Flint's Keynesian Wizard of Water

I knew it would be just a matter of time when someone would pull back the curtain on this Flint water contamination scandal and expose the flimflam many of us suspected.  And of course, the wizard behind this government scandal is Keynesian economics.

Informed people in the state of Michigan knew Flint is in a financial crisis and that a state appointed manager had to take over the reins.  The media would have us believe this water contamination mess is due to penny pinching measures implemented by stingy republicans who care more about saving a dollar than the health and wellbeing of citizens.  Not in this case.  The reason Flint didn’t renew their contract with the Detroit Water and Sewage Department was because practically everyone involved wanted a huge infrastructure project.  Here is an excerpt from Reason Magazine:

Snyder's office did not return my call, but sources close to the situation at the time tell me that it was essentially because Genesee County and Flint authorities saw the new water treatment as a public infrastructure project to create jobs in an area that has never recovered after Michigan's auto industry fled to sunnier business climes elsewhere. And neither Snyder nor his Emergency Manager Ed Kurtz nor the state treasurer Andy Dillon had the heart to say "no," especially since to hand Flint to DWSD would have made the whole project less viable.  What's more, they felt that just as Detroit was receiving an infrastructure boost post-bankruptcy (with the state-backed $650 million ice-hockey-arena-cum-entertainment center that I wrote about here) it was only fair that Flint get one too.

You have to read the whole article in order to get the full monty.

Source:

http://reason.com/blog/2016/01/25/the-flint-water-crisis-is-the-result-of

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/stimulus-package.asp