Detroit: Volunteers Take Over Services Amid City Budget Cuts

Detroit was once one of America’s most prosperous cities. Formerly the home of the US auto industry, Motor City lost its bread-and-butter businesses to out-of-control labor unions and the unsustainable legacy costs that come with forced collective bargaining. As factories closed their doors in recent years, workers have flooded out of the city, causing its population to collapse.

Tens of thousands of properties remain vacant, with no one caring for them for years. City budgets have been slashed, causing police to encourage the community to look elsewhere for protection services, due to shortages in manpower and equipment. Detroit is truly exemplary of the failures of big government. However, the Associated Press is reporting that Detroit’s citizens are not ready to give up, as volunteers are taking over city services, equipping first responders with new vehicles, and cleaning up blighted communities on their own. Yet again, we discover another example of free people volunteering to solve problems when government fails.

“Who Will Build the Roads?”

In Detroit, government did, but it gave up on maintaining them. It also gave up on taking care of public parks and equipping its police with vehicles. However, the citizens of Detroit are stepping in to fix these problems. Wealthy business leaders and local companies recently pooled resources and bought the city a new fleet of emergency response vehicles.

Detroit residents are lucky that those individuals and businesses had extra money in savings to spend on police vehicles. Also, it’s worth noting that business leaders need protection services in order to make a profit, so self-interest also helps the community in instances like this.

Volunteers Give of Their Time to Clean Blighted Properties, Public Parks

While the business community provides resources to support the collapsed city government, other area residents are stepping in to fill service gaps when it comes to park maintenance and public sanitation. Local citizen Tom Nardone started a group called the Mower Gang which cuts the grass at neighborhood parks. The wealthy Palmer Woods community pooled resources and hired a private security firm to supplement over-strained police protection services.

Ultimately, free people will step up and give of themselves to support the local community, because it benefits everyone. Self-interest is an extraordinary motivator. Local property owners are cleaning abandoned lots because it affects the value of their property as well. Local businesses are giving away profits to supplement the law enforcement community’s resources because protection services help businesses make more money.

Detroit’s collapse is an example of what can happen when government interventions into the economy become so extreme that they disrupt entire industries. Meanwhile, the way Detroit residents are responding to the problem demonstrates that free people can and will take over roles that governments abandon. Voluntaryists and minarchists will certainly want to keep an eye on Detroit as this situation unfolds. Due to necessity, a lot of theoretical scenarios that are often discussed in role-of-government arguments are actually being put to a real-world test right before our eyes.

In Detroit, the free citizens of the local community are finding solutions where government can’t.

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