The JS today calls for lifting residency requirements for all school district and city employees, on the theory that many of them won’t move out of the city.

Yup. And the paper should give away its content on the Internet, on the theory that some people will still subscribe to the dead tree edition.

Oh, wait!!! The JS did that! We can all be relieved that there are still some subscribers to the paper paper and that the JS suffered no negative consequences from the change. It’s all about freedom! People should be totally free to take what they want from the paper and give absolutely nothing in return, just like city employees should be able to take their paychecks to the suburbs and give Milwaukee nothing in return!

The JS also opines that an MPS teacher won’t be any less dedicated if he or she lives in a suburb.

Yup, and those Internet JS readers are no less dedicated, either. It’s just that they also no longer have any responsiblity for paying the costs of staff, newsprint or anything else that goes into making a newspaper. They have absolutely no skin in the game and are able to totally externalize the the newspaper’s costs of doing business — isn’t that great for the paper? Everyone’s happy! Except maybe those newspaper staffers who lost their jobs, or the Journal Communications shareholders who have been financially ruined, or newspaper readers who see their favorite daily spiral downward in both quantity and quality.

Wow. It’s a great deal, isn’t it?

It’s odd how folks argue that working stiffs should pay more and more of their health care costs because it gives them some economic interest in keeping their health costs low and so they are more likely to use medical services only when they are really needed. Yet, when it comes the city, there is apparently no need for the folks who earn their living from it to make any sort of investment to keep it healthy.

Go figure.