Detroit, bankrupt & in ruins.

[RichardR]

I didn't see any other topics posted on the city of Detroit yet, figured I'd go ahead and get the ball rolling.

Here we have one of the largest & formerly one of the most prosperous industrial powerhouse cities in America, literally laying in ruins, completely unable to pay its debt, unable to meet payrolls, barely able to provide its citizens even the most basic services such as water and electricity & the President, his DOJ and "J4T folk" are marching in the streets of 100 other cities, over an aquital in a local, clear case of self-defense, in the state of FL?

I cannot help but notice almost zero media coverage, POTUS comments or DOJ investigations being launched into why Detroit is in the shape that it is in, is it just me or does this whole J4T fiasco/circus seem to be a "purposely manufactured distraction" to anyone else? How else could the city of Detroit filing for bankruptcy not possibly not be the biggest news story on the planet?

[Garufa]

Maybe because it is a huge embarassment to liberals, unions and democrats in general.

 

Don't fret, I'm sure we the federal taxpayers will bail them out, unless Michigan just has some really crappy senators.

[TripleDigitRide]

They can thank democrats and unions. Similar too the recent housing collapse, Detroit was living in its very own bubble. They've never been able to recover from the burst.
Edited July 20, 2013 by TripleDigitRide

[Guest ThePunisher]

I saw a clip on Fox where a black man was interviewed saying that nobody with any sense would open a grocery store or any retail business b/c they would steal everything in the store.

[Hiker]

It is a very sad situation. I grew up just outside Flint MI and that city has similar issues. Flint's nick name is Buick Town. The economies are based on the automotive industry. The reason I left in 1981 was there were no jobs. Flint had 25% unemployment at that time. These economies have been depressed for years.

[VERO1]

They can't be bankrupt!  Obama swore in a speech awhile back, that he would never stand by and allow thatto happen!

[Guest nra37922]

Isn't New Fallujah just outside of Detroit?

[wjh2657]

Detroit failed because they were a one industry town. All subsidiary industries were attached to the auto industry too. I lived in Toledo (for all purposes a suburb of Detroit!) and I worked at Kaiser Willys. The Automobile Industry failed to read the market, got arrogant and depended on crony Capitalism to survive. Other auto manufacturers, located in other states, read the market and produced the cars people really wanted and at prices they could afford. Chrysler and GMC lost out. Their truck divisions were all that kept them alive.

 

I drove a 55 Ford Crown Victoria in 1960-1963. After that I always drove a GMC product, either a Buick, GMC Truck or a Chevrolet. For the first time in 50 years I have gone back to Ford and I bought a 2013 Ford Focus. It wasn't a political decision. I drove all of the cars and the Ford was the car that  best met my needs .

 

Businesses don't exist to create jobs. They exist to produce a product or service that will sell and make a profit. Business CEOs, shareholders and Unions alike share the blame for the failure of the Detroit Auto Industry. Greed and ignorance of market mechanisms on all of their parts doomed Detroit.

Edited July 21, 2013 by wjh2657

[Rightwinger]

Yup

[rugerla1]

Yep, sickening, just like almost everything else I hear when I turn on the tv these days. But a thug put down a couple of years before it would've happened anyway, is the smoke and mirrors to hide it all.

[RichardR]

Unfortunately the rest of America 2.0 is traveling down the exact same "road to ruin" that Detroit blundered down.

The same social/political/economic policies & problems that have destroyed Detroit (corruption, crime, white-flight, loss of jobs, unsustainable debt, etc) are mimicked in almost every city & town across the nation, as well as now being implemented on an even grander, national scale, the forecast for our future appears to be one of only despair & desperation, unless drastic measures are taken soon.

I do not believe that the majority of American people understand the gravity of the situation, let alone understand what is required to reverse our nation's demise as a "super-power" which oddly enough many on the left (like our POTUS) actually desire.

There however is also a very good possibility that the hefty burden of the nation's decline will cause the ultimate balkanization of our union into seperate "nation-states".

I do not believe that this can be done peacefully, resulting in yet another war of succession, the left desperately needs to continue to hold the productive members of society captive for their beloved parasites to continue to feed off of.

[mikegideon]

Dipshits to the rescue...

 

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/07/20/Biden-Feds-Might-Bail-Out-Detroit

[RichardR]

Dip####s to the rescue...

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/07/20/Biden-Feds-Might-Bail-Out-Detroit

Yup, nothing a healthy-heaping of continuous federal wealth redistubution can't fix, eh comrade?

