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The Public Policy
Mixing and Matching
Is it up to government to tell you who should be living in your neighborhood?
Apparently the soaring national debt and the threat of a nuclear Iran are not enough to occupy the government’s time, because the Obama administration is pushing to force Westchester County, N.Y., to create more low-income housing, in order to mix and match classes and races to fit the government’s preconceptions.
Behind all this busy work for bureaucrats and ideologues is the idea that there is something wrong if a community does not have an even or random distribution of various kinds of people. This arbitrary assumption is that the absence of evenness or randomness — whether in employment, housing or innumerable other situations — shows a “problem” that has to be “corrected.”
No speck of evidence is considered necessary for this assumption to prevail at any level of government, including the Supreme Court of the United States. No one has to show the existence, much less the prevalence, of an even or random distribution of different segments of the population — in any country, anywhere in the world, or at any period of history.
Nothing is more common than for people to sort themselves out when it comes to residential housing, whether by class, race or other factors.
When there was a large Jewish population living on New York’s lower east side, a century ago, Jews did not live at random among themselves. Polish Jews had their neighborhoods, Rumanian Jews theirs, and so on. Meanwhile German Jews lived uptown. In Chicago, when Eastern European Jews began moving into German Jewish neighborhoods, German Jews began moving out.
It was much the same story in Harlem or in other urban ghettoes, where blacks did not live at random among themselves. Landmark scholarly studies by E. Franklin Frazier in the 1930s showed in detail how different neighborhoods within the ghettoes had people of different educational and income levels, with different male/female ratios and different ways of life living in different places.
There was nothing random about it. Within Chicago’s black community, the delinquency rate ranged from more than 40 percent in some black neighborhoods to less than 2 percent in other black neighborhoods. People sort themselves out.
None of this was peculiar to blacks or Jews, or to the United States. When emigrants from Scotland went to Australia, the Scottish highlanders settled separately from the Scottish lowlanders. So did emigrants from northern Italy and southern Italy.
Separate residential patterns that are visible to the naked eye, when the people are black and white, are also pervasive among people who physically all look alike. Charles Murray’s eye-opening new book, Coming Apart, shows in detail how different segments of the white American population not only live separately from each other but have very different ways of life — and are growing increasingly remote from one another in beliefs and behavior.
None of this matters to politicians and ideologues who are hell-bent to mix and match people according to their own preconceptions. Moreover, like many things that the government does, it does residential integration more crudely than when people sort themselves out.
Back in the days when E. Franklin Frazier was doing his scholarly studies of the composition and expansion of black ghettoes, he found the most educated and cultured elements of the black communities living on the periphery of these communities.
It was these kinds of people who typically led the expansion of the black community into the surrounding white communities. By contrast, government programs often take dysfunctional families from high crime ghetto neighborhoods and put them down in the midst of middle-class neighborhoods by subsidizing their housing.
Whether these middle-class neighborhoods are already either predominantly black or predominantly white, the residents are often outraged at the increased crime and other behavior problems inflicted on them by politicians and bureaucrats.
But their complaints usually fall on deaf ears. People convinced of their own superior wisdom and virtue have no time to spare for what other people want, whether in housing or health care or a whole range of other things.
COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM
About the Author
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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Riff Raff| 4.17.12 @ 1:34AM
Government is run by ego, not logic. That government would arrogate unto themselves not only the power, but the ability, to "construct" society into an order that fits their notions of how society SHOULD be, is nothing new. It is the nature of politicians to assume that they know best, else they would seek other endeavors, such as work and productivity. Pretty much all of human history is driven by politicians' egos. They can't actually DO anything of substance, but through government, they can take credit for things they can not actually do. This would explain Solyndra, and countless other subsidy programs, virtually all of which fail. By "ordering" the success of solar power technology, President Bozo can take credit for advancing technology, much as AlGore took credit for "creating" the internet. AlGore knows less about the internet than my dog, and President Bozo knows less about solar power than my ex-wife's cat. But this does not stop them from spending money that is not theirs on such boondoggles, since there is no down side to the spending. Win or lose, they claim success. And they reap big campaign contributions as a result. In no endeavor other than politics is persistent failure persistently rewarded. So, for such egos, there is no limit to what can be CLAIMED to have been achieved, and no limit to the adulation politicians can receive as a result. Not to mention the high falutin' lifestyle they live at taxpayer expense. Don't look for altruistic motives when politicians and bureaucrats "devote their lives to public service." Need I say more?
