Sep 17 2013
Where Does Liberalism Lead? Bankruptcy, Rot and Decay
Where do liberal/socialistic policies end? Is it Nirvana or Death & Decay?
It seems the answer to this question can be found in what once was an economic powerhouse in the heartland of America:
Detroit is broke, but it didn’t have to be. An in-depth Free Press analysis of the city’s financial history back to the 1950s shows that its elected officials and others charged with managing its finances repeatedly failed — or refused — to make the tough economic and political decisions that might have saved the city from financial ruin.
Instead, amid a huge exodus of residents, plummeting tax revenues and skyrocketing home abandonment, Detroit’s leaders engaged in a billion-dollar borrowing binge, created new taxes and failed to cut expenses when they needed to. Simultaneously, they gifted workers and retirees with generous bonuses. And under pressure from unions and, sometimes, arbitrators, they failed to cut health care benefits — saddling the city with staggering costs that today threaten the safety and quality of life of people who live here.
The numbers, most from records deeply buried in the public library, lay waste to misconceptions about the roots of Detroit’s economic crisis.
…
Decades of mismanagement added to Detroit’s fiscal woes. The city notoriously bungled multiple federal aid programs and overpaid outrageously to incentivize projects such as the Chrysler Jefferson North plant. Bureaucracy bogged down even the simplest deals and contracts. In a city that needed urgency, major city functions often seemed rudderless.
When all the numbers are crunched, one fact is crystal clear: Yes, a disaster was looming for Detroit. But there were ample opportunities when decisive action by city leaders might have fended off bankruptcy.
If Mayors Jerome Cavanagh and Roman Gribbs had cut the workforce in the 1960s and early 1970s as the population and property values dropped. If Mayor Dennis Archer hadn’t added more than 1,100 employees in the 1990s when the city was flush but still losing population. If Kilpatrick had shown more fiscal discipline and not launched a borrowing spree to cover operating expenses that continued into Mayor Dave Bing’s tenure. Over five decades, there were many ‘if only’ moments.
BUT – those Political leaders believed in the infallible wisdom of government run solutions. Those leaders brow beat industry, suffocated the individual with layers of Nanny-Government, and in the end were as corrupt and callous as the robber barons of old.
If you want to see where DC is taking this great nation, just read this article and realize the parallels that are even now rotting out the most powerful city and country in the world.
And to leading the life of a no_limit_nigga!
Kind of pathetically funny to watch these groups going to court, trying to stop the bankruptcy filing from proceeding. As if all that is wrong is that those Big, Big, Meanies filed for Bankruptcy, and if they only can make the Bad Bankruptcy Man go away all of a sudden Money will show up out of nowhere and they can all live happily ever after.
pathetic.
The question, AJ, is why do they not see it. The politicians would rather scavenge from a rotting hulk than try to create or maintain a valuable property. The people who suffer decline under liberal rule seem to be oblivious that life is getting worse and more and more hopeless.
Detroit is not alone. Chicago is close on their heels with huge unfunded pension liabilities:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/09/fiscal-crisis-in-chicago-pensions-31.html
States like Illinois, Rhode Island, and California are passing the point of no return.
But, the liberals do not see the disasters they have created or the looming collapse. We have a President who resorts to name calling toward anyone who is unwilling to spend money the federal government does not have. No one talks about an unfunded Federal pension problem, but I am betting we have a huge one.
It just seems to be a hopeless task to shake some sense into the liberals and get them to see that there is no unlimited pot of money. Getting them to understand incentives matter, is like talking to a wall. When did such smart people become so stupid.
Not sure if its the media or the system but here in America there seems to be an inability for the people, the bureaucracy, the media, the attorneys to see the inherent value in the concept of “government reform”. Having come from Australia, and seen certain other parliamentary systems at work, the concept of “reform” is part and parcel of the way in which the people and those that inhabit government and institutions “see” the process of governing. “Reform” is understood to be a special type of “spring cleaning” for government – especially when they waste, spend, corrupt and miss allocate taxes. For some reason, I never see the term “reform” used in the US. I’ve only been 11 years so maybe such a thing has existed in the past. But right now, the US Federal and quite a few State Governments need very healthy doses of “reform”.
@Rick C – they became so stupid as they went through the American education system where all of those fundamental truths that used be taught have been replaced with post-modernist claptrap.
“Reform” USED to be a time honored American political value, too.
Nowadays the average voter responds to the idea of reform in this way: “Wow, you know that reform idea sound pretty – Oh LOOK! One of the Kardashians let a nip show, OHMYGOD!!! Wait, what were you talking about again?”
Here’s what the rational minority in this country is up against:
“Students at the University of Southern California believe President Obama still deserves his Nobel Peace Prize, despite his stated preference for war with Syria.
How did they defend this view? They couldn’t.
In a video interview with Katherine Timpf of Campus Reform, USC students expressed confidence that Obama was still worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize he won just a few months after taking office in 2009.
“I’m a huge Obama fan and yes, I think he does,” said one female student.
But when asked what Obama had done to promote peace, she confessed she couldn’t think of any examples.
Another student said she supported everything that he was doing. His very existence was creating peace, she said.
“I just feel like in general being a good guy, it’s just creating a lot more peace and like, mellow,” she said. “The fact that he is for the people creates peace in and of itself.”
When asked how she could support Obama’s Syrian policies but oppose Bush’s Iraq policies, she justified the contradiction by stating, “Bush, I just didn’t like him.”
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/09/19/students-at-usc-obamas-nobel-peace-prize-totally-deserved-but-cant-explain-why/
I know people from Detroit. And they tell me it’s been like this for a long, long time (decades). It’s just finally caught up to them in a way they can’t tax their way out of because there is nobody left there to tax.
But as far as the rot and decay….that’s been ongoing for decades. Least we believe MSM’s points that this is all republicans fault because of pushing for federal budget cuts in the last few years.
You can only kick the can down the road till you run out of road, or the can goes off a cliff.
[…] the direct result of not stopping the spending madness when there was time left to avoid disaster, as I posted recently: Detroit is broke, but it didn’t have to be. An in-depth Free Press analysis of the city’s […]
DC,
I think the point of the article is that this was decades in the making, and it was the fault of leaders.
Boiled Frogs….