Detroit files for Bankruptcy

How could this have been avoided?

 

With a cybernetic law enforcer, of course!

 

If there had been a couple of republicans it would have helped. This may become a major concern as Detroit is just the current largest, but I'm sure there are many more large urban centers that are getting closer and closer to the same thing. Once bond holders and banks shut off the spigot of free money to the cities this may become commonplace.

It will be interesting to see what happens as I doubt the suburban and rural people are willing to pay for the mistakes of the urban cities. I know I'm not.

I was also shocked as it seems like Obama and Co. are just going to let Detroit sink. One of the few things I think this administration has done correct (which means they will probably change their mind).

 

How can a city go bankrupt?

 

It is easier than you would expect. When the people elect government leaders who give them what they want as opposed to what they need it is even easier. Here in the US it is primarily the relationship between leftist politicians and public unions that are to blame. The unions support the election of the leftists and the leftists reward them with higher salaries than they should earn as well as health and pension benefits that are far superior to what private employees can expect to receive.

This is where the Detroit issue will become interesting as the pension and health benefits that they owe to their retired employees is unfunded. With the bankruptcy, they may disappear completely which will completely financially ruin many retirees.

I was watching on the news last night that New York City has 5,000 fewer police officers than they did a decade ago, but they spend twice as much due to retiree obligations.

 

Over a million people have left Detroit over the last 50 years, that's a lot of lost tax revenue.

 

Almost $26,000 of debt for each remaining citizen of Detroit. That's a lot of debt considering the notoriously bad infrastructure, extremely high crime rates, harsh economic environment, and generally poor reputation nation-wide that Detroit has.

You'd hope that if a middlin'-size city had run up that much debt, it at least would have been worth something somehow. I sure don't see that in Detroit.

 

When it's unable to repay its debts.

 

Why is it it's own entity, though? Why won't 'the US' as a whole give DET a chuckout and help? A whole city to go bankrupt... I've never heard of such a thing before.

I'm pretty sure 'LONDON GOES BANKRUPT!' would never be a headline. It's not a plc, or any sort of company... it's a city?

 

Plenty others have gone under before; we're just the latest and the largest.

 

The US government system is much more localised than the British one. US cities have much more power and can raise taxes but at the same time they have to pay for a lot of stuff that the UK central government would. Stuff like salaries for police, teachers, and so on. London could technically go bankrupt but its costs are much lower than a US city's and its funding is basically decided by Whitehall rather than decided by its own councillors. So it doesn't really have the power to do anything which could make it go bust. US cities can easily as they've no national buffer to protect them when things go badly wrong.

A US city is like a country in the EU in many ways. And the same reasons why Germany won't simply cover all Ireland's debts is the same reason Congress won't bail out Detroit. If you bail out too many cities you could drag the good ones down with the others. And of course there's no point in continuously bailing out a city which can't manage its affairs. The priority should be to get the day to day running sorted.

This news is sadly not a surprise as Detroit has been in major decline for several decades now. It's really an extreme example of what many industrial cities are going through in the West as manufacturing declines and they fall into a downward spiral. I see a lot of the same problems in my own hometown, though obviously not on the same scale. I really don't see how Detroit can manage on its own. The political infrastructure no longer makes sense and isn't capable of dealing with the problem. I'd feel the national government would have to step in to combat a lot of what's wrong (I don't mean just paying for everything).

 

Ah, well. According to Snook that means London must have a lot of "Republicans." Or Donald Trumps. Wait!...isn't he?

There you have it and from a great Republican.

 

I'd buy that for a dollar.

 

A city still has debts. And if it can't pay them, then something has to happen. Bankruptcy is a way of rebooting and starting again, just like a person or a company. Why should the rest of the USA stump up for the financial stuff up of Detroit?

 

I now several people who "retired" from the police force after working the minimum amount of years in service to recieve pensions and then worked the minimum in another government area and retired again. Double-dipping pensions and such destroy our cities from within. But it's no all the lefty's fault. In Philly, the Cops and Fire departments were backed by Conservatives for years. Both sides play the same game. Whatever gets the votes....

Chicago is becoming a hole as well. It is draining Illinois. Mayor Tiny Dancer sold the rights to the parking meters to an Arab nation. The money for the fricking meters for christ sake is not going back to the city. Chicago is a big WTF right now...

 

I thought that was China? They own everything anyway ...

We do have something of a 'get large' mentality in Detroit, where even our elected officials rip us off. Not everybody can get large though before you run out of money.

 

This is totally tasteless and inappropriate, but it made me chuckle.

 

Detroit was destabilized by Outsourced America. Who will be next?

Of course. Republicans are actually happy that Detroit failed.

 

I would tend to disagree (on a lot of statements here) ... Detroit was destabilized by greed. The auto industry was destroyed from within both by inept management and unreasonable union demands. In downsizing the industry pulled out of the union strong Detriot area for both manufacturing and the supplies. Huge layoffs and unemployment sucked the economy dry and without a large tax basis the payouts were far greater than the income ... the result was just as inevidable as any household that spend more than it makes over time.