Miami in Time Magazine ... by gimleteye

Time Magazine tees off on Miami again with writer Tim Padgett covering the same ground as EOM: "The 'Major City' That Isn't". In the race to the bottom, we are winning. Padgett calls the Miami-Dade county commission "clueless and cavalier". We call it "the unreformable majority".

He notes Miami has never found a way "to turn its robust trade and banking sectors... into equally vigorous job-creation engines." That's because Miami is a pass-through economy. The billionaire owner of the Miami Heat isn't even a U.S. citizen.

Padgett writes: "Miami still seems less a city than a collecton of antagonistic ethnic enclaves separated by sprawl (public transportation remains virtually non-existent) and a lack of common purpose." What we also focus on, here, is how sprawl as an engine of growth enforced the utterly dysfunctional political order that conferred great wealth to the builders, developers, and bankers until the whole mess collapsed in 2007.

Today there is a common purpose in Miami: take as much, as fast as you can: perfectly illustrated by city managers walking out the door with six figure severance packages they awarded themselves. All that is missing, are the baskets loaded with loot on the top of their heads. Still, the question arises, are we so much different, even in terms of wage inequality?

Last week, the New York Times reported that in 2010 media pay for top executives at 200 big companies was $10.8 million; a 23 percent gain from 2009. Blown out, the Padgett story could well be, "The United States, 'The Superpower' that That Isn't".

Padgett is perplexed that only 16 percent of eligible voters turned out last week for the county mayoral election. That is the odd corollary to the snatch-and-grab economy: no one seems to know what to do about it. Certainly, voting in elections does not seem to make a difference.

There are fundamental differences in this economy than anything we experienced in our lifetimes. Instead of protecting the public commons (something, Miami has been terrible at doing as a matter of historical record), it is every man for himself. That is a formula that fits perfectly well for business interests and those fortunate enough to be at the top of the pyramid. With municipal deficits soaring, there is no Plan B. The doors to the granary are flung open by the thieves. That roaring sound is the safety net ripping. Environmental protections thrown out the window.

The heat is rising.