Florida's a Dying Ponzi Scheme, But I Love It

Florida resident Diane Roberts isn’t surprised—or even upset—that her state is collapsing. The Sunshine State's population is dwindling for the first time since World War II as tourists and snowbirds pull out, eroding the tax base that funded just about everything. "Our whole economy is more or less a big Ponzi scheme," Roberts writes on NPR. "When nobody can afford a condo in Boca ... the Ponzi scheme collapses."

“The rest of America sold corn, cotton, iron or coal. Florida sold itself.” But its “old inhabitants will be just fine,” she writes; bees, alligators, and plants are already reclaiming what was once drained and sold. “After all, Florida was the last part of the North American continent to emerge from the sea, and, when the waters rise again, Florida will be the first to return.”
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