Wasted resources polluted land; capitalism's gift to us all. An unplanned system at work.

The land pimps' idea of beauty

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste" said Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel when he was Obama's Chief of Staff.  Economist Paul Romer gave him the idea with his "A crisis is a terrible thing to waste." And while there may be varying interpretations of what these two representatives of capital meant when they uttered the now famous phrase, one thing is clear; they are taking it to heart.

All the the major examples are familiar to us: the bank bailout, the auto bailout, the bailouts internationally of entire nations.  Here in the US, the ideological offensive against public services and public sector workers are another example of not missing a good opportunity created by their crisis; it has allowed them to move a little faster..

There are numerous examples of what it means in concrete terms for workers and our families, the lost homes, jobs, amenities like state parks here in California.  I was reading this morning about the mortgage tax deduction, the ability to deduct our mortgage interest from our personal taxes and the move to put a stop to it to save $100 billion a year.  Michele  Bachmann, the emerging superstar of the Republican Party wants to eliminate the minimum wage in order to "create Jobs".  "Literally, if we took away the minimum wage---if conceivably it was gone", she told a Minnesota State Senate hearing in 2005, "...we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level."

The integrity and generosity of these people is outstanding, wanting to provide jobs for working people.  She watered it down a bit as possible stardom looms saying in June that the minimum wage is "something that obviously Congress would have a look at."

It would be a breath of fresh air were the heads of organized Labor to be as aggressive in taking advantage of the present crisis in the interest of workers as the representatives of capital are for their class.  When it comes to waste and the squandering of resources the capitalists are masters of the universe alright. The privatization of profits and the socialization of losses is the name of the game.

I read about one flagrant example this morning in Business Week: The North Miami Condo Catastrophe, yet another small example of private debt being nationalize, not to mention the horrific consequences socially and environmentally of the anarchy of the so-called free market.

The city of North Miami, in partnership with land pimps, or developers as they call themselves, struck a deal back in 2002 to build Biscayne Landing, a complex of 6000 condo's restaurants, shops and a $10 million sports facility.  The city provided the largest piece of waterfront land for this "city within a city". But eight years later, it's a mess.  All that's left of the project is "two condo towers looming over a landfill" says Business Week.  One woman who bought one of the $450,000 condos three years ago is holding an empty one now worth $150,000. Like many other would be buyers the housing crash put and end to their plans and they walked away.  They weren't the only ones that walked away as moneylenders looking for profitable investments walked away also.  New moneylenders entered the fray but they decided it was more financially prudent to get out of dodge, "This year, rather than keeping up payments for taxes, fees and maintenance, the lenders ceded control of the property to the city.", BW adds.

So the taxpayers of North Miami now own a worthless piece of property with worthless structures on it and the maintenance that the moneylenders chose to avoid has been taken up by the taxpayer at $100,000 a month.

The reason that the place stinks and is "looming over a landfill" has some history to it.  In fact, the entire history of the site is one of failure and destruction, of an unplanned economic system at work.  In the 60's there was some plan to develop a theme park there (just what we need, more theme parks--for the homeless to enjoy no doubt) but that fell through.  Then in 1971 the city, in other words, the political representatives of the developers and moneylenders, made a deal with a now defunct company to put a golf course on the land.  We should keep in mind that these entities never actually become "defunct" in the true sense of the word, the capital is simply moved, transferred.

waste like this was dumped next to Biscayne  Bay

This outfit promised to bring in "clean" fill to mold the land in to a golf course but ended up dumping "municipal, medical and toxic waste"  says Business Week.  The pollution became so severe that when the EPA found the owners had dumped drums of chemicals and detected noxious gasses emanating from the putrid mass that it declared the site a "superfund site".  The severity of the situation was confirmed when an underground fire burned for two months in 1990.  There was a back and forth with local residents and the EPA with people complaining of skin problems and that the water in the area was unfit for human contact due to the pollution of the site but eventually it was taken off the superfund list as the EPA claimed the only danger it represented was to marine life in Biscayne Bay.

That's when the recent project took over as deals were made between moneylenders, the city, land pimps and others who have since become "defunct" also; a very handy state of being is defunctness.

Dade County are now saying that the taxpayers must clean up the site by disposing of the toxic groundwater and that, along with other "remedies" could amount to a further $20 million.

This is just one small example of the market at work. It is one small example in one small corner of the world of global capitalism.  Despite the miserable record of failure the city council representing the interests of the speculators and developers, the fine gentlemen and women who sometimes go by the name of "venture Capitalists" are appealing to the creators of this mess to try again as they seek proposals for the next venture for this plot of land.

Who shows up but one of the land pimp outfits that was involved before. They' have a great new bold initiative this time, "..a combination of hotel, retail, residential space and possibly even senior living."
As long as its profitable of course.  And if it turns out not to be if the market so chooses? No worries, we'll cede it over to the working class---until the next time.