Government is a disease masquerading as its own cure.
Get ready for some astounding statistics:
Murder rates have generally declined across America since the 1990s. But one city—Baltimore—has set its all-time per capita homicide rate in 2019.
Newspapers ponder the cause. It isn’t population density. Baltimore has LOST population since the 1980s as its most productive citizens have fled the city’s high taxes and regulations.
It isn’t poverty. Baltimore-area median household income is among the highest in the U.S. The surrounding state of Maryland has a higher median household income than the U.S. average. Maryland has the SECOND-LOWEST percentage of people living below the poverty line.
It certainly isn’t lack of law enforcement or government surveillance. Baltimore is UNDER MORE SURVEILLANCE THAN ANY OTHER U.S. CITY.
Baltimore’s secretive “Gorgon Stare” surveillance grid captures data from thousands of surveillance cameras and databases and crosslinks this data so that government has access to almost every citizen’s movements in real time. Baltimore has surveillance planes and drones in the air above the city every minute of every day.
A CITY DROWNING IN GOVERNMENT
The answer may be too much government. Baltimore is practically a government money pit.
Baltimore residents are among the richest beneficiaries of money from the federal government. And Maryland as a whole ranks third (3rd) among states with the highest per-capita net returns from the federal government (which easily surpasses the high taxes transferred TO Washington by Marylanders).
The state receives more federal spending per capita in nonmilitary programs than any other.
