ECON 155 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Res Publica, Body Count, Latin American Studies
Who Killed LA? April 4, 8
• The death and rebirth of LA
o US investors relies heavily on private rather than public investors, even in housing, education, and
healthcare whose costs are market driven
o When domestic markets began to turn against investors, investors shifted their capital to higher return
foreign assets
o If policymakers adopted single-payer healthcare, high speed and light rail, and free higher education, the
effect on these sectors would be enormous (lead to shifts in capital elsewhere)
o If the US deregulates financial markets and industries, this choice would attract capital back to US assets
▪ Cities that relies on manufacturing, education, and public sector employment were effected the
most by deregulation
▪ There is an overall increase in aggregate wealth concurrent with an increase in poverty and wealth
disparity
o Has LA changed at all since 2002 (when the article was written)?
▪ Pushing low income east – out of the main city
▪ Getrifiatio: LA’s hoe alues hae ireased 707% ad higher eduation changed by 857%
• Adds aother diesio to Dais’s arguet. LA is ot dead
▪ Better metro system
o The deregulation of finance and banking and privatization of public goods leads to a mass exodus of
capital/jobs and a demographic shift where European Americans relocated to suburbs
▪ Also, a political shift that occurs at the same time
o Davis suggests that in 2002 that cities have been abandoned by elected office holders
▪ The only public employment opportunity was military service = increase in Hispanic and Black army
recruits
▪ Urban public schools are a dead end
o Snapshot given by Davis is insufficient
▪ Why invest in the US if you can make better returns elsewhere? You will go where you can make the
best returns
▪ Elected officials deregulated and privatized, and shifted tax burdens to middle and lower income
households, the rationale was that money would trickle down to the bottom of the income
hierarchy
▪ This is of course about race, but it is also about investments/the bottom line
▪ Argues that urban politics changed during 1976-2002. But did it? People still wanted to win the
election
• A city vanishes
o In 1991, a black man was brutally beaten in LA but all police officers were acquitted
▪ LA Blacks occupied a public space and destroyed private property in a burst of rage
▪ Politiias aross the politial spetru o to sole the prole of ura Blak Aeria
o By year’s ed, o additioal fuds ere alloated to LA
▪ Instead, Sacramento addresses the problem by strengthening laws that punishes looters, increases
sentences for drug dealers, crack down on illegal immigration, and increase funding for police and
private prisons
▪ LA aishes eause “araeto is’t dealig ith LA, they are dealig ith the iagiary of LA
with these policies (ie: poverty, looting, and violent people)
• Republican wilderness
o The res publica has become the greatest opponent of the public sphere and the greatest champion of the
public sphere = complete reversal of what Republicans were before
o Addressed cities by effectively eliminating them
o Ironically, the new Democratic Party leadership followed Republicans along this path
• Body count
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