Rich suburbs want to split from the poor part of Baton Rouge, Louisiana

[hellheaven1987]

I am not going to put any racial suggestion in the thread title because I subjectively believe that is not the case.

More than 18,000 residents in the suburbs south of Baton Rouge, the state capital of Louisiana, have signed a petition calling for the creation of a new city called St George.

The community is currently part of East Baton Rouge Parish, which also includes the city of Baton Rouge itself.

The campaigners claim they simply want to improve the quality of local schools and to ensure that taxpayers - who currently contribute roughly two thirds of funds to the parish - have more control over the money they contribute to fund services.

Opponents insist that the proposal is also motivated by race and class. They point out that the new city of St George would be 70% white - and that the mainly poor and black community in the rest of Baton Rouge would face crippling cuts to education if it lost the taxpayers who provide most of its revenue.

The St George campaign says it needs less than 2,000 signatures to hit its goal of 20,000 signatures which would enable it to put the independence vote on the ballot. But some major business interests in the community including a casino have said they would rather stay part of the parish.

Source

Baton Rouge is the state capital of Louisiana, by the way.

I don't know, part of me feel it is morally wrong to abandon the poors, but part of me agrees everyone has freedom to leave the community, rich or poor. So what you guys think?

[SorelusImperion]

ut part of me agrees everyone has freedom to leave the community

They can do so but not by forcing the change of administrative units to their advantage.

[hellheaven1987]

They can do so but not by forcing the change of administrative units to their advantage.

Why not? All administrative units are for the advantage of some people; that is why some states are literally a box shape.

[Gaidin]

I don't know, part of me feel it is morally wrong to abandon the poors, but part of me agrees everyone has freedom to leave the community, rich or poor. So what you guys think?

They can move any time they wish.

[SorelusImperion]

Why not? All administrative units are for the advantage of some people; that is why some states are literally a box shape.

State borders were carefully negotiated issues balancing the interests of all involved parties.

[Gaidin]

State borders were carefully negotiated issues balancing the interests of all involved parties.

Not really. They got lazy and tired of actually paying attention to the terrain and just started drawing straight lines on a map one day. And that continued through to aligning the counties and selling the properties.

[Mementomoridc]

even the box shaped states were made smaller or larger here and there to give them access to some resource or some location, or deny them something.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

I am not going to put any racial suggestion in the thread title because I subjectively believe that is not the case.



Source

Baton Rouge is the state capital of Louisiana, by the way.

I don't know, part of me feel it is morally wrong to abandon the poors, but part of me agrees everyone has freedom to leave the community, rich or poor. So what you guys think?

This whole: "I don't want to pay for the poor, it's time we separated" ideology sure is getting popular these days.


the world is turning into selfish republicans it seems

[Phier]

This whole: "I don't want to pay for the poor, it's time we separated" ideology sure is getting popular these days.


the world is turning into selfish republicans it seems

Seriously? You are panicing about Ebola in the Ebola thread, hiding from black people and this makes people selfish republicans? Hypocrite much?

Let me tell you what happened to a suburb about a mile from where I'm writing this. Wealthy area, the school board said they were going to build a new local highschool and asked for a tax increase from the area. They agreed. The school board then "changed its mind" and built the school several miles away and that suburb got its district changed from a good school 1/2 a mile away to be bussed to a school known for gang activity about 7 miles away. The average home lost 100k in value because of this, AND they got a huge tax increase. Damn selfish republicans eh?

You worry about your kids, yet other people doing the same for real crime reasons are selfish. Great.

[Mementomoridc]

Seriously? You are panicing about Ebola in the Ebola thread, hiding from black people and this makes people selfish republicans? Hypocrite much?

Let me tell you what happened to a suburb about a mile from where I'm writing this. Wealthy area, the school board said they were going to build a new local highschool and asked for a tax increase from the area. They agreed. The school board then "changed its mind" and built the school several miles away and that suburb got its district changed from a good school 1/2 a mile away to be bussed to a school known for gang activity about 7 miles away. The average home lost 100k in value because of this, AND they got a huge tax increase. Damn selfish republicans eh?

You worry about your kids, yet other people doing the same for real crime reasons are selfish. Great.