[enfield]

Detroit failed because of black thuggery.  The auto industry had nothing to do with Detroit's failure.  The media are trying to blame it on everything from unions to 'white flight' to white racists to the auto companies, but Coleman Young started it, the voters were the enablers, race was the weapon and Obama's hit to the economy in 2009 accelerated the collapse.  The loss of businesses and population were a reaction to the way Detroit was run.  A REACTION - not the cause.

 

It was inevitable and I'm glad to see it happen.  If the federal government can restrain itself from bailing out Detroit, maybe some good will come of the bankruptcy.  If they're bailed out they'll learn nothing.

[Dolomite_supafly]

This has a much larger impact than just Detroit. When the feds come in and save Detroit then every other city having financial problems will now file hoping the feds will help them out. There will be a rush to file by all these cities in hopes of getting a bailout before the well runs dry. Every city, large or small, will want the same treatment as Detroit and the nation would not be able to bear that burden.

[enfield]

Due to the sensitive issue of Black racism, the thousands of thieves who stole the assets of Detroit will never be prosecuted.  They're prosecuting a few at the top - Kilpatrick, Ferguson, etc., but the little guys who feathered their nests with the tax and loan proceeds will get away with their crimes.

[greenego]

Middle class whites started moving out in the 60s after the riots. I remember the headlines in the local paper "Detroit's nice neighborhoods a burning HELL". Middle class blacks soon followed. Auto industry started moving south away from unions. Detroit's problems have been in the making for 50 years. Too bad the short sighted political leaders didn't see it coming. Now they are faced with a lot of retirees losing pensions. Any state or federal aid will be a band aid. Unless they can increase revenue, ie taxes, their problem won't go away. It's going to be hard to increase the tax base without new jobs and industry going in. Poor people out of work don't pay taxes.  

[TMF]

Too bad the short sighted political leaders didn't see it coming.

I don't think they cared. As long as they got theirs, why does it matter if they screw over everyone else? Obama is a good example. If he was concerned about his legacy, he wouldn't be doing 99% of the stuff he does.

Even if things go to hell, Great Depression hell, the ruling class of America will always be okay. They always have been, through every government created crisis in our history. As long as they have power they don't really care. This is why we can use that against them. Remove every incumbent from power. Things would change, quick.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

It was greatly populated at one time by southerners looking for a leg up.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yBVAyrqwwU

[Erik88]

I went there twice in 2011, talk about depressing. I've talked about it on here before so I won't beat a dead horse but that city is an absolute armpit. I will say that during the summer it was obviously a lot less dreary than when I went around Christmas. 

 

That being said, I was actually more nervous this past March when we stayed in a really bad part of Savannah GA. Talk about ghetto. Even my GF was requesting to be in control of my Ruger LCR during the trip and she doesn't even have her permit yet.

[RichardR]

Welp from an anthropological standpoint I'd say it was "tribalism" that ultimately destroyed Detroit.

Tribalism is really the correct term, unfortunately the term racism has incorrectly replaced it, but it does not accureately reflect the proper dynamics of what is currently happening in American society, because it only reflects a single biased side of the equasion.

IMHO the American melting pot experiment has been a massive failure, for what ever reasons folks simply refuse to shed their smaller tribes identities/loyalties in favor of a larger national, "unhyphenated-American" one.

The corruption, discrimination, chronyism, etc that goes hand in hand with ardent tribalism, be it racial, political, ethnic, religious, etc, tribalism is what destroyed Detroit & is currently destroying the cohesiveness of our "American fellowship" as a whole.

I fear that the balkanization of the United States of America is almost inevitable at this point.

[Guest nra37922]

Greed, PC and pandering killed the golden goose.  The country can still be fixed but the cure is going to cause a LOT of pain and suffering but the longer we wait the tougher it is going to be.  Its going to entail cuts, cuts and MORE cuts with some programs going the way of the dinosaur and leaders with the gonads to do the right thing and not the political thing,

 

Course we could all to the 'safe' thing and get our kids and grandkids to lean the Koran in Spanish.

[RichardR]

Welp they haven't bothered to write, let alone pass an actual federal budget since Obongo took office, he & his cronies just spend whatever whenever with zero regard for national debt or deficit, it is hard to make "cuts" when there is no actual budget.

It has gotten so brazen that they aren't even bothering with "pretending" to act responsible with our money anymore.

[tnguy]

It's an epic failure of government intrusiveness into civil life. Clearly the obvious solution is that they need more of it.

[johnboy]

Didn't obama say once that he single handedly saved Detroit with his bailout?