The citizens of detriot were directly responsible for the fiscal situation. Nobody forced them to elect the progressive democrats, year after year after year, that destroyed the city's balance sheet with public sector union pensions and big-ticket development scams. To fund these unsustainable pensions they repeatedly raised taxes and made detriot extremely business hostile. This is really the turn of events now being seen in CA too- although perhaps little less "blue collar" like corruption that was going on in Detroit public office.
The other less mentioned for PC reasons for collapse was the rise of racial politics in the city of Detroit- as chronicaled in the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/d...4871_story.html
The white population’s abandonment of the city left Detroit with a shrinking tax base and deteriorating, segregated public schools — a system locked in place by a Supreme Court order that halted busing across school district lines. But blacks still in Detroit had one thing left — political power. And they would guard it jealously against any encroachment, real or imagined.
Thus, the city’s black political class sees conspiracy theories everywhere. The investigation of the last mayor by the Detroit Free Press, and his indictment by a prosecutor, are seen as a white conspiracy to undermine black “home rule” of Detroit. The governor’s appointment of an emergency financial manager, once it became clear that Detroit cannot manage its own fiscal affairs, is again seen as a hostile, racist takeover by the state over the city’s elected black leadership.
Racial politics, and that racial prism, long ago ruined Detroit, and now they hamper any chance the city has at a modest recovery. As a longtime friend, one who has stayed in Detroit and worked to help the city, once put it to me succinctly: “Some people would rather be the king of nothing than a part of something.”
I expect other cities like LA to be next on the list. The unfunded pension liabilities in many CA cities are insane. This is the end game when economic realities finally hit the la-la land of political public sector union corruption and Keynesian Economics of "debts don't matter because we owe them to ourselves". Lot of good that did detriot.
As for the judge ruling this bankruptcy "unconstitutional" according to the Detroit Free Press, “the Michigan Constitution prohibits actions that will lessen the pension benefits of public employees.” Which means that, in Michigan, reality is unconstitutional. The creditors are hosed- whether or not bankruptcy is announced or not doesn't matter, nobody is left to make good on these promises.
