Hey, US Taxpayers, Why Not Bail Out Detroit? (The People, This Time, Not Just the Automakers)

Comments

Because Detroit is full of blah people and poors. They'll just blow it all on menthol Kools and rims for their donks.

Banna on July 19, 2013 at 4:00 PM

Because unlike the car companies, we won't get our money back.

on July 19, 2013 at 4:04 PM

Because Kid Rock.

Good thing we ran out of money to send the second aircraft carrier group to the Middle East. We can use that to rebuild the beaches of New Jersey that will wash away in the next 100 year storm in 2015.

Will in Seattle on July 19, 2013 at 4:05 PM

We can't ever do anything that might make people's lives better because SOSHALLIZMS!!!

Original Andrew on July 19, 2013 at 4:07 PM

Unaided, Detroit stands to have its public assets looted and workers pension funds raided in order to make whole bond holders and other creditors, further diminishing any hope of recovering from the economic storm the city has weathered these past few decades.

You don't seem to understand -- that's the whole point of our nation's "free trade" policies in general, and Michigan's fascist "Emergency Manager" program in particular.

Geocrackr on July 19, 2013 at 4:09 PM

Detroit is home to one of the most corrupt governments I've ever witnessed, and without the funds to supply that corruption.

Michigan's emergency manager is probably no better.

Frying pan, fire.

TheMisanthrope on July 19, 2013 at 4:15 PM

" storm surge of free market globalism "

Wanna bet Goldensteinemberg drives an import?

on July 19, 2013 at 4:16 PM

It's not like Europe and China are going to get rich out of looting Detroit.

Oh, wait, they own the bonds.

Never mind.

Will in Seattle on July 19, 2013 at 4:24 PM

"So what would be so awful about spending $20 billion to help rebuild a major American city?"

Can't have anything interrupt our march toward neofeudalism, that's what.

Linnaeus on July 19, 2013 at 4:27 PM

Cities are obsolete.

Detroit is leading the way by destroying itself.

Let the neighborhoods form their own smaller municipalities within the County.

Smaller more focused government instead of high priced City Halls full of corruption.

Supreme Ruler Of The Universe on July 19, 2013 at 4:32 PM

Because we have been giving the peopel of Detroit free handouts since Johnson's "Great Society" and this is where it has led.

Though I guess we could let DOD buy the whole city and use it for urban combat training.

Cascadian Bacon on July 19, 2013 at 4:35 PM

All you really need to know about Detroit, which is facing a $327 million budget gap, is that last year it was discovered to still be paying for a “horseshoer” (or farrier) on the Detroit Water & Sewer Department (DWSD) payroll. This individual costs some $56,000 in pay and benefits, despite the city not having any horses to shoe in his department.

on July 19, 2013 at 4:36 PM

"Smaller more focused government" is just as corrupt - indeed, more easily corruptible - as "high priced City Halls. You're just arguing for your own petty tyranny over democratic equalization.

Geocrackr on July 19, 2013 at 4:38 PM

#13

You're just gainsaying my argument so you and your cronies can set up the taxpayer for yet another high priced scam bailout of something that should be left for dead.

Supreme Ruler Of The Universe on July 19, 2013 at 4:43 PM

Hah! Our resident psychopath shows, so predictably, that when the only tool you have is a gun, the whole world looks like a target. Way to go, psycho!

Dr_Awesome on July 19, 2013 at 4:46 PM

I can't help interjecting to point out that there is no sense in which the bankruptcy filing has been "tossed out." A county judge in a county that doesn't even border Wayne County, home of Detroit, issued an order instructing the state to dismiss the case. As I pointed out in the comments to the earlier post, this will have zero effect on the bankruptcy, which will be conducted before a federal court under the terms of the Bankruptcy Code, not subject to the whims of a county judge two counties over.

minderbender on July 19, 2013 at 5:12 PM

#15

Dear Dr. Racist, haven't you been exposed enough already.

I'm surprised they let you have that account...you're clear in your hatred for all those who don't look like you.

