation would go – it’s simply a loaded question: in his eyes, any collapsing city is incapable of having the percentage of white people enough for him to say “okay, yes, you’re right. It’s not the minorities.” I referenced one city, Albany, whose white population is over 50%, and whose leaders have been white. Despite the next population being roughly half that of the whites, he indicates this is enough proof for the city to not meet his requirements. He literally expects a Portland, Oregon demographic. I was hoping you might be able to help me with this – I understand it seems like an exercise in futility, and in many ways it always is when it comes to economics and the alt-right. Would you happen to know of a city dominated by whites that has seen economic collapse because of democrat- Keynesian policies? Or would you be able to explain why Portland – despite being incredibly pro-democrat and such – has not seen the collapse that other major cities have? Thank you for your time, sir. AE
Dear AE: Yes, majority black cities are crime ridden; they are in financial, moral, economic, doldrums, due to the socialist interventionist policies of their political leaders. But this sort of disarray is by no means their monopoly. Whites, too, have leftish, liberal governments, with similar outcomes. A good example of this is the “rust belt,” roughly the northeast quarter of the country. The plight of this section of the country stems from labor unionism: thanks to illicit labor legislation, and outright violence, these organizations were able to lift wages higher than productivity levels, which meant bankruptcy for employers, and the movement of their factories to the south. There is plenty of poverty, unemployment, social problems in the rust belt too. A good example might be Worcester MA, my home town when I was a professor at Holy Cross from 1991-1997. There were a large number of empty factories in Worcester due to labor unionism. And, Worcester is a white majority (70%) town. So, yes, many blacks are economically illiterate, but so are many whites. (I’ll bet the NYTimes will quote the first part of this sentence, and leave out the second part).
2:53 pm on August 28, 2016