scotchieguy| 4.17.12 @ 12:42PM
Excellent point. The only thing I would ad is that it is the politician's intentions that are important--not the results. The War on Poverty has been a colossal failure that cost over $7 trillion, and literally destroyed the family in the inner-city, but if you criticize it or attempt to de-fund it, you are mocked and ridiculed as insensitive, cruel, or racist. You simply can't win with these libs. They have perfected the art of demonization. It is really all they have since they know their policies are a failure.
albert constantine jr.| 4.18.12 @ 1:41PM
"President Bozo knows less about solar power than my ex-wife's cat"
While I am not familiar with any of the characteristics of your ex-wife's cat, I have observed the following about the species in general. A cat will often lounge in the sun to bask in its warmth. When the sun ceases to provide the higher specific warmth to a given location, the cat will often move on.
Assuming at least a median level of feline intelligence in your former spouse's pet, I think a case can easily be made to support your assertion.
Riff Raff| 4.18.12 @ 6:49PM
As far as I know, my ex-wife's cat has no ties to Solyndra.
Bob K.| 4.17.12 @ 2:06AM
It is human nature to do this. Politicians who understand this are successful politicians. Politicians who are ideologues always try to fool with human nature. There is something in the make up of ideologues; "true believers" if you will, which make them try to defy common sense.
Jessy Smith| 4.17.12 @ 2:58AM
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RJ| 4.17.12 @ 4:08AM
Its great to read Dr. Thomas Sowell's articles on the American Spectator website. Please make this the first of many. Thank-you.
Von Mises Jr| 4.17.12 @ 8:35AM
Ditto. Dr. Sowell is great.
And his article is pertinent for property right dangers posed by Agenda21 nationally, and specifically in New Jersey where we have Christie's Agenda21 "Development and Redevelopment Plan" to be signed on April 25th, and a Rapid Foreclosure Bill with one approval pending in the Assembly. This creates a New Jersey version of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac through the issuance of bonds. Then the state will buy the foreclosed homes across the twenty-one counties designating the homes for "Affordable Housing."
This is what caused the sub-prime crash. These statist plans will finish off any equity you are fortunate enough to still have in your home.
Indy| 4.17.12 @ 9:24AM
Speaking of Agenda 21, have a look at this, what do you think? excerpt -
HUD calls for a regional rather than “neighborhood scale” community planning and cites the differences in the development of private sector and public housing as “discriminatory patterns of development [that] trapped millions of families and neighborhoods of concentrated poverty and limited opportunity.”
http://cnsnews.com/news/articl.....pportunity
Von Mises Jr| 4.17.12 @ 10:15AM
Sub-prime was first gear. State Development plans are second gear. HUD is third and Agenda21 fourth gear. Fifth gear is slavery on the "Road to Serfdom."
Thank you, Indy. You just helped get the word out to about half-dozen TEA Party leaders. This is the information we need to focus on, not arguing the failures of Keynesian Economics with Perp or his team of trolls.
Ground Control| 4.17.12 @ 10:29AM
If government keeps buying mortgages through "Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac", using borrowed money and taxpayer money, ultimately government will own most or all of the private property in America. Imagine never being able to own a home anymore, and all you can do is rent a house from the government, sort of a mini-fiefdom in the form of a single family home, held only, but never owned, never passed on to heirs. We are returning to the era of feudalism and serfdom, of government "of the elites, by the elites, and for the elites." "Elites" being, of course, self annointed professional politicians who "devote their lives to public sevice."
Von Mises Jr| 4.17.12 @ 11:01AM
Is it no wonder that almost all the homes in the United States are currently financed through HUD, Fannie, Freddie and GMAC (that company that was bailed out and de facto nationalized by the regime)?
