It seems the city of Aspen continues to endorse large public housing developments for more employees to service more commercial developments to maximize revenue stream mutually beneficial for city largess and the developers bottom line.

Potentially, there can be serious systemic corruption associated with any symbiotic relationship between municipal governments and big developers.American corporate capitalism, with all its attributes, still requires government legislation to collar the greed is good corporate mantra.

Without rules to protect the public from the inherentpredatory practices offree-market capitalism, in a blink, you could have just a few mega, all-powerful monopolistic corporations owning just about everything there is to own that can make rent (Blackrock). A nation could quickly be transformed into cities of Pullman towns where the majority of the population are indentured proletarians of the corporation.

This would be a dystopian world brought forth by lobbying influences employing high-tech advancedmanipulationof human behavior, similar to Cambridge Analytica. Considering our republic has the best government money can buy, thanks to Citizens United together with AIs off-the-shelf, mind-bogglingcapabilities and limitless heuristic potential for almost any application such as tracking/managing large populations in realtime this scenario could be plausible.

City government has made Aspen what you see today, which is a version of the above scenario. This transformation has been playing out in Aspen for the past three decades. Aspen was once a diverse, affordable, and vibrant, functioning city. It is now a homogenized, high-end theme park /strip mall for the rich bourgeoisie, andAPCHA is the proletariat Pullman town.

The citys endorsement ofspeculativehegemonicownership of numerous keystone commercial core properties by a few big developers is acceptable because its profitable tothe city.

The APCHAconstituencyhasendorsed the citys predatory and punitive legislation for revenue, but ironically, their councils have not visibly improved their quality of life.

One reason is the citys punitive taxation and corporate development giveaways are a wealth filter, accelerating societal bifurcation, gentrification, and big-money speculation. Who in town would endorse this outcome? Just about anyone expecting to make a buck.Whos left?

The free-market homeowner is the citys default cash cow and whipping boy. The majority of free-market homeowners dont wanttraffic gridlock orany other city degradationjust to meet some corporate bottom line and to feed more largess to city staff.

Aspens over-the-top legislation for profit and big development incentives do fund the upper tranches of city employees withselect housingspecial privilegesthat others dont have. Additionally, by and large, most city employees do receive perks far above the national municipal average.

Aspens typical corporate proletariat does not have parity to city benefits.Keycity personnel aresupplemented generously with cheap sometimes free housing with maintenance, above-average wages, long vacations, health care/retirement packages,incentive bonuses, club membership discounts, and education allowances.

It all sums up to having your cake and eat it, too, with great disposable income. That is why you Ottto see so many high riding city managers dining out, maybe with discounts?

Scott and Caroline McDonald are Aspen residents.

Go here to see the original:
McDonald: Aspen's like living in a 'Pullman town' - The Aspen Times