I am not sure which side you are on here, but to me it sounds like and this is assuming they are Republicans as you said, the "Republicans" in question got screwed over by the system they normally take advantage of. To me this sounds like you are mixing up a small city wide issue with a larger county wide decision which I would expect is due to the budget, cause even an increase in tax income is normally useless in a counties school budget.

[Phier]

I am not sure which side you are on here, but to me it sounds like and this is assuming they are Republicans as you said, the "Republicans" in question got screwed over by the system they normally take advantage of. To me this sounds like you are mixing up a small city wide issue with a larger county wide decision which I would expect is due to the budget, cause even an increase in tax income is normally useless in a counties school budget.

I actually have no side in this particular issue being I don't know the area, at all. I can't claim if its "selfishness" or if there is really an issue. I know the local issue I talked about had nothing to do with selfishness and we looked for a house there about 7 years ago and decided it wasn't worth the money. Glad I passed I was reacting to what I felt was hypocrisy by the poster.

[Mementomoridc]

I actually have no side in this particular issue being I don't know the area, at all. I can't claim if its "selfishness" or if there is really an issue. I know the local issue I talked about had nothing to do with selfishness and we looked for a house there about 7 years ago and decided it wasn't worth the money. Glad I passed I was reacting to what I felt was hypocrisy by the poster.

got ya, well congrats on passing on that mess.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

Seriously? You are panicing about Ebola in the Ebola thread, hiding from black people and this makes people selfish republicans? Hypocrite much?

Let me tell you what happened to a suburb about a mile from where I'm writing this. Wealthy area, the school board said they were going to build a new local highschool and asked for a tax increase from the area. They agreed. The school board then "changed its mind" and built the school several miles away and that suburb got its district changed from a good school 1/2 a mile away to be bussed to a school known for gang activity about 7 miles away. The average home lost 100k in value because of this, AND they got a huge tax increase. Damn selfish republicans eh?

You worry about your kids, yet other people doing the same for real crime reasons are selfish. Great.[/QUOTE]

yes, I sure look like a hypocrite here, anyway fear of germs aside, I'm saying that this idea of "hurr durr my money shouldn't help the lazy poor bums who brought their misery on themselves! Why are my hard earned moneys being taken by the state to support lazy parasites" has been coming from overseas, a country where people pay what? 11.000 € for higher education (my country is in uproar because the price of higher education went up to almost 900€), where the entire health industry is designed to screw you over, and where it's every man for himself.

Mainland Europe is built on sharing and helping those less well off, because we know the idea of self responsibility is flawed since no one is responsible for being born to rich/poor parents or with all kinds of advantages/disadvantages

[Mementomoridc]

[/QUOTE]yes, I sure look like a hypocrite here, anyway fear of germs aside, I'm saying that this idea of "hurr durr my money shouldn't help the lazy poor bums who brought their misery on themselves! Why are my hard earned moneys being taken by the state to support lazy parasites" has been coming from overseas, a country where people pay what? 11.000 € for higher education (my country is in uproar because the price of higher education went up to almost 900€), where the entire health industry is designed to screw you over, and where it's every man for himself.

Mainland Europe is built on sharing and helping those less well off, because we know the idea of self responsibility is flawed since no one is responsible for being born to rich/poor parents or with all kinds of advantages/disadvantages[/QUOTE]

900 Euro's a semester? Cause if so holy crap I went to a Community College which is as cheap as it comes in the states and that was over 1000 a semester. Most state universities cost 20-30k.

EDIT: the forum decided to do some crazy stuff with the post I quoted so I edited it to make it make sense.

[Phier]

yes, I sure look like a hypocrite here, anyway fear of germs aside, I'm saying that this idea of "hurr durr my money shouldn't help the lazy poor bums who brought their misery on themselves! Why are my hard earned moneys being taken by the state to support lazy parasites" has been coming from overseas, a country where people pay what? 11.000 € for higher education (my country is in uproar because the price of higher education went up to almost 900€), where the entire health industry is designed to screw you over, and where it's every man for himself.