This is what I was talking about yesterday with Dixie. Indy sees the big picture well also. The puzzle fits together if you concentrate.
You must simply have the fortitude to question everything, and accept the truth. Many can not handle the truth.
SUBVET| 4.17.12 @ 11:34AM
"They" did the same thing in the 80's with farm land.
allan the k| 4.17.12 @ 12:19PM
The FR is most certainly mixed up in this in that they will claim title through default of payment. Guess who will really have the control of "land". And they are not even American.
Indy| 4.17.12 @ 10:30AM
Thanks for spreading the word, I'm doing the same. Ted Cruz running for Senate in TX is well versed on Agenda 21, I will see if I can find an email address and send this to his campaign.
It's a busy work day so I won't be posting much, gotta pay the mortgage and my hefty tax bill, argh. ...if you haven't seen my other post, see the Buffett article, there's a new executive order we need to learn about, target - natural gas. Your TP group might be interested in that one.
Have a great day and thanks for the work you are doing, keep the faith!
scotchieguy| 4.17.12 @ 12:45PM
I agree. I would pay alot of money to watch him debate Obama. He would absolutely destroy him, and he would do it with a smile on his face. He is not only a brilliant scholar, he is a gentleman as well. Maybe Jackson and Sharpton could learn a thing or two from him. I won't hold my breath.
Dave Williams| 4.17.12 @ 1:51PM
What he said....Dr. Sowell is one of the great minds and great writers of our time, and he deserves all the exposure that AmSpec can provide....and then some.
Pecos Pete| 4.17.12 @ 2:08PM
Ditto!
Butch| 4.17.12 @ 5:29PM
Dittos again. Dr. Sowell is my favorite conservative read, and the AmSpec discussion threads are the liveliest of all the conservative media on the net. Great combination.
Crawler| 4.17.12 @ 7:15AM
Government has a long and outstanding track record of providing and implementing solutions for nonexistent problems.
And those so-called "solutions" usually come at an extremely high cost for every American to bear , too.
Dr. X| 4.17.12 @ 7:16AM
Freedom of association? First Amendment? What's that???
Oh, I remember... you have a constitutional right to freely associate with an abortionist to murder your child! Yeah! That's your First Amendment right. Choosing where you want to live? Where your kids go to school? Of course government can dictate that to you.
Appleby| 4.17.12 @ 7:40AM
I remember how outraged the Marching Mommies of Atlanta were when the City was desegregated and promptly re-segregated itself as Dr. Sowell describes above. It never occurred to them that people generally preferred to live with people who share their values, their lifestyles and their backgrounds. Occasionally it works to plunk ghetto families down in middle-class neighbourhoods; I have heard of families moved out of New Orleans due to Katrina that have said this was the best thing that could have ever happened to them -- they didn't know anything about middle class life until they moved into it, and they thanked God for giving them the chance. But from what I have heard, this is not the usual response.
Of course here in Toronto people from other countries bunker down and create neighbourhoods in which nobody speaks English except the young children, and many of them carry their ethnic hatreds with them to the degree that they cannot be allowed into a soccer stadium with people of their ethnic enemies. And of course this leads to "Honour Killings" as the children begin to turn into Canadians despite their parents' desire to keep them ethnic Muslims. But even here the forcible mixing of ethnic groups has been a resounding failure.
Personally I live in a neighbourhood that is largely Eastern European, but it wouldn't matter if they were Martians; by and large, people only speak to people whose grandparents went to the same high school as their own grandparents. This is a different problem altogether and we expats just put up with it.
Moe Blotz| 4.17.12 @ 8:18AM
Was your provincial government more upset over the automobile dumped in the Rideau Canal or the bodies inside?
Appleby| 4.17.12 @ 7:58PM
The jury shocked even the most jaded of us by convicting the husband, the son and the No. 2 wife (and mother of the two drowned daughters) of first degree murder. Granted, this is not much of a sentence in Canada and they'll probably be out in 8 years or so, but the fact that they were actually convicted of murder was a huge relief to those of us who expected the usual finger-wag and cringe in favour of "ethnic customs".
I am sure that there are people who whined about the car polluting the canal, but this time their voices were drowned out.
