The crisis in Flint has been called a lot of things: a health emergency, a national disaster and a civil rights scandal. But a talking point that has gained traction in recent weeks is that what happened in Flint constitutes a failure of government – that on every level: local, state and federal the government failed to foresee the crisis and at every level the government has responded inadequately. In fact, what happened in Flint represents the exact opposite.
Republicans in Michigan have taken their contempt for government to the next level– they’ve demonstrated a disregard for local democracy in favor of emergency managers who rule through fiat rather than consensus. These emergency managers are essentially state-sanctioned CEOs whose duties lie not with the people of the community but with supporters in Lansing.
The purpose of these emergency managers is to make government more efficient by removing the need for discussion, deliberation or community involvement. The idea is that an emergency manager can work faster than a committee of voices and do what’s necessary to keep a city running, that emergency managers will work more effectively because they’ll follow the common-sense approach of “running it like a business.
But Flint, and the people of Michigan have seen the true consequence of this McDonaldization of government. Children have been poisoned with lead because Flint’s emergency manager wanted to save money, because Flint’s emergency manager didn’t care enough to test the water and because Flint’s emergency manager didn’t have time to treat it.
The schools of Detroit are in disarray, partly due to years of neglect, but also because the school’s emergency manager didn’t cooperate, didn’t communicate and didn’t feel that floors were a necessity in a classroom. Darnell Earley was the emergency manager in both cases—now he’s stepping down — but Lansing was happy with his performance until the scandals broke our.
Lansing forgot an important fact—businesses cut corners—they take shortcuts whenever it’s financially reasonable. CEOs aren’t concerned with their community, their customers or their employees. They’re concerned with profit. Our Supreme Court has said that a business’ only duty is to its shareholders. Who are the shareholders when we treat government like a business?
Government isn’t about cutting costs, maintaining profits or satisfying customers—it’s about organizing our communities and doing what’s best for the people. The motivations of business are anathema to good government—they are opposite and equal in almost every way. The reason we so desperately need government regulation is because often times what’s in the best interest of the people and what’s in the best interest of Corporation Inc. are diametrically opposed.
Michigan and the United States wouldn’t be better off if they were run like a business, privatization isn’t always the best and local democracy shouldn’t be circumvented by the state. The people of Flint would’ve been heard sooner if their elected officials were given the authority to listen and act—but we’ll never know what could have been.
Hopefully this water crisis will serve as a wakeup call and a reminder that government has its place. We have to restore our faith in the democratic process and in our elected officials. Repealing the emergency manager law is a good start, but if we want to prevent future Flints, we have to repeal the attitude that lead us here.