Mainland Europe is built on sharing and helping those less well off, because we know the idea of self responsibility is flawed since no one is responsible for being born to rich/poor parents or with all kinds of advantages/disadvantages

And you wonder why so many foreign nationals come to the US for their education

[Carl Jung was right]

This whole: "I don't want to pay for the poor, it's time we separated" ideology sure is getting popular these days.


the world is turning into selfish republicans it seems

Ok NO-Garb. why don't you go live in a crime infested city where you can be at any time shot or mugged for crossing the street by fellas creeping in from the "other side of town" who possess the knowledge that your neighborhood is easy pickings for their likes?

Why is it that one half of the city's more prosperous residents owe the other despondent half to support their vacant lifestyles? Has it occurred to you that most of the income redistributed in this way will be simply consumed outright (squandered on drugs and alcohol most likely), making everyone poorer off?

You have to consider the other side of the issue here. One side wants to separate because it believes it will be poorly represented by legislators voted in office by a majority who want a bigger dole of their earnings. I mean some people think that just because someone's better off means they must forfeit their political rights. We live, work and earn so that the poor can...do what? Continue to be "victims" of unfair privilege and a free exchange economy?

Also in the end, if they can't get their way, the better half will simply move elsewhere, and the town will become just another shantied ruin, like an increasing multitude scattered across the United States.

[Gaidin]

Ok NO-Garb. why don't you go live in a crime infested city where you can be at any time shot or mugged for crossing the street by fellas creeping in from the "other side of town" who possess the knowledge that your neighborhood is easy pickings for their likes?

Why is it that one half of the city's more prosperous residents owe the other despondent half to support their vacant lifestyles? Has it occurred to you that most of the income redistributed in this way will be simply consumed outright (squandered on drugs and alcohol most likely), making everyone poorer off?

You have to consider the other side of the issue here. One side wants to separate because it believes it will be poorly represented by legislators voted in office by a majority who want a bigger dole of their earnings. I mean some people think that just because someone's better off means they must forfeit their political rights. We live, work and earn so that the poor can...do what? Continue to be "victims" of unfair privilege and a free exchange economy?

Also in the end, if they can't get their way, the better half will simply move elsewhere, and the town will become just another shantied ruin, like an increasing multitude scattered across the United States.

It's actually got nothing to do with the poor. Just salary. This isn't five figure salary vs poor. This is six figure salary or more vs five figure salary. Though there is argued to be a race disparity by the statistics of how the jobs are dispersed among them. You read a bit too much into this.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

Ok NO-Garb. why don't you go live in a crime infested city where you can be at any time shot or mugged for crossing the street by fellas creeping in from the "other side of town" who possess the knowledge that your neighborhood is easy pickings for their likes?

Why is it that one half of the city's more prosperous residents owe the other despondent half to support their vacant lifestyles? Has it occurred to you that most of the income redistributed in this way will be simply consumed outright (squandered on drugs and alcohol most likely), making everyone poorer off?

You have to consider the other side of the issue here. One side wants to separate because it believes it will be poorly represented by legislators voted in office by a majority who want a bigger dole of their earnings. I mean some people think that just because someone's better off means they must forfeit their political rights. We live, work and earn so that the poor can...do what? Continue to be "victims" of unfair privilege and a free exchange economy?

Also in the end, if they can't get their way, the better half will simply move elsewhere, and the town will become just another shantied ruin, like an increasing multitude scattered across the United States.

I'm just worried of Europe being infected by the American individualism neo liberalism mindset

We are turning into USA lite and it worries me.

[Mementomoridc]

I'm just worried of Europe being infected by the American individualism neo liberalism mindset

We are turning into USA lite and it worries me.

What is USA lite to you? cause imo that could be a good thing, or F'ing terrible to lol. If you mean a lite version or the US now (almost had a impulse to make that a USA Today pun), ya that's bad, but America lite as in America 60-75years ago, well hell I like that set up, ignoring the obvious racism and other issues.

[Flavius Julius Nepos Augustus]

I'm just worried of Europe being infected by the American individualism neo liberalism mindset

We are turning into USA lite and it worries me.

Socialism is for the 20th century. Liberté (19th century) , égalité (20th century), fraternité (21th?).