JP| 4.17.12 @ 9:32AM
Many decades ago in my city's southeast side, Germans began moving out when the Hungarians (or Hunks) moved in. After WWII, Serbians and Sloveniansbegan moving into that neighborhood; the Hungarians moved out. Today, only a dozen Serbian and Slovenian families lives there. Almost all are now Hispanics. The crime rate has changed little over the years, but people will always tell you about the Golden Age of the Southeast side.
Jerry| 4.17.12 @ 9:56AM
The Federal Government has taken away all of our Freedoms.
Another example: After Katrina, St. Bernard Parish which had water on the roofs of all houses, started to rebuild. They placed some restrictions on housing to try to bring families back to over 3,000 empty homes. They refused anyone to rebuild a high crime section. They established a plan to demo vacate homes where owners wouldn't respond to requests and sell properties to neighbors who returned and restored their homes.
Things were improving until a Federal Judge in New Orleans demanded that the Parish allow the building of Low Income Housing in the Parish. The Parish fought and Lost. Federal $ are rebuilding New Orleans, but no, we need to move some of these Low Incomes out to St Bernard where there will be no jobs or transportation to New Orleans if they wanted to work. So, in time, back to a new High Crime District in St Bernard.
Fredx| 4.17.12 @ 10:12AM
There's safety in numbers. By dividing us in the name of "fairness" they weaken our sense of unity and security. They take away our fundamental resolve to rely on one another when we are threatened, to circle the wagons. Once vulnerable, we find it harder to resist their control. School busing was a first step; the manipulation of housing opportunities is a more substantial assault on our freedom, and a prelude to the ovens. Make no mistake, this manipulation is not done out of fairness. There's a more sinister plot afoot.
lorraine| 4.17.12 @ 10:17AM
I bet Obama also thinks, as many people do, that Westchester County is upstate NY. I wonder if he even knows of the existence of the rest of the state?
OregonBuzz| 4.17.12 @ 10:21AM
I was going to add something erudite and to the point. Fredx beat me to it.
Jack London| 4.17.12 @ 10:50AM
I completely agree with Sowell. It's far better to keep some towns free from the lower class. We may have to bus them in to sweep our floors, but so be it.
Signed,
Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd
W| 4.17.12 @ 10:58AM
Where is the authority under the Constitution for the federal government to order a city to have a percentage, approved by the feds, of each race, color, and ethinic group residing in that city?
There is no issue that the city or anyone else is preventing anyone, of any race-color-creed, from residing in the city.
Should the feds now order NYC to move whites into Harlem, or whites into East LA, to achieve a proper balance?
Bob K.| 4.17.12 @ 11:03AM
By all means Hendrik! Or Jack!
Return to South Africa and visit the paradise the new government has created.
You half-witted left-wing ideologue!
richard ryan| 4.17.12 @ 1:56PM
Dr. Sowell said that? Which article did you read, Jackass?
Purple Lips| 4.17.12 @ 3:57PM
Sounds like what already is going on in the Liberal Bastion of San Francisco. The Help commutes 30 miles one way just to experience the joys of cleaning up after the gay trust fund babies.
Pelleas| 4.17.12 @ 6:46PM
"When there was a large Jewish population living on New York's lower east side, a century ago, Jews did not live at random among themselves. "
..wasn't that due mainly to the fact that the poor greenhorn immigrants from Eastern European shtetels had no either choice, for the most part, then to live in the over-crowded run-down tenement slums of the Lower East Side...I don't t hink that many would have actually CHOSEN to live there-- I KNOW my grandparents , fresh off the boat ,fleeing Czarist pograms, didn't INTEND to come to the "Goldene Medina" to set up house in the shambles of a 5th floor Orchid Street walk-up!
