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In Four More Years We'll Be Detroit
Townhall.com ^ | November 17, 2012 | John Ransom

Posted on 11/17/2012 7:05:11 AM PST by Kaslin

From one moment to the next the city of Detroit doesn’t know where its next bailout is coming from. Chronically unable to pay its bills, the city looks to the state for cash gifts to stave off default. Operating under the terms of a consent agreement hammered out with the state, Detroit faces fiscal uncertainty largely because it has failed to get adequate concessions from public employee unions that are unsustainable. And those concessions that they have wrested from unions, politicians in Detroit have been unwilling to enforce.     

One prominent Detroit attorney, however, is facing the future of the Motor City with a bit more certainty.

He’s calling upon the city to declare bankruptcy.

"Detroit should go bankrupt," says Douglas Bernstein, according to the Detroit News. Bernstein is a partner in the law firm of Plunkett Cooney who specializes in bankruptcies.  "It would be a recognition that they've hit bottom, and it's a chance to go on the upswing. I don't think they're going to be stigmatized as much as people think…. Otherwise, you're going to go down the path and be in one crisis after another. Yes, it's expensive and it should be a last resort. But at some point, you've had enough."

The bankruptcy would be the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the US.

While we are not at the point yet for the federal government to declare bankruptcy, you may rest assured that that day is coming, because the same forces that are driving Detroit to bankruptcy are driving the US as well.

There are fewer people building things and more people demanding things they didn’t build.  

Whatever else one may say about it, if Obama meant to throw Detroit a fiscal lifeline with the auto bailout, it hasn’t worked. It demonstrates the futility and danger of the federal government commanding and controlling the recovery of any industry- or even the county.

It’s just not going to work out for most of us, but only for a favored few.   

After $85 billion in federal bailout funds for the automakers headquartered in Detroit, there are no fiscal answers to what ails the city and the surrounding areas.  

To demonstrate most clearly why the auto bailout should be considered such a tremendous failure, you only have to consult the numbers.

$80 billion is more money than 14 states annually produce in GDP. Detroit has a population of 700,000. On per capital basis, that means the bailout cost about $112,000 per Detroit resident. Delaware has the greatest per capita annual GDP of any state at $70,000 per resident- only Washington, DC- which is NOT a state, Mr. Obama- at $175,000 in per capita GDP beats the Detroit auto bailout.

Yet, still by most measurements, Detroit is imploding. By June of 2013 it is expected that the city will be short $47 million according to the Detroit Free Press.   

And surrounding communities are also suffering. BusinessWeek reports that “five cities and three school districts [in the Detroit area] have emergency managers, including Flint and Pontiac,” in order to manage the fiscal crisis. The law allowing “emergency managers” with broad authority over fiscal matters, including modifying employee contracts, however, was recently repealed after unions campaigned to protect existing contracts.  

So now Detroit will be short of cash by mid-December and the only way to fix the crisis is by voiding public union contracts, not just modifying them as an emergency manager was able to do.

That means bankruptcy.  

“The state's democratic process succeeded in overturning an emergency manager law whose powers threatened the financial gains of public-sector unions and the political prerogatives of elected officials,” writes Daniel Howes, a columnist for the Detroit News. “But democracy is failing in Detroit, as its metastasizing crisis and the feckless response to it amply demonstrates.”

If at a time when automakers are trumpeting record-setting sales, record profits, record bonuses for their employees, how is it possible that the community at-large is not reaping any of the benefit?

Stimulus anyone?

Because while the auto bailout was a bad idea in any event, one should at least expect that the community as a whole should benefit from the application of community funds to a private venture rather than just benefit a small fraction of say…I don’t know… one percent? There is no other morally defensible reason to bailout out the auto industry unless it was going to benefit the community as a whole.

“We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt. We bet on American workers and American ingenuity,” said the president while making his pitch for reelection, “and three years later, that bet is paying off in a big way."

For whomis it paying off, Mr. President?

Because it’s not paying off for Detroit.

And it won’t pay off for the United States of America.   


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
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1 posted on 11/17/2012 7:05:14 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

What will Detroit be in 4 years?Somalia or worse?


2 posted on 11/17/2012 7:08:45 AM PST by Farmer Dean (stop worrying about what they want to do to you,start thinking about what you want to do to them)
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To: Farmer Dean
What will Detroit be in 4 years?Somalia or worse?

Probably just more depopulated.

3 posted on 11/17/2012 7:11:14 AM PST by SIDENET ("If that's your best, your best won't do." -Dee Snider)
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To: Farmer Dean

Kenya


4 posted on 11/17/2012 7:14:08 AM PST by polkajello
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To: Kaslin

Starve the beast. Let it burn.


5 posted on 11/17/2012 7:21:31 AM PST by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: Kaslin
These small examples of the consequences of out of control govt unions and irresponsible mgmt of govt should be a warning to all of us. The last election has shown they aren't. What I'm worried about is what comes after the collapse.

