Zero Hedge:
It is so sad to watch one of America’s greatest cities die a horrible death. Once upon a time, the city of Detroit was a teeming metropolis of 1.8 million people and it had the highest per capita income in the United States. Now it is a rotting, decaying hellhole of about 700,000 people that the rest of the world makes jokes about. On Thursday, we learned that the decision had been made for the city of Detroit to formally file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. It was going to be the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United States by far, but on Friday it was stopped at least temporarily by an Ingham County judge.
She ruled that Detroit’s bankruptcy filing violates the Michigan Constitution because it would result in reduced pension payments for retired workers. She also stated that Detroit’s bankruptcy filing was “also not honoring the (United States) president, who took (Detroit’s auto companies) out of bankruptcy“, and she ordered that a copy of her judgment be sent to Barack Obama. How “honoring the president” has anything to do with the bankruptcy of Detroit is a bit of a mystery, but what that judge has done is ensured that there will be months of legal wrangling ahead over Detroit’s money woes.
It will be very interesting to see how all of this plays out. But one thing is for sure – the city of Detroit is flat broke. One of the greatest cities in the history of the world is just a shell of its former self. The following are 25 facts about the fall of Detroit that will leave you shaking your head…
1) At this point, the city of Detroit owes money to more than 100,000 creditors.
2) Detroit is facing $20 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities. That breaks down to more than $25,000 per resident.
3) Back in 1960, the city of Detroit actually had the highest per-capita income in the entire nation.
4) In 1950, there were about 296,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit. Today, there are less than 27,000.
5) Between December 2000 and December 2010, 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in the state of Michigan were lost.
6) There are lots of houses available for sale in Detroit right now for $500 or less.
7) At this point, there are approximately 78,000 abandoned homes in the city.
8) About one-third of Detroit’s 140 square miles is either vacant or derelict.
9) An astounding 47 percent of the residents of the city of Detroit are functionally illiterate.
10) Less than half of the residents of Detroit over the age of 16 are working at this point.
This judge sounds like she’s punch drunk on the Koolaid. Her priorities are an example of justice blinded by political bias (or she’s pandering to the pension recipients). Where would she suggest a bankrupt Metropolis find the funds to pay these pensions? Trash pick-up? Street cleaning? Sewage treatment? Will she give up her pay for the pension kitty? Lay-off police, firemen, parking meter monitors, librarians, school teachers, etc…? What “sequester” like cuts would she suggest to get the city government back into the black? What does she consider “non-essential” spending that can be put on hold? What city buildings would she suggest be sold off to fund nearly fifty years of deficit spending.
Take a good look at Detroit folks, because all this entitlement largess created by Democrats to buy votes, will have the entire nation in the red for generations, with no mention ever on how Democrats would dig us of all this debt.
THEY SHOULD JUST SHUT THE TOWN EMPTY IT FROM CIVILIANS
THE UNIONS KILLED IT BY DEMANDING TOO MUCH WITHOUT LOOKING AT CONSEQUENCES, WHICH NOW THEY HAVE TO ASSUME, NOT THE OTHER CITIZENS.
NO OTHER CITY OR STATE IS IMMUNE FROM THE FUTURE CONSEQUENCES
IF THEY DID THE SAME EXCESS PROMISES JUST TO BE ELECTED,
THERE IS WHERE THE STAND YOUR GROUND FROM THE LEADERSHIP OF THE STATE SHOULD BE APPLY WHEN DEALING WITH UNIONS DEMANDS,
The plastic surgery challenging Judge Rosemary Aquilina told assistant state Attorney General Brian Devlin. “It’s also not honoring the president, who took Detroit’s auto companies out of bankruptcy.” How does a goof like this get to make decisions on people’s lives?
Half the population is illiterate.
Half the city is unemployed.
How will ANY debt be repaid? It won’t. And neither will any newly created debt. This uneducated judge’s ignorance will only aggravate the inevitable outcome.
Detroit’s implosion will highlight the abuse and the pillaging of all pension funds across America, which has occurred over 40 years. Apparently we’ve forgotten the 1980s and the attacks on corporate boards by union and liberal backed raiders pretending they were after increased shareholder value. The result pushed executives to think very short term – running their companies based on 30 day windows and daily share prices. And let’s not forget the heists by Wall Street insiders who charged the pension funds 2% plus 20% of profits, or the idiot pension fund managers who were sucked in by the subprime mortgage schemes and euphoria of the housing bubble.
No fund is fully funded. The major systems can’t even get to 80% ratios, nevermind 100%. This is a enormous calamity waiting to hit the baby boomer generation. Detroit is lifting the veil on this catastrophe, but even then, the view of the pension problem is clouded by all of the other fraud and mismanagement which has run Detroit for a half a century.
This was my birthplace. What a tragic example of the leftist death spiral in action. Will this cause anyone to catch their breath and look around at the misbegotten policies of the blue state model? Doubtful. Too many have their heads buried in the trough.
Detroit represents a real life example of what politics and entitlements will do to a city. Now see what it will do to America!! What happened to 0-blama’s campaign claim of the success of Detroit and the auto industry? I’m sure he will blame someone else besides he and the democrats incompetence!!
the greed of Those put in POWER ALONG THE UNION BOSSES DEMANDING WHAT A COMPANY CANNOT GIVE,
THAT’S WHERE TO BLAME, THE FALL OF A CITY, IS A TREND TO BE REPLICATED TO OTHER, AS TRUE AS A BROKEN LINK OF A STRONGEST CHAIN
IS RENDERED WEAK ALL OVER THE LINKS,