Ammo Guy| 4.17.12 @ 11:31AM
Another superb article from a man who is as brilliant as anyone living in America today - I can't remember ever disagreeing with anything he has written all these many years. The subject reminds me of an interesting phenomenon that I observed first hand when I lived in eastern Iowa in the late 1980s. Apparently the good citizens of Dubuque felt they were missing out on the ostensible "benefits" of a "diverse" society so they actually attempted to import people of color to their fair city from areas that had a "surplus" of such individuals. I can remember some of the TV interviews of those afflicted with White Guilt Syndrome - their faith in diversity and their naiveté concerning the unintended consequences of their good intentions was both amusing and disturbing at the same time. As I recall, the city council appropriated funds for an outreach program that would also defray the moving expenses of those so recruited. Not sure how this whole program turned out since the 2000 census showed the city was still more than 96% white, but I'm sure everyone felt better about themselves because they cared and, after all, isn't that all that really matters?
Luis| 4.29.12 @ 12:19PM
Ammo Guy, I remember an episode of "Have Gun Will Travel, where Paladin is nearly lynched by a vigilante mob, who thought he killed and old couple and took their money. The mob's leader (Played by Denver Pyle) says, "We're good people". The real perp is eventually caught and Paladin is released, but just before he rides away, he tells the mob: "We can contend with the evil that men do in the name of evil; but heaven protect us from what they do in the name of good".
I remember that Iowa experiment - wasn't it Vilsack's dream?
Peter Malinchoc| 4.17.12 @ 11:57AM
As a resident of Westchester County I can tell you that there is plenty of blame to go around on this issue. The County took funds from HUD but never built the requisite low income housing in the various communities where minorities were "under represented." High-income communities like Scarsdale and Bronxville are built-up and zoning prohibits multi-family housing except in designated areas.
The county was then sued by The Anti-Discrimination Center on behalf of the Fed Govt. The county settled (ADC received $7.5 million) and now has to build 750 units of low income housing in these underrepresented communities.
What is at issue here is that there is no racial discrimination in Westchester housing. People are free to live in any community that they can AFFORD to.
What HUD wants to achieve is to destroy any incentive to work and achieve success. Why work when Government will give you a house in a nice community. This will also destroy property values and achieve the other goal of liberal government which is dragging the successful down rather than the poor up.
Petronius| 4.17.12 @ 1:10PM
Things like HUD are about two objectives of statism, telling the beleaguered working class white who wants to climb the social food chain that he must cease his attempts toward it. He must like anyone the government saddles him with and see the value of his property destroyed in the bargain. You want to become affluent Joe Average? Fuggettaboutit! Uncle won't let you.
Pat| 4.17.12 @ 1:20PM
Yet Obama and his hard working minions are content to allow cities like Detroit or Gary to remain unmixed and definitely without a more dismal match among other American cities. Perhaps creating solid voting districts and urban power bases is seen as desirable by many Democrats, so a little unmixed population isn’t really a bad thing. Plus, it’s better to keep these utterly failed experiments in Great Society, No Child Left Behind, Shoot for the Moon, etc. politics under wraps – no one appears upset that Detroit is solidly unmixed – except Detroiters themselves.
Since Detroit’s previous mayor, Coleman Young, drove the white scourge into the suburban wilderness during the early 70’s, Washington hasn’t uttered a single complaint about Detroit’s increasingly unmixed composition. And Dr. Sowell is correct in Detroit’s case, Jews don’t want to live with Jews not like themselves – or with blacks either. As the better educated blacks of Detroit breached the 8 mile road racial barrier and into the supposedly friendly Jewish suburbs of Oak Park and Southfield, “For Sale” signs sprang up like tulips in Spring. Apparently, having an NAACP Lifetime Membership plaque hanging in your downtown Detroit store doesn’t mean you have to live with your customers.
But recently, Detroit’s Movers and Shakers have dropped hints that whites should return from their long diaspora to the suburbs - and bring your businesses with you, buy property here and join with Detroiters in reviving a great city. Coincidentally, Detroit is flat broke and has submitted to a bail out agreement with the state to re-organize their city finances.
But it’s difficult to re-organize something you don’t have and therefore Detroit’s desperate search for money from any source. The Democrats’ long standing racist politics are proudly caustic but then again money is always welcome, regardless of the source.
Con Chef (NB) | 4.17.12 @ 1:51PM
From Dr. Sowell's Piece:
"Whether these middle-class neighborhoods are already either predominantly black or predominantly white, the residents are often outraged at the increased crime and other behavior problems inflicted on them by politicians and bureaucrats."
