Posted on 07/24/2013 7:22:46 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I’m sad. Detroit is my native city. It’s decline from being arguably the world’s richest city to being America’s “first Third Word city” is tragic, politically criminal, and a warning to other Americans.
The official declaration of Detroit’s bankruptcy last week could not have come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the Motor City’s atrocious financial condition. The city had no hope of ever recovering from its colossal over-indebtedness, and without a central bank standing by to create fiat credit to augment its insufficient revenue—the scheme that is the only thing keeping the even more colossally over-indebted national government solvent—the only question was when someone would pull the plug.
Fiscally speaking, Detroit had been in the “walking dead” category for years. Last Thursday’s announcement by Detroit’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, finally acknowledged the inescapable facts.
Clearly, some Michiganders are still in denial and refuse to face those facts. Last Friday, Ingham County Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina insisted that the Chapter 9 bankruptcy declaration be withdrawn, stating the Michigan constitution forbids any action that would decrease the pension benefits of public employees. In the first place, Judge Aquilina should read my article about will and abandon the delusion that a constitution can alter reality by making nonexistent funds magically appear; in the second, it is an unjust constitution that confers a protection on public employees that private-sector employees don’t have. A sounder constitution would have prohibited the city government from gaining control of employees’ retirement funds contributions and instead have mandated that those contributions all go into a private fund in the workers’ names where the city couldn’t touch them.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
In general, an apostrophe before the “s” indicates a singular possessing something, while an apostrophe after an “s” indicates the plural possessing something—e.g. “the soldier’s guns” vs. “the soldiers’ guns.” Contractions are another use, and the contraction “it is” tends to cause many mistakes because it involves an “s”.
perhaps he had it right and an editor “fixed” it for him!
Geron, the widespread grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors we see, are signs of decline in our culture which many of us object to. I don't see these objections as any different from objecting to other signs of societal degradation.
For myself, I appreciate it when someone points out an error that I've made, because I support the health of our native tongue.
hmmmmm, then the below is correct usage? I am certainly no expert on grammar, lol. And I avoid contractions as much as I can since I was taught (again back in grade school) that contractions were for lazy writers. I expect things to heat up if I understood you correctly and the below is correct usage. I look forward to getting a lesson on English grammar.
the world’s richest city
Agreed—and that the error is in an article by someone who is Harvard and Oxford educated (literature at Oxford no less!) is alarming, unless it was the editor who “fixed” it for him. On the other hand, since he is a professor he probably sees apostrophes abused thousands of times each year, which may offer some excuse.
This is a good article. Gets to the heart of the matter.
The Net is, alas, overrun with Punctuation and Spelling Nazis. . . (sigh)
Detroit went Galt 30 years ago: we’re only being ALLOWED to notice it now. . .
All true, but if we did this on every thread - there would be no room to discuss anything else.
I very much agree with you, with the minor exception of silly spelling errors. I always try to thank the person correcting my poor grammar or an incorrect fact. We all know the subject of this article (the judge whos' name I can not recall) is a idiot. But how many of us know the correct use of an apostrophe?
It’s good that you focused on the real substance of this story, rather than dwelling upon the more arcane matter of the article’s punctuation.
Yes— world’s is correct usage—worlds’ would indicate that the city belonged to multiple worlds.
My grammar is by no means perfect—I’m only 43 and things had slipped a great deal by the 70’s and 80’s [another usage of apostrophes], but as part of my job involves grading papers I keep a few books handy to refer to when I am inclined to use the red pen but have doubts.
“Lighten up, France’s”?
If I read the novel correctly, it took John twelve years to turn off the lights in NYC.
Very interesting, thanks for the lesson. Just one quick observation. Is “The world’s a mean place” correct usage or would that be a misuse of a contraction? tia.
Excellent suggestion, however I feel the need to point out that far too many FReepers also continually make quite annoying and far more blatant errors when posting, such as the moronic “looser” statement. They seem to have no idea how quickly that relates their postings to the ‘Rachael Jeantel’ (sp?) level for those of us seeking some intelligent discourse.
I will - the apostrophe is used to indicate the possessive, it is not used to make a noun plural.
Examples of the possessive are: “in England’s green and pleasant realm”, or “the cat’s meow”, or “tell who cleft the devil’s foot”. The word “of” is implied with the possessive: the realm of (belonging to) England; the meow of the cat; the foot of the devil.
The apostrophe is also used to indicate a contraction, or a dropped letter: can’t for cannot; wouldn’t for would not; it’s for it is. Many here at FR confuse the contraction for “it is” for the preposition “its”, which belongs in the same category as his, hers, ours and theirs. So you write, “it’s raining in my heart” to describe what is happening, and “when the disease reaches stage four, its prognosis is terminal.”
The apostrophe is never used to make a noun plural. If we write about the Nazis, the Clintons, the Kennedys, the Obamas - an S is added to the end of the name. In writing the plural of a common noun, like dog, boy, car, just add an S: dogs, boys, cars. If the noun ends in a Y, like gypsy, you drop the y and add IES - gypsies.
If one is writing a piece that includes informal dialogue, the usage would be entirely correct. In more formal writing, there are only a handful of contractions that should be used, but it is not the end of the world if less formal style creeps in, though if by chance context does not make clear which of two possible usages is meant, it can lead to confusion.
E.g. —Dorothy said “The world’s green—I think I’ll die of happiness.”
Does Dorothy mean that the world is green and she likes the colour [I write from Canada], or is Dorothy an avid golfer who has just hit a shot on the best green she has ever seen?
Maybe I’m missing something here. There are two apostrophes in the third sentence. Which one are you referring to? I did well in English in school but maybe something has changed regarding the possessive rules and the use of apostrophes since I graduated almost 50 years ago.
Anyone can and does make typos and spelling errors on the internet, even publications. I see it all the time. I make them myself sometimes even after proof reading my typing. I catch typographical or spelling errors in published hardback books on occasion too. But that doesn’t automatically void the content of a book or article or comments or posts just because you happen to catch an error. It certainly doesn’t necessarily make the authors complete idiots either.
I think you doth project too much.
Ok thanks, now I know why I was taught to avoid contractions.
A misplaced apostrophe is a minor distraction when compared with some of the more egregious errors that appear these days in every major print medium. Examples include misuse of the words there, their, and they're and marshall vs. martial law. Such errors do distract and detract from the message since they indicate either or both a poor education and greater than warranted trust in spell-check. Besides, even the bright and well educated sometimes just screw up. Try reading how even the best educated pre-Websters and Oxford dictionaries English speakers spelled (or is it spelt?). However they did it the message nearly always got across.
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