A triple! At Hat Hair, John Sexton wonders Can Portland be saved?
Of course, but it will take a change in the political order. Either enough voters will have to get mad at the current regime and kick them out and restore a sane government, or enough working voters will vote with their feet and leave, allowing the city to collapse Detroit style. Once a sufficient number of workers leave, the system will collapse financially, the parasite state of government workers and homeless that has formed will be starved for tax funds and hollow out. This calls to mind Rome's collapse from a 500,000 under the Roman empire, to a town of 30,000 after the Goths sacked of the city. At that point, the road back is long and painful, but possible.
Speaking of the Goths sacking the city, also from John Sexton, One addict says, 'Portland is a homeless drug addict’s slice of paradise'
“Portland is a homeless drug addict’s slice of paradise,” said Noah Nethers, who was living with his girlfriend in a bright orange tent on the sidewalk against a fence of a church, where they shoot and smoke both fentanyl and meth.
He ticked off the advantages: He can do drugs wherever he wants and the cops no longer harass him. There are more dealers, scouting for fresh customers moving to paradise. That means drugs are plentiful and cheap.
Downsides: Tent living is no paradise, he said, especially when folks in nearby tents, high on meth, hit him with baseball bats.
According to an analysis of data from the Internal Revenue Service by The Oregonian from income tax returns filed in 2020 and 2021, Multnomah County lost a net 14,257 tax filers and their dependents, many of whom were high earners who could do jobs remotely, resulting in a net income loss of over $1 billion.
Anarchy as a goal? Who wins?
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