This can best be summed up in what happens in neighborhoods that are mostly residential/single family homes & throw in a few houses/duplexes for rent in the mix. This is cool, as long as landlords don't start accepting Section 8 funding for housing. Once ONE does, the rest fall like dominoes, as does the neighborhood. Thankfully, no one has gone Section 8 on the street that my wife & l live on. I think my landlord would commit seppuku before renting out to section 8. And given the tennants in the other duplexes we've seen in 10 years on the same street, he ain't the only one.
The neighborhoods that DO go Section 8 go down the proverbial latrine more quickly than a CA wildfire. My best friend & his financee bought a new house in Memphis when I moved up here in '02. At that time, it was a "starter" neighborhood for people like him & his ole lady. The average get-in was around $140,000. After 4 years, the neighborhood started accepting Section 8 housing receipients. Break-ins, car break ins or outright theft jumped through the roof. My buddy was able to get $100k for his home. Gut wrenching. Hell, I hated it FOR him! Section 8 is the bane of every residential neighborhood in the country.
Seek| 4.17.12 @ 6:22PM
Several years ago, The Atlantic magazine ran a detailed article that used data from Memphis as a prime example of why Section 8 rental vouchers and neighborhood stability don't mix (See Hanna Rosin, "American Murder Mystery," August 20080. Crime occurred most frequently where (overwhelmingly black) Section 8 tenants lived. The article received enormous media attention. The editors of the Atlantic, of course, were called out for their "racism." Yet despite the best efforts of "scholars" to refute the numbers, the article has stood the test of time.
Blacks and crime -- no matter where you go, they always seem to heavily overlap.
Appleby| 4.17.12 @ 8:05PM
I moved into a brand new rental development outside Atlanta when the law allowed "Adults Only" apartments. That complex was then 6% Black. After 2 years they overturned the "Adults Only" law and overnight that complex went to 45% Black. I moved out to a fortress tower in the City, where anybody could live who could afford it (which solved the main problem except for Atlanta Falcons players putting bubble bath in the hot tub). About 2 months after I moved out, the DEA staged a major raid on my old complex, and the film on 11:00 news showed not a single White face.
Cynicon Implant| 4.17.12 @ 7:19PM
I'm part of a group that is underrepresented in my city -- I'm a conservative in Cambridge, MA. Can I get some of this subsidized housing?
truebluepatriot| 4.17.12 @ 7:54PM
What's really sad is that people scream and rant about "racial discrimination" against blacks, but don't they see that there's a good REASON (experience) that ALL people have fears of young black males, even Jesse Jackson. If parent(s), I know it's usually mom or grandma, could focus on making their children "behave and use their mannerjs", with time, this could clear up. Yeah, I'm holding my breath here.
gene| 4.18.12 @ 5:38PM
Typical Limosine Liberals. As soon as it reaches Westchester County and their own backyards?
Reverse Speed at Warp Factor Nine!
POST American| 4.19.12 @ 1:26AM
---WHY is Sowell bothering us
with these '90's Show' concerns
in this the wake of the ANTI-Constitional
NDAA 1021 ---in this, the 11th hour of
the CFR---RED China handover, sellout,
TREASON, takedown and EUGENICS OP?
robert j farrell| 4.19.12 @ 12:02PM
Great article Mr. Sowell this is exactly what happened in the Chatham neighborhood on the southside of Chicago.The Robert Taylor projects were dismantled and the people settled all over Chicago.Chatham an idyllic, solid bastion of Black professionals was turned into a war zone almost overnight.Crime was literally almost nonexistent.The dynamic was changed and murder rates soared;drugs and gangs destroyed one of the safest neighborhoods in all of Chicago.A truly American tragedy of government putting the cart before the horse.Will we ever learn?Thank you for all you do you are an American of tremendous courage and remind me everytime I read or hear you speak that we are a great country. You sir are the definition of American exceptionalism.You will be remembered as a role model for all American's and rightly so,
Ozzy| 4.21.12 @ 10:34PM
Tommy, could it be that some are simply concerned that those with a low income have housing?