Supreme Ruler Of The Universe on July 19, 2013 at 5:13 PM

Amen.

Also, SROTU misses the point. We need large cities because they provide the most efficient way of condensing skills and knowledge. They have typically subsidized tremendous expansion by business, as well as creating the conditions for the collection of skilled labor.

rtm on July 19, 2013 at 5:15 PM

We should invade Detroit. It would be a lot cheaper than Afghanistan, and would also save gas because its closer. Then we could eliminate its debt an rebuild its schools and hospitals.

wl on July 19, 2013 at 5:16 PM

#18

The most efficient way of condensing skills is the supply chain, run globally, across a network.

Or haven't you heard of Boeing?

Skyscrapers are how they did that before electronic communications. No more.

Supreme Ruler Of The Universe on July 19, 2013 at 5:23 PM

"cities because they provide the most efficient way of condensing skills and knowledge"

Deeetroit's population is 47% illiterate.

on July 19, 2013 at 5:25 PM

Um, with full understanding that nothing penetrates Bailo's thick shell of ignorance,

787. Global supply chain fail. Books have been written about Boeing's epic global failure.

Dr_Awesome on July 19, 2013 at 5:30 PM

Native of the Detroit suburbs. This is not a case of one thing - it's a case of many things coming together and wearing down the core of a city and a political class that long ago went AWOL and left the city in the hands of incompetent and corrupt leadership. The state government has been openly hostil toward Detroit's politicians since the 60s.

However, and this is the truly awful part, it's not just Detroit. It's Flint, Inkster, it's Pontiac, it's Wayne, it's Romulus, it's all of the immediate downriver communities. The only reason you haven't heard about those is because they're smaller.

Abe Frohman on July 19, 2013 at 7:07 PM

I love you, Goldy. I do. Just sayin'.

k.wren on July 19, 2013 at 8:16 PM

I mean, since the free market is just a natural phenomenon, shouldn't the collapse of the American auto-market and the consequences for Detroit be considered a natural disaster? This is libertarian/conservative doubletalk at its finest: the market is natural, but market failures are different than natural disasters because... ?

chaseacross on July 19, 2013 at 8:34 PM

@20: Boeing? Global supply chain? Try googling those search terms with "787" thrown in for luck.

Eric F on July 20, 2013 at 2:01 AM

The logic of this post seems to reduce to the notion that past acts of improvidence justify future acts of improvidence.

Fuck Detroit.

Quintus Slide on July 20, 2013 at 4:38 AM

Stupidity SHOULD be painful. But then Goldy would disappear in a tight ball of agony...

Detroit is a self inflicted wound by Democrats on Democrats, proving - again - that socialism doesn't work.

delbert on July 20, 2013 at 7:00 AM

How would Detroit be saved?

That's a real question. What are the actual steps of saving Detroit, and what would be the real result of those steps, not just next year but 10 years from now?

sarah70 on July 20, 2013 at 3:06 PM

Detroit has been a Third World city for the past 30 years. Goldy, if you want to bail them out, send them your non-paycheck from the Stranger while the rest of us laugh at you.

Noicons on July 20, 2013 at 6:44 PM

p.s.: If anyone at the Stranger was even remotely worth a shit, which they are not, they would investigate Seattle city government's unfunded pension liabilities. But they won't, because the Stranger is every last bit as corrupt and cowardly as anyone in Detroit.

Noicons on July 20, 2013 at 6:46 PM

@27, @28, @30 & 31 - http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m64nbf…

Pridge Wessea on July 20, 2013 at 7:33 PM

Kickstarter?

treacle on July 22, 2013 at 11:45 AM

@32: Seconded like a motherfucker.

lolorhone on July 22, 2013 at 2:00 PM

@33, well of course you want to bail out Detroit. These are your people, and God help us if we happen to point out that they systematically robbed the city blind from the minute Coleman Young got his job.

Noicons on July 24, 2013 at 12:09 AM

Hey, US Taxpayers, Why Not Bail Out Detroit? (The People, This Time, Not Just the Automakers)

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