The Twin Euphorians

 

 

"Living in the Twin Cities will be so awesome, so trendy, so avant-garde..."

We have now seen what our President meant when he said he would "transform our country". It is like going in for a complete national makeover. In the eyes of our Euphorian President, "transformation" is making America the exceptional into America the less than ordinary. That way, everyone in the world will like us, wars will end, and we can all wear flowers in our hair.

If you pay attention, you can also see the two mayors of the Twin Cities doing the same thing on a local scale. Supported by the unelected, unaccountable, Met Council, we are going to change the Twin Cities if we like it or not. Thanks to Thrive 2040, we are all about to get a raise - in altitude. We will be living in New York type condos and apartments with wonderful views of other high rise condos and apartments.

No more cars, no more big houses in the burbs, no more commutes. We will get up on the 49th floor of our $5,000/month condo, get dressed, and head down to the LRT station. From there, we will be whisked to our place of work in another high rise in one of the twin towns. All manufacturing will be done someplace else (because it is dirty and carbon producing), and the work done downtown in some kind of pencil pushing job that pays at least $100K/year. After work, you will go back to your high rise, gather your spouse (or other), go to a trendy restaurant to eat, and then to one of the "green zones" to listen to a free concert. Crime will be no more, so one could walk down any street at 3am with absolutely no fear.

Welcome to the world of "groupthink". If you buy into this vision of the futuristic Twin Cites, I have some land or bridges to sell you. Detroit is a much better marker for how big cities will fare in the future if the "Euphoria" culture continues to rule. Unchecked spending, out of control minimum wage, and people stacked up like cordwood leads to a death spiral in big cities. Of the two mayors of the Twin Cities, the new Mayor of Minneapolis seems to be the most hopeless. With having a degree or two in government, I don't think she has never worked a real (for profit) job in her career. Her vision of the future reflects her education and work experience - in other words, total and unrealistic Euphoria.

Just this month there was an article in the paper about a new luxury high rise being built for the well healed. Sounds good. By the way, where will the ordinary folks live? With the average rent now over $1,000 in Minneapolis, where will the $10 to $15/hour folks live? If we are to have everyone living in downtown, it seems like the newer housing is skewed heavily towards the dreaded "one percent club". I guess the Mayor will just have to raise the minimum wage up to $30/hour.

As for me, I am going to stay living in the sticks until the thought police kick me out. I still believe in America the free, land of the free. Free to do, free to work and free to live as you please. With the Feds and our State becoming all the more powerful and intrusive, our Jeffersonian Democracy is quickly becoming nothing more than a Orwellian dystopia. Our only hope is to vote these autocrats out of office. November cannot come soon enough.