In light of discovering what redlining means and seeing how the housing markets used it to isolate people, along with viewing the societal impacts of industry and war, this article made me reflect on my own upbringing. Having watched Janelle's video clip from Jiang Xueqin in a previous comment from last week's posts and hearing Xueqin mention consumerism being the new form of slavery; I couldn't help but think on where I come from. Pittsburgh, more specifically Jeannette, PA a city that thrived on industrial factories such as Westinghouse and Jeannette Glass. Both companies took a turn for the worse after WWII. Which led me to consider a more famous critical war theory based on the military-industrial complex. C. Wright Mills that is detailed in his book "The Power Elite." McClintock had mentioned that with the rise and fall of industry not only did the economy suffer, but mainly the people who lived in the city where the industry once was. Mills's theory in essence describes a revolving door of war and those who have power stay in power even once they retire to continue operating even behind closed doors. This theory accredits that the decisions made by the government are not actually in the business of bettering the lives of their citizens but only for themselves. I can't help but question if Wright's theory was at play here with the housing market redlining areas and providing cookie cutter homes.
1 comment:
I definitely believe there is some truth to that theory with evidence such as major defense contractors donating large sums of money to political beneficiaries, imagine what could be happening out of the public eye? You can see evidence of the economic impact from these companies still in the present day by going to major shipyards that work for the military industrial complex who prey on the poor economic areas surrounding them.
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