Detroit, Bankrupt. Any sympathy ?

It's one city in a vast nation. Are you from Detroit or have relatives that live there? Will it impact you as an individual?

I thought Detroit was a city, not a nation. And I wasn't aware Detroit was doing any warmongering. :-)

I wouldn't be shedding a tear for the city fathers though - decades of poor decisions have brought them to where they are.

C635

stefan idiot jones wrote: »

Detroit has declared itself bankrupt.

I have a great deal of sympathy for the citizens and the American people, but not a lot for the Country itself as they had a huge part in starting the global recession in the first place.

What do you think ? Will you shed a tear for the mighty and powerful warmongering Nation ?

Trying to figure how you seperate the people from the country.

kneemos wrote: »

Trying to figure how you seperate the people from the country.

Trying to figure how you don't..?

Detroit has my sympathy indeed. It's slow death is a symptom if western industrial decline.

It was a dumb idea to make China the worlds manufacturer, besides the fact that it gives a rather unplesant nation huge power (when was the last time anybody heard about the once popular cause of Tibet?), it's a fallacy to imagine that everybody can work in the ICT sector and those that don't can make money selling capuchino's to those that do.

realies wrote: »

What will that actually mean for the people living there ?

Massive cutbacks as the city restructures its costs and debts to something more sustainable.

It's an irreversible spiral for Detroit I feel. The city was so heavily dependent on one single industry, that once that industry pulled out, there was little incentive for other industries to come in because Detroit doesn't have the skills available. As unemployment gets worse, crime increases and government keeps cutting back, those who have any money and relevant skills are quickly leaving for better places, compounding the problem.

Unemployment is high, which means social assistance is high and tax take is low. Unless they can find a way to reverse the trend, it won't be long before detroit is a mostly unemployed ghetto, relying on federal funding to keep going and requiring military and state trooper assistance to police itself.

That said, the days of heavy manufacturing being a country's bread-and-butter, and a person being confined to one industry are long gone. With the right incentives and federal assistance, they should be able to convince low-skill clean industry jobs like call centres to locate themselves in Detroit and provide employment to the existing population.

conorhal wrote: »

Detroit has my sympathy indeed. It's slow death is a symptom if western industrial decline.

It was a dumb idea to make China the worlds manufacturer, besides the fact that it gives a rather unplesant nation huge power (when was the last time anybody heard about the once popular cause of Tibet?), it's a fallacy to imagine that everybody can work in the ICT sector and those that don't can make money selling capuchino's to those that do.

Western production has actually been increasing steadily for years. It just hires less people and doesn't tend to deal in consumer goods that general public notice.

It wasn't an idea to move productions it was simple competition. Detroit car manufacturers were terrible and brought about their own fall. Cars they produced were.

Cities do fail and Detroit has been dying for a long time. It suffers from the doughnut effect. The centre has effectively been evacuated as people moved to the suburbs. The same thing happened in Dublin when the wealth moved to Southside suburbs to avoid rates.

conorhal wrote: »

It was a dumb idea to make China the worlds manufacturer,

China with a population of 1.3 billion and cheap labour made itself a huge exporter and manufacturer. No one sat in a room and decided.

Eminem to buy 8 mile and turn it into slim shady land.

Not the first time a US city faces bankruptcy. New York was on the brink in 1975, even to the extent that city lawyers served bankruptcy papers to the courts, and it recovered stronger and better.
Who knows - it might be the kick in the arse that the city needs.