I am fed up with my municipal government…they squander money, and the services I get (relative to what I pay in taxes) just are not worth it! What I would like toknow: how come some entrepreneur hasn’t caught on to this and started privately run cities?
There are only two historical examples I can think of:
(1) George Pullman (of the train car business) built a privately run town outside Chicago, in the 1880’s…however his workers went on strike! Pullman eventualyy sold out, and the town became a public municipality.
(2) That town outside Orlando. Florida (run by the Disney Corp.). I don’tknowmuch about this place…has it been a success?
If I were Paul Allen, I would take a fewbillion, buy some land, and build a city for 50,000 people. Everything would be the most modern design:
-Houses would be built of hogh-tecj plastics and synthetics…no maintainence of any kind required!
-Houses would be accessed by bike paths, and all electric cables underground.
-The sewage system would be based on compostion…use of dispoable packaging would be minimized
-All house would be fireproof…no need for an expensive Fire Dept.
-Police dept would be private (Wackenhut of Pinkertons would run the PD)
-Education wouldbe vis private schools only
I’ll bet that taxes would be less than half those of a regular city…and roads would be maintained better!
Why hasn’t the private city model been more widespread? of course, the unions would be up in arms…but hey, things could be so much better…we would actually have DPW employees who WORKED! :smack:
Is this not the epitome of Social Darwinism? What happens when a worker is not “economically viable” through eg. ill health?
If the winners of the Game of Life pay no tax then the losers die. This is what happens in the Third World. Do we really want to be like the Third World?
Historically, you might want to look into the “Company Town” phenomenon, that especially developed around coal mines. The owners of the mines, or factories, or whatever, would establish housing and municipal services for their workers.
Unfortunately, these company towns had some disadvantages. The residents didn’t have a voice or self government, because these were private enterprises, which increased dissatisfaction. Also, a lot of times the owners were after short term profits, so they let housing standards and infrastructure go to hell. There was a Department of Labor study done in 1920 (Leifur Magnusson, “Housing by Employers in the United States”, US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Misc. Bulletin 263) that found, I believe, that company towns were less likely to have electricity or indoor plumbing than actual towns.
BTW, far from being rare, as your OP suggests, the practice was really quite common. In Marsh v. Alabama (a 1946 case as to whether or not a company town could forbid the distribution of religious literature. The court said they couldnt), the Supreme Court noted, based on the 1920 report,
Describing the town in the case, the court said:
And then comes the great part!
You’re a little short this week, but you’ve got to feed the kids. So the company-owned grocery store simply deducts it from next week’s check. As does the company-owned gas station, furniture store, etc. Two or three months down the road, you’re in debt to the company.
Then, you get fired.
Since the furniture in your house is still the property of the company, they repossess it. Since the house is the company’s, you’re evicted. And so on down the line. We’re not even getting into the “company scrip” practice of the early 1900’s.
Can’t happen, you say? Oh, but it did. And there’s nothing to prevent it from happening again. I’m speaking theoretically here, but if you’d like me to dig up cites, I most certainly will.
Wasn’t there some flap about homosexuals not being allowed to live in Disneytown?
That would be the town of Celebration. I work there, but live in Dr Phillips. It is not owned by Disney, but they did develop and manage it. It is now run by an outside management firm. Homes cost two to three times what other homes cost per square foot in IMO more desirable areas.
The businesses on the main drag, Market Street, struggle. There are high vacancy rates in the corporate park. The association fees are prohibitive. The school didn’t become the great institution that was promised to the home buyers. It is bordered on one side by the Disney resort, and on three sides by areas that are not anywhere you’d want to raise a family.
Not one blade of grass is out of place in this island within a sea of economic despair. A large percentage of homeowners are part time. It is attractive to look at, but what you have to drive through to get there takes a lot away in the end.
In a sense, I guess you could say that it is a success based on that fact that the houses and condos sell, but only in that sense.
You aren’t a homeowner, are you? Trust me. There’s ALWAYS maintenance required. That gets into the question of building and mainetnance standards. Who enforces them? Suppose you move into your house and in a few years decide you want to change the exterior. Is that okay?
A lot of newer subdivisions and municipalities are doing this already. The issue is cost, not form of government.
I’m interested in how you’ll enforce this. Packaging is controlled by the product manufacturer, not the local trash system. It seems to me that when I need a cartridge for my inkjet printer, I’m going to get it in whatever form the manufacturer decides to pack it.
High-tech plastics burn. Even if you build the house out of concrete, furniture and drapes burn. For that matter, cars, trucks and buses can burn, too. Seems to me that you can’t really skimp on basic emergency services.
Based on their amazingly successful record of providing security for parking garages, sports events and concerts?
So when I attempt to enroll my autistic child, or my Jewish child in my local school, and they refuse, I can put my house up for sale and move to an area served by public schools? Maybe it would be better to ban children entirely (after all, it’s a private community, and not have to worry about a school system at all.