Privatizing Government

Mike Tuggle on organic community:

The government’s war on organic community and the right of association in the name of equality has destroyed countless downtowns, and spurred white flight to the suburbs. For decades, suburban and rural areas have been unable to influence the halls of power to their benefit – city hall continued to incorporate (kidnap?) these areas in order to acquire the tax base needed to prop up crumbling city halls. Refugees from the urban behemoths had no means of organizing resistance.

This has changed. But instead of trying to take over corrupt city governments, besieged suburbanites have created a new mechanism for protecting their property and community with gated communities and homeowner associations. In what amounts to a privatization of local government, 52 million Americans now live in private neighborhood associations. These associations are taking on more of the responsibilities once the exclusive domain of municipalities, and are evolving into little islands of self-government. The number of these associations is bound to rise as immigrants, who now tend to form their own local associations, continue to act as a solvent destroying the network of ties among old political structures. This prediction fits in with current trends – in California, the state with the highest number of immigrants, 60 percent of all new housing is governed by a community association.