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Thursday, April 21, 2011 11:33 AM


The City that Outsourced Everything


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Hello public unions. Meet Sandy Springs, Georgia: The City that Outsourced Everything



Numerous people asked me to comment on that video. Here goes ..

  1. Sandy Springs proves without a doubt that cities can get along perfectly fine without collective bargaining, without public pensions, and without public unions.
  2. The Sandy Springs model delivers more services for the money an any public union model ever can.
  3. Sandy Springs is run the way cities ought to be run.

Please play the video and tell me why Sandy Springs should not be the model for every city in the country.

Hopelessly Misguided Comments

It was interesting to read a bunch of hopelessly misguided comments to that YouTube video

For example Hariz1 writes ...
All I see is a group of rich-republicans ignoring the problems of everyone outside their affluent community.
Warblingtransistor writes ...
This video is such nonsense. Sandy Springs is very affluent, with very high property values and a huge property tax base. White folks didn't want their tax dollars going to benefit the kids of black people (or poor whites) in South Fulton, and so they decided to split off and go their own way.
Prophetmargin writes ...
People in Sandy Springs commute into Atlanta to work.

And now, they avoid paying taxes to Atlanta. The "public-private partnership" has little to do with Sandy Springs' financial success. This is just rich people hoarding their money.

And when Atlanta crumbles, they'll all lose their jobs and have to move somewhere else.
Staggering Attacks on a Model that Works

It would normally be shocking to see such misguided, racially-biased attacks on a model that clearly works except for one thing: This is what we have come to expect from union supporters who will stop at nothing to maintain their unsustainable model of inefficiency, coercion, and corruption.

Outsourcing services saves money. It would save money regardless of how rich or poor a city was. The same applies to elimination of pension plans for police and fire workers.

Thus, it is preposterous to think this plan would not deliver more services for less money anywhere, regardless of race, creed, or income.

However, that's not what public unions want. They would rather bankrupt cites and taxpayers for their own self-serving goals than implement a model that is fair to everyone.

One of the reasons Atlanta, Detroit, Oakland and other cities are in trouble is precisely because they do not operate on the model of Sandy Springs. Most cities that are doing OK (or appear to be doing OK), do so in spite of not operating like Sandy Springs.

It is time to get behind Rand Paul's national right-to-work proposal. Such a law at the national level would force states like Illinois to consider a different model.

Currently cities in Illinois have no chance because of forced collective bargaining arrangements, prevailing wage laws and other numerous public union driven inefficiencies sponsored by Governor Pat Quinn and those before him, State Speaker Michael Madigan, and other corrupt politicians willing to buy votes at enormous taxpayer cost.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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