Detroit bankruptcy: American dream demise

Post Reply New Topic

Same with Pittsburgh and how it sprung back after the local steel industry fell on it's ass.

Seattle was in a similar situation forty years ago. A sign went up that said, "will the last person leaving Seattle please turn out the lights?". Came after Boeing dropped almost 2/3rds of it's workforce over a few years.

But Detroit's problems are deeper. They'll wind up as a city of 500,000+ that is still primarily a poverty reservation for the remaining blacks of the Great Migration. Until the next big thing comes along. Fur trading to kitchen stoves to autos to.....

I saw a documentary/report on Detroit a couple of years ago, and in some neighborhoods most people don't even graduate from highschool. Many girls even got pregnent while they were in school. It seems these kids are set up to fail. Then they tried to get these people to provide for themselves by growing tomatoes in their garden... to do what with, sell to the other paupers? They would be better off giving these people a supply of condoms and a plane ticket to a more prosperous state.

You know, I like how people keep trying to blame modern circumstances and act as if they never saw the eventual collapse of Detroit coming, and yet did nothing to try and even slow it or stop it. West of Pittsburgh around here might be dead, but at least it has a chance should the cities stop squabbling and use their combined leverage.

But for Detroit, I'd have a simple plan of action: Disincorporate, disassemble, disassociate. Removing the area from its reputation wouldn't fix the issue, but I feel that applying much of the materials to other cities and projects would be a better use of it than leaving it all to rot. Let nature reclaim parts of the city and the for people too stubborn to leave, count the heads and make a new city but tell them that they're on their own. And when I say disassemble, I mean that in a rather literal fashion, maximum salvage of useful materials in ready form. What good is a screwdriver when you have to rebuild it? It'd cut down on demolition costs and provide people with something to do and unify over aside from that placebo so lovingly known as 'blind faith toward a deity'.

...Alright, so that likely wouldn't work and I'd be told I don't 'understand' Detroit nor care of its past.

^^^^
What if they just offered everyone on welfare an immediate 5k in cash and a plane ticket to wherever they want to go, on the condition they never return? And they don't need anybody to demolish the city, the buildings will collapse on their own when no one takes care of them.

^^ But will other cites accept the Detroit exiles? Case being in 2005 Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Many people just left the city to move to places like Atlanta or Houston. Locals were not too appreciative of their new neighbors as the fear of crime was heightened as New Orleans was a high-crime city.

^^^^
As American citizens they have the right to move to other states, correct? Too bad if the locals don't like it.
This seems to be one of the problems in the US, some places are just too poor and messed up. Another example is Mississippi, a state that ranks near the top in all the "bad" lists: poverty, highschool dropouts, teenage pregnancies, crime and so on. I don't remember the exact ones, but you get the idea. Of course people could stay there and hope things get better for no reason, or the state (or the federal government) could give them a plane ticket and tell people to f**k off and look for a better place to live. Maybe then their children will grow up in a place where education is better and they will have more favorable odds at getting a job.

Every American-made car or truck that I've owned in 38 years has required a major system replacement within two years of purchase - transmission, cooling system, wiring harness, engine block - even though I've stuck to the maintenance schedules from the owner's manuals.

I've had my Prius for ten years, and haven't had to even change the batteries! Oil, tires, coolant, lamps, brakes ... but no major system failures in 10 years!

There is an interesting documentary on Netflix right now called Detropia, it's about the decline Detroit and the people that still live there.

Detroit is broke, it is not just pensions and bonds, it is day to day living.

The State is not in much better shape. There is no money to stay, leave, much less make repairs.

There are not jobs waiting somewhere else, affordable housing, and about all they have is that Black Culture that did leave the south, seeking a better life.

Two years ago they ran out of money to pick up the dead. The morgue was full, as no one claimed the bodies, and of course paid the fees. Letting the city deal with the dead was one thing poor people did.

The city, after payment, would only release the body to a funeral home, which piled up more fees. The cheapest, cremation, still demanded being embaumed, a casket, something to markup, and you could not supply your own crate.

The remaining people were priced out of dealing with their dead.

There is about twice the city as remaining people. The water mains, sewers, and street lights connect it all. They maintain twice what they need, and that is old. Chest high weeds and brush have taken over abandoned houses, and people still live there, without city services.

The largest Islamic community in North America is in Detroit. Like the Chinese in New York, they are a closed community, that speaks Arabic.

Many are Undocumented Americans.

Many of the Black Community would be in jail if anyone could find them. They can no longer use their names, Social Security Number, fingerprints, DNA.

There is a Hispanic, because they are not growing the weed they smoke, or producing the coke to make crack. It is the Mexican Outlet Store, and it seems every Arab sells cheap booze through a bullet proof window. Blood on the money is no problem.

After Katrina New Orleans only relocated a quarter of that, and many returned. It was enough to spike the murder rate in Houston and Atlanta.

Detroit is something of an Open Jail, and many of the "Better Blacks," have moved back to mississippi. Memphis is just as bad.

This will not be easy.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9sTiB6JAiQ[/youtube]

As I said, it wouldn't be demolition, it'd be mass reuse, disassembly, and recycling if the materials could not be used in their current state. Also, where is a broke city going to get 5k per person? (And why 5k? Most cheap tickets are only a few hundred for one way, if even that.) As I understand, the state of Michigan isn't exactly faring any better, so I don't exactly see anyone loaning that broke state some greenback, and to put the following in an odd metaphor; I don't think other states want to let dangerous criminals from the Abyss escape into the rest of the caves...

What hasn't been discussed is the cost of the wars to the US Government since 911 and whether the rust belt could have been revived and turned around for only a fraction of the money spent on largely fruitless military ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Was it all worth it or has the cost of war destroyed the civilian sphere in the US beyond repair?

I surely was not. We could have nuked our enemies for a fraction of the cost and would have gotten a more certain result.

Not only the wars, we spend somewhere north of $70 billion dollars on foreign aid every year. America needs to embrace the foreign policy of Thomas Jefferson, "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations-entangling alliances with none." America is suffering and we're not any safer for being over there. Let Europe play world savior for a few decades if they want.

There is no reason why an automatic transmission should burn up other than neglect,