America’s big cities are moving in the direction of third world demographics. A smallish upper class lives comfortably, even glamorously, accompanied by a much larger underclass, the more energetic of whom serve the upper class as waiters, housekeepers, taxi drivers, and other service occupations. The less energetic turn to welfare (not a feature of third world countries, to be sure) or crime (rampant in some third world countries like Brazil, less common in others, such as Egypt). Needless to say, the Democratic Party, which controls all major American cities, thrives on this demographic trend. Two articles, pone from a leftist, the other from a conservative perspective, analyze the political; and economic forces powering the transformation of two cities. Writing in City Journal, Aaron Renn discusses Chicago: Mayor Rahm Emanuel has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into initiatives benefiting the city’s elite, such as high-tech industry support, a...(Read Full Post)