I don't believe a populace conditioned to expect prosperity with no sacrifice will consider austerity as an option.

6 posted on 11/17/2012 7:24:48 AM PST by wmfights
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To: Kaslin
Detroit, like all Democrat run cities are nothing more then incubators for the parasites and predators created by the policies therein.
7 posted on 11/17/2012 7:27:25 AM PST by JayAr36 ( Political Correctness is the death sentence for America.)
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To: Springman
They could have used a different comparison. We’ve got some cities here that could be used.
8 posted on 11/17/2012 7:28:55 AM PST by McGruff (No New RINOs!)
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To: Farmer Dean

Detroitistan - a turd world city.


9 posted on 11/17/2012 7:31:35 AM PST by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: Kaslin
There are fewer people building things and more people demanding things they didn’t build.

...and others building bureaucracies (that "we the people" had no say in) and getting paid. BIG GOVERNMENT IS CRONY SOCIALISM. Socialism Is Legal Plunder (Bastiat).

“Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed.” - Ayn Rand

Detroit is a microcosm of socialism, a socialist stonghold. Go ahead...ask the voters.

Interesting article, Kaslin. Thanks for posting.

"You didn't build that"...but you did destroy that BUMP!

It's the socialism, stupid. We are paying. DEFUND it.

Prepare. Persevere. DEPOPULATE from the body politic.

10 posted on 11/17/2012 7:33:25 AM PST by PGalt
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To: Kaslin
"There are fewer people building things and more people demanding things they didn’t build. "

The money quote!

11 posted on 11/17/2012 7:33:48 AM PST by Doc Savage ("I've shot people I like a lot more,...for a lot less!" Raylan Givins)
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To: JayAr36

Well said Jay!


12 posted on 11/17/2012 7:34:42 AM PST by Doc Savage ("I've shot people I like a lot more,...for a lot less!" Raylan Givins)
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To: McGruff
They could have used a different comparison.

Why?  Detroit is the perfect example of a city that is totally democratic run, very pro-union, never learns it's lessons, maintains an "entitlement" mentality, has generations of welfare recipients, rewards politicians who are corrupt yet are "diverse", and blames every single problem on racism.

It's where America currently is at, yet Detroit has been doing it since the early 70's.

13 posted on 11/17/2012 7:37:22 AM PST by softwarecreator
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To: Kaslin

In four more years, parts of this country will resemble the Siege of Sarajevo.


14 posted on 11/17/2012 7:50:25 AM PST by Noumenon (As long as you have a rifle, you STILL have a vote.)
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To: Kaslin

OT, but important, contact your congresscritters (IF Repub) and ask them to ‘splain this:

The RNC and DNC made their Consent Decree 30 years ago, in 1982. The agreement in effect gives a carte blanche to the Democrat Party to commit vote fraud in every voting district across America that has, in the language of the Consent Decree, “a substantial proportion of racial or ethnic populations.”

http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/why-the-gop-will-not-do-anything-about-vote-fraud/

Contact the RNC and ask THEM to explain it-tell them you’re changing your affiliation to “Independent” if these are the kind of “deals” they’re making.

http://www.gop.com/contact-us/


15 posted on 11/17/2012 8:08:33 AM PST by Mortrey (Impeach President Soros)
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To: Kaslin
Detroit should have been the poster child for Mitt's campaign. He should have hammered what happened to it and how it happened to it. But the pubbies have no guts and therefore have no glory. And no prospects for getting any given the way they are acting.
16 posted on 11/17/2012 8:36:40 AM PST by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: Kaslin

Move 100,000 South Africans from the Pretoria shantytowns to Detroit. When surveyed by an economist, these Africans wanted to two things: Private property and the rule of law.

These people are tough, they want a better life for themselves and many are entrepreneurs. They could turn Detroit around fast. Maybe we can trade Detroiters for South Africans.


17 posted on 11/17/2012 8:49:35 AM PST by sergeantdave (The FBI has declared war on the Marine Corps)
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To: Kaslin



18 posted on 11/17/2012 9:11:59 AM PST by Bon mots (Abu Ghraib: 47 Times on the front page of the NY Times | Benghazi: 2 Times)
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To: Nuc 1.1

Agreed. The absolute amateurism of Romney’s campaign was breathtaking. You never, ever win by “playing it safe.” The sad part is, whenever Romney tried to be bold - initial Libya comment, Europe trip - he fumbled all over himself and then had the media jump on him, prompting him to cower and go away. While the man may have made an adequate president, he was an extremely lame candidate.


19 posted on 11/17/2012 9:30:35 AM PST by GreatOne (You will bow down before me, Son of Jor-el!)
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To: Kaslin

We almost lost Detroit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLdOJBZRgMs


20 posted on 11/17/2012 9:41:27 AM PST by Colinsky
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