| Isn't this rich? A suburban developer has come up with an idea that sounds like fiction, perhaps from a novel by Ayn Rand: Sell the city's Belle Isle park for $1 billion to private investors who will transform it into a free-market utopia. The 982-acre island would then be developed into a U.S. commonwealth, or city-state, of 35,000 people with its own laws, customs and currency, reports Louis Aguilar in The Detroit News.
In other words, they want the benefits of being part of the United States without the actual responsibilities of being Americans. That is, unless they're really interested in doing this properly, which would mean swearing off the federal aid that independent commonwealths get as American territories. No? Didn't think so. |
