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We’re the Government and We’re Here to Help

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Mantua Square

Here’s how government fixes income inequality using taxpayer money. In this case it is “affordable housing” built with federal “stimulus funds “ in the Mantua area of Philadelphia.

“After sixty plus years, West Philadelphia sinks ever deeper into disrepair and despair,” writes Francis Menton in The Manhattan Contrarian. He then notes how redistributions (public housing, food stamps, Medicaid, Obamacare subsidies) “present a tremendous incentive to reduce or stop work in order to qualify, and then are not counted as income to the recipient.”

But shouldn’t government be able to fix things by spending taxpayer money on “affordable housing”?  According to Mr. Menton, a blogger reports on a development built in the Mantua area since 2009 with federal “stimulus” funds:

And then there is the ongoing saga of the Section 8 gated estate called Mantua Square, a $28 million, 101 townhouse, 8 store front testimonial to Keynesian idiocy that sits in the middle of an Obama Keystone Zone. . . .  Mantua Square was one of Obama’s shovel ready projects funded by his $800 billion porkulus package in 2009. Every dime came from taxpayers. It was touted as a game changer for Mantua. We were told businesses would open in the 8 pre-built retail spaces and other businesses would follow. A glorious revitalization would materialize due to brilliant government apparatchiks spending your money. It is now 5 years later and not one storefront is occupied by a single business. Not one black entrepreneur has used their Philadelphia public school education to create a viable business and the jobs that would follow.

“Could it be that people maintained in a lifetime of semi-comfortable poverty by government handouts just don’t fix up buildings or start businesses?”  What is the alternative explanation? As Mr. Menton asks, is it not perhaps time to try something different? Read more here.

VIDEO: Here Obama promises even more support for Mantua after failing with his Stimulus package:

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Debbie Young

Debbie, editor-in-chief of Richardcyoung.com, has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over three decades. When not in Key West, Debbie spends her free time researching and writing in and about Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, driving her Porsche Boxter S through Vermont and Maine, and practicing yoga.