When investors abandon communities...

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That is where you see government filling the gaps.

And a piss poor job of it they do.

And before anyone asks for it, here's your needed "citation".

No one said it was optimal.

The notion that private enterprise can do things much better than government is most of the time a myth. The post office is much more efficient than private companies like UPS in delivering the mail and packages. Privately run jails, prisons, and youth offender facilities are notorious for cutting corners, abuse, and even corrupt deals with judges to increase sentencing in order to fill beds. Imagine if the US army, or police departments were private enterprises! Currently, my family and I have moved into a federally owned and operated apartment complex we've lived in, and I can say without hesitation that it is much more efficiently run than any privately owned complex, with much better services supplied (we don't have to pay separately for a garage or car port, things are actually fixed upon request, inspections are done to actually look for needed repairs rather than as a means to lean on unpopular tenants, and they don't play favorites with tenants). I wouldn't want to live in a country without private enterprise, but neither would I want to live in one without government services. For those who demean government's role in place of private business, they should be willing to recognize that government is active in such roles only because of the failure of private enterprise to live up to their responsibility to the community, rather than just making money off of them.

What I meant was, if given the choice of living off the government or having a job that pays enough to live off the income generated, most would choose the job rather than taking scraps from the government.

Government only comes in and does stuff when no one else will then you have folks who complain about it. Well. Quit complaining and invest!

Sorry for misunderstanding your post. Still, I am in 100% agreement with you. Businesses are today too concerned with the short term; just saving money by cutting the work force, or closing down shop to open someplace where they can pay lower wages. They refuse to see the long term, where paying good wages with benefits to as many people as possible is in fact an investment in itself, as those workers in turn will be consumers with disposable income. In that long term scenario, everyone wins. But it seems that the supporters of business have forgotten how free enterprise is supposed to work for the good of everyone, rather than just the few.