3 huge cities flirting with bankruptcy (NYC, Chicago, LA)

MSN ^ | 3/03/14 | Karen Riccio

[Libloather]

Detroit's looming bankruptcy is making news again, this time focusing on current restructuring plans aimed to wipe out $18 billion in debt by axing pension checks of city retirees, including police and fire.

Massive long-term retirement and healthcare promises were by no means solely responsible for the city's fall, but these massive pensions coupled with a tax base weakened by high unemployment and housing vacancies caused the budget to bleed out quicker.

The Michigan city may be the most recent victim of bankruptcy, but many of the 61 largest U.S. cities have adopted the same retirement legacy leading to $118 billion in unfunded healthcare debts. Retired city workers stop contributing to the system; the system keeps paying them; and before you know, a fiscal crisis has begun.

If you think the three cities below are too big to fail, think again.

[kearnyirish2]

I’m glad things are changing in Detroit; I believe a lot of it is tied to depopulation (if you shed the worst gibsmedats then your costs fall and productive people can enter without fear for their personal safety). As far as the problems “have to be fixed”, the Dem solution is to nationalize the poverty industry (eliminating differences between how states pay their gibsmedats - either the welfare type or the workfare type - gubmint workers). In the meantime, the “fix” can take decades, even lifetimes.