So Long Detroit Tuesday, July 23, 2013, Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog
A century ago it was the lure of work that drew people from rural areas and far away countries to American cities. The big cities had jobs. Unlike rural areas, they had such high concentrations of them that if you moved there, then you might be able move from job to job without having to turn hobo and travel to find work. The big city offered workers to employers and employment to workers. Bild entfernt (keine Rechte) That arrangement worked when cities were places where things were made. A century ago the New York City waterfront was crowded with ships bringing in cargoes. During WW2, it was filled with entire fleets that were being constructed there. Today the river traffic consists of tour boats or pleasure craft, supplemented by the occasional EPA ship hunting for pollution in the river.
The waterfront was a hangout for the homeless, the modern hobo who doesn't look for work, in the 80s. It's being transformed into bike lanes and garden spot cafes now. That is the city in miniature. Either it's decrepit or ornamental. It just isn't utilitarian. It's not really good for anything practical anymore. Even assuming that we were going to build some fleets, we wouldn't do it in New York.
So the question isn't why did Detroit go bankrupt. The real question is why wouldn't it. Detroit was once known for making things. Now its most famous remaining industry puts together car parts and while it's more than a lot of cities have, it's not nearly enough to subsidize a large population that doesn't work or pay taxes. A population of hobos who never need to look for work.
The only real things keeping American cities from going bankrupt are inertia and some fancy cultural footwork.
The city has three types of people. Those who work. Those who work for the government. Those who don't work. Those who don't work and those who work for the government are a net loss. They can be used to obtain various funds from the national government, but the funds are never enough to cover their cost.
Some of those who do work are still a net loss, because they use more services than they pay for, others pay more in taxes than they get or cost, but considering the level of expenses required to maintain a city and the small amounts that trickle back to cities from up the government river, it becomes harder and harder for even the middle class to pay its way.
To deal with this dilemma, cities did what so many brands did, they began upselling their lifestyle to attract a younger and wealthier elite that could inject enough money into the system to subsidize all the public housing, public schools and public everything. Some cities succeeded at it, but all they really did was prolong the inevitable. Others failed miserably.
Detroit's reconstruction plan hinges on somehow attracting a chunk of that crowd. It's just not going to happen. Its bankruptcy and proposed reemergence is a corporate strategy. Shake loose some of the pension weight and figure out a way to rebrand Detroit as a place for social media companies to set up shop. And then solicit more investment to really turn things around.
After the long struggle into and out of bankruptcy, Detroit will still be a failed city that has no future because it has no purpose.
ZitatThe social safety net is really there to manage the problems caused by a dysfunctional population.
There have been many articles recently about the death of Detroit.
Yes, it's dying.
Is there a way to pull a trigger and put it out of its misery?
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." Thomas Jefferson
"If people can’t trust not only the executive branch but also don’t trust Congress, and don’t trust federal judges, to make sure that we’re abiding by the Constitution with due process and rule of law, then we’re going to have some problems here." - Barack Obama, June 7, 2013
ZitatThe social safety net is really there to manage the problems caused by a dysfunctional population.
There have been many articles recently about the death of Detroit.
Yes, it's dying.
Is there a way to pull a trigger and put it out of its misery?
ZitatWe have gone from the city as a model of industrial production to the city as a model of industrial social welfare. The former can pay for the latter, but the latter cannot pay for the former. Urban social welfare began with attempts at remedying the plight of the workers. But there are fewer and fewer workers.
Detroit couldn't get its streetlights working, but had a large body of social welfare administrating the entire mess. Any reconstruction plan will run up against the same limits. Detroit will still be the city it was, because it is a territory that has lost its purpose. Its only reasons for being are inertia and guilt.
Twinkies could be turned around by dumping unions and launching a new ad campaign, but cities don't work that way. Even reinvented, Detroit will still be what it was.
Quote: FP123 wrote in post #3 Twinkies could be turned around by dumping unions and launching a new ad campaign, but cities don't work that way. Even reinvented, Detroit will still be what it was.
Thank you.
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." Thomas Jefferson
"If people can’t trust not only the executive branch but also don’t trust Congress, and don’t trust federal judges, to make sure that we’re abiding by the Constitution with due process and rule of law, then we’re going to have some problems here." - Barack Obama, June 7, 2013
The people left Detroit. Not all of them, but much of the productive population packed up and hit the road leaving behind a city of illiterates and the public employees designated to care for them. There were too many public employees, not enough people and very few taxpayers.
We left in 1961. My mother didn't want to leave but my father saw all this coming. I also remember him saying "One days robots will run everything" in 1979, a few months before he died.
Goodbye Detroit...and thanks Daddy, for getting us out of there.
“Ideas are far more powerful than guns. We don't allow our enemies to have guns, why should we allow them to have ideas?” Joseph Stalin
RIGHT'S RIGHT 
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Tue Jul 23, 2013 8:04 am
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