In today's Wall Street Journal (web subscription required), Mary Anastasia O'Grady writes about Honduras' interest in establishing "Charter Cities" to promote free-market led growth in that Central American country.
The idea behind Charter Cities is to promote economic development by having a geographic area within a country where free market and free trade rules apply. Living and working in such zones would be voluntary, and the idea is to find a way around the entrenched interests, monopolies, and stifling rules which suppress economic growth in the rest of the country, but which have their fierce defenders when reformers try to make wholesale changes.
I've wondered whether Detroit may be a candidate for this type of "model city" approach to (re-)developing the economy. Like Fast Times' Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) once said,
"What Jefferson was saying was, Hey! You know, we left this England place 'cause it was bogus; so if we don't get some cool rules ourselves - pronto - we'll just be bogus too! Get it?"
Without having to undergo a revolution, or taking on the establishment, Charter Cities offer a way of hitting the reset button, a do-over, so that a place can have cool rules that encourage growth and development.
[Click on the Charter Cities link and read the story behind the students reading under the streetlight.]
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