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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 7/17/14

Standing Up to Disaster Capitalism in Detroit

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The international Blue Planet Project complains that, "In order to make the utility attractive to investors, lower-income households are being forced to pay exorbitant rates for their water and sewer services or see their access cut. Water rates have risen in Detroit by 119 per cent in the last decade. With unemployment rates at a record high, and the poverty rate at about 40 per cent, Detroit water bills are unaffordable to a significant portion of the population."

Sorting out Detroit's financial troubles will not be easy, and the process will not go quickly. But there should be an understanding that the people who live in Detroit need protection, not pressure from bill collectors and proponents of privatization. As Turbeville notes, "This program (of shutting off access to water) is morally indefensible and contrary to basic principles of shared responsibility. It punishes Detroit's citizens for a complex set of circumstances that have interacted to produce an economic crisis much more intense than the effects of the Great Recession in other cities. It also reinforces the myth that the people of Detroit cannot govern themselves without discipline from the rest of the state."

Detroit residents do not need punishment and discipline. They need resources.

Congressman John Conyers, D-Detroit, has pointed to ways in which the federal and state governments could ease the pressure in the short term. But, in the long term, there will be a need for real revenues to aid the people not just of Detroit but for all Americans.

Those revenues can and should come from Wall Street speculators.

NNU and its allies are arguing that a "Robin Hood Tax" -- a small fee on financial transactions -- should be enacted as a vehicle to "tax hedge funds and the rest of the financial sector should pay their fair share to clear up the mess they helped create."

Specifically, they are backing "The Inclusive Prosperity Act" (HR 1579), a measure proposed by Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, to implement a small tax on Wall Street transactions and to use the revenues to meet human needs.

The list of backers for the march is long. In addition to NNU, it now includes the International Union United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW AFL-CIO), the Michigan Sierra Club, Food and Water Watch, Netroots Nation, the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO, the Michigan Nurses Association, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, We the People of Detroit, Moratorium Now!, the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, the People's Water Board, the Detroit Water Brigade and dozens of additional labor, religious and community groups.

People are coming to recognize that it is indeed time to start prioritizing the people who live in Detroit over the interests of Wall Street bankers.
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Copyright 2014 thenation.com -- distributed by Agence Global

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John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written the Online Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress.

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