In his op-ed, “Letter From Flint, Michigan,” James Boyce, economics professor, explains how Flint transformed from the American dream into a disposable city. He places the blame not just on General Motors, but also a series of, what he calls, monumental public policy failures: massive foreign borrowing, the failure to grow Medicare into a nationwide single-payer health care system and the “white flight” to the suburbs.
What can we learn from Flint’s failures? According to Boyce, that the public good should never be sacrificed for our own “private goodies.” And, “When we elevate consumption above citizenship, we imperil not only our democracy, but in the end our economy, too. ” (Truthout, 8/31/10)