BBC – Newsnight: Paul Mason: Gary, Indiana: Unbroken spirit amid the ruins of the 20th Century

Link to BBC – Newsnight: Paul Mason: Gary, Indiana: Unbroken spirit amid the ruins of the 20th Century.

Derelict Theater in Gary, Indiana

If you have the time, read the story and watch the BBC video on Gary, Indiana. It’s interesting to see how this piece differs because it comes from the British media, not our own. An outside perspective on decay – surprisingly, not totally gloom and doom, there is some hope here – the high school of the arts, for example, and the idealistic teenagers who are pretty much like teens everywhere.

Of other interest are the economic arguments on “what must be done” – government stimulus, tea party tax cuts to allow private enterprise to “create jobs” – I put that in quotes ’cause we that don’t work – but I’m also unsure of any kind of long-term benefit from government stimulus that’s not followed up by something sustaining.

You do wonder about the racial part of this. Would majority white towns be allowed to disintegrate like Gary? Maybe they already are, and we just haven’t seen the BBC pieces on them. Discuss.

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