nbcrusader
Blue Crack Addict
After failing to restructure approximately $20 Billion in debt, the Motor City is filing for bankruptcy.
This is what happens when you have liberal democrats run your city. When you keep giving away other people's money, other people's money is going to run out.
Everything liberalism touches turns to crap.
Congratulations liberalism.
Progressives may be able to fool their constituency, but they cannot fool the laws of mathematics.
Couldn't have happened to a nicer city.
A perfect trifecta of union thugs, Democratic "leadership" and an uneducated populace.
Coming soon to a city near you. Welcome to Obamaville, suckahs!
If Obama had a city...
It's a mad, mad, liberal world. Satisfied yet liberal communists?
This is what socialist DEMOCRATS created!
Detroit has always been under the control of Democrats. Can any of this actually be a surprise?
Another success story for liberalism!
I think there are many factors, but this is definitely one of them. We're told all our lives to diversify when it comes to money, and this is a perfect example of what happens when you don't. This concept applies to cities too, this city's livelihood was proudly built upon the automobile industry and when that industry takes a hit, one who has everything vested in that industry will take a hit. The writing was on the wall well before 2008.Since I'm not an economist, I can only offer my uneducated opinion and pray that the more educated can add to it...
But it seems that one of the root causes of Detroit's problem is the removal of the manufacturing sector (as those jobs were shipped overseas and/or automated) over the course of the last 20-30 years.
I guess the same thing could happen to Silicon Valley if all programming and IT manufacturing jobs (much more than the current trend) went to China/India. Or to NYC if they changed financial regulations in such a way all of the services were no longer needed or we made buying/selling stocks illegal.
There was certainly nothing in the upper Midwest or North at all. All of those numbers were in the red (losing people). That area is just...bleeding. It's pretty sad.
On the bright side...the comments section!
Freezing winters, hot & humid summers, no jobs, mosquitoes, crumbling infrastructure...what's not to love.
Sweet, now I have an even better chance of buying an abandoned factory to live in.
The surge in public sector jobs (half of Detroit’s top ten employers are government entities) only escalates the decline. You need multiple private sector jobs for every public sector job to have adequate revenue to support the public sector job.
The ticking time bomb facing the country are public sector employee pension obligations.
Detroit failed because manufacturing failed and the city went into a shrinking-tax-revenue death spiral. Even as the auto industry and the metro area are picking up, the city lags behind, as there has been mass flight into the suburbs. Those left behind are those who can't afford to leave, and they generally pay less in taxes and absorb more in services. There is no economic policy in the universe that can reverse this spiral in the short term.
ng plants[/URL] For any unit of government, there is a balance between revenue through taxation and spending. Detroit residents are already paying the highest per capital taxes of any municipality in Michigan. Continued tax increases cannot solve the fiscal problem. Spending is the real culprit here. The surge in public sector jobs (half of Detroit’s top ten employers are government entities) only escalates the decline. You need multiple private sector jobs for every public sector job to have adequate revenue to support the public sector job.
It’s hard to imagine, but up until 1950, Detroit was the fourth biggest city in America. In 1960, it had the highest per-capita income in the U.S.
Don't blame Detroit's bankruptcy on the government. Greed and corporate power are a dangerous cocktail that is bringing misfortunes in today's world.
Greed & power exist in government as well. Government doesn't get a free pass on this one.
Very true - which is why I don't think communism can succeed any more than capitalism - or feudalism - or hunter & gatheringism ....etc. Over time, those with a heavy dose of greed for wealth and power will work/mold the system to their favor until enough people get angry and rebel - then we start again.
What has that got to do with communism?
Greed and power in government is not really applicable in regards to this, given the system itself rejects class and a centralised state.
Hunting-and-gatherism succeeded quite admirably.