Posted on 07/19/2013 3:53:53 PM PDT by jocon307
Detroit just became the biggest city to file for bankruptcy in America. ....Many people are hoping that bankruptcy, the largest of its kind on U.S. soil, will give Detroit another chance. But that'll remain wishful thinking until Detroit reverses its backward economic strategy.
Every mayor for the last two decades has tried to jump-start Detroit by reviving its crumbling downtown. In the 1990s, Dennis Archer erected stadiums and casinos. His successor, Kwame Kilpatrick (now serving time on federal extortion and racketeering charges) hosted mega-events....
Since then, however, things have only gotten worse as more residents have fled and city services have deteriorated. Why? Because these shoots were Astroturf, not a spontaneous response to actual need. Worse, they were a wealth transfer from the average taxpayers to the rich who patronize these high-end stores.
Indeed, even as Forbes [magazine] was praising Detroit's artificial green shoots, city regulations were busy nipping the real ones like Pink FlamInGo, a Latin-fusion food vendor responding to real market demand.
These regulations barred street vendors from selling any hot fare except hotdogs (but without sauerkraut) and that only in 16 approved locations. Pink FlamInGo built a roaring business by ignoring these rules — until the city shut it down.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
But it tells what I think is an overlooked aspect of the Detroit story. The determination of the big shots to keep the little guy in his place.
My kid has me doing “social media” for my new biz, so I put this on facebook and twitter (oy!) today, then I said....hey, my FReeper FRiends need to see this piece too!
Detroit isn’t going away. Leaner and meaner would be the way to go but it will remain for the same reason New Orleans still exists.
Its a major port city and the second busiest freight crossing on the continent. The fact that Canada is building a second span across the Detroit river tells us how important that crossing is to them.
Detroit shut down street vendors and pushed for casinos. If you look hard enough, you just might see a lesson there.
They have filled their pockets at the expense of the people they were supposed to represent and the city that was in their care.
They are robber barons of the present time and the people were too dumb or uneducated to realize it and kept electing them.
Flame away!!!!!!
Bull. Doze. It.
http://youngcons.com/msnbc-political-analyst-detroit-is-what-happens-when-government-is-too-small/
Does she really believe this?????? LOL!
Well, if this goes the way of the California municipal bankruptcies, they will screw over the creditors but keep all their expensive union salaries and pensions for one last PAHTY.
Nuke ‘em.
Maybe we are building the second bridge so we can, on occasion as it is required, release the hounds to chase back the denizens that threaten to leave Detroit and come to Canada.
Let’s see.
STILL no industry.
STILL no tax base.
Same folks in office making policy.
Same folks voting for them.
So, after Detroit screws the bond-holders and pensioners, how is this bankruptcy going to fix anything? Or will they get their shovels out and start digging themselves a new hole?
well, they could just raise taxes on the three people left in Detroit who work.
Corruption takes many faces, my friend, many faces.
“But it tells what I think is an overlooked aspect of the Detroit story. The determination of the big shots to keep the little guy in his place.”
How’s that different from anyplace in the US? The number of self employed people in the US is at it’s lowest in 8 years.
I fear that Bambi will bail them out with “too big to fail” and we’ll all get tapped, more and more.
Why flame you? You’re speaking the truth. We don’t have free enterprise: it’s crony capitalism.
“The number of self employed people in the US is at it’s lowest in 8 years.”
I am surprised to see that! I’ve been thinking we’ll all be self-employed real soon, like I am now. Self/un-employed.
We might be having a growing “gray market”, that wouldn’t surpised me, and I’d be a dollar to a donut that will soon increase muchly.
BTW - meant to give a tip o’the hat to Instapundit for this piece.
The Ambassador bridge owner Matty Maroun is one of those faces. He’s one of America’s wealthiest men yet owns many of the collapsing industrial sites and train station that so many like to point to as what Detroit is.
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