What can we learn from Detroit's Bankruptcy?

[Jewish Lawyer]

1. Government overspending can't last forever.
2. Municipal unions are good for the workers, tough on the taxpayers
3. An anti-business attitude runs off productive enterprises
4. The Kronk Gym, while producing some heavy hitters, doesn't help the sanitation dept., aka the shitters
5. You can't live off the past
6. Riots scare taxpayers off
7. Sometimes today's failure is rooted in things done years ago, warnings were issued about how bad it would be, but since the sky didn't fall that day or even that year, the big spenders thought they were justified, and might have even died, before the consequences inevitably crashed down on their mother fucking bullshit way of doing things!
8. Tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect, bankrupt and bankrupt

[Juan Pablo de Marco]

i think we should allow foreign lawyers who work for half your rate to represent people in US courts via video link. i'll bet there is a super patriotic US corporation willing to sell out our country once again to make a huge profit. and probably avoid paying taxes in some way. and no doubt a former US congressman will be willing to lobby for them too. and i believe much of the para legal work is already being done overseas. how do you feel about that?

i'm guessing you're not a fan of Paul Krugman...an economist i respect and admire. but loathed by the right wing.

[Gonzo DFW]

That all scams eventually come to an end. Ask Madoff or the people running other Ponzi schemes, like Social Security or Powerball. I have no sympathy. Let them get jobs and pay for what they take from other taxpayers. Of course, if some of them are female, comely and willing to favor Gonzo, well, that's a different story.

[Jewish Lawyer]

Originally Posted by Juan Pablo de Marco

i think we should allow foreign lawyers who work for half your rate to represent people in US courts via video link. i'll bet there is a super patriotic US corporation willing to sell out our country once again to make a huge profit. and probably avoid paying taxes in some way. and no doubt a former US congressman will be willing to lobby for them too. and i believe much of the para legal work is already being done overseas. how do you feel about that?

i'm guessing you're not a fan of Paul Krugman...an economist i respect and admire. but loathed by the right wing.

Might be hard on the court reporter trying to understand some foreigner's accent - but what the hell, as long as we have access to their courtrooms under the same rules.
Usually, I hate Krugman, but he makes some sense. Especially if he wants to temporarily run deficits during slow times, but then pay it back with taxes on......what is it you do to make a living, by the way?..when times improve....He is a smug SOB, though, right or wrong.

[LazurusLong]

Stop electing Democrats to office especially in cities!

John Wiley Price has been an elected official for how long now and the sad fact is that he has done NOTHING positive for any minority in this city and all he has done is line his own pockets.

[Cunnilinguists]

Socializing risk and privatizing profits in public/private partnerships is the answer. It isn't like businesses would take advantage of government entities and by extension, the taxpayers. Publicly elected official one year, high paid consultant the next year for companies doing business with said government entity. Who could resist getting paid a lot of money to consult, or taking one of those welfare jobs at a well-funded think tank where you get an office and a nice paycheck for doing a little behind the scenes influencing on golf and hunting junkets.
I think government entities should live within their current and projected means. Planning 1-20 years out can be difficult. Large public works projects require long-term planning and trying to predict the needs of a large city 20 years out is a challenge.
Building the Detroit Lions a new football stadium 10-12 years ago while the city was obviously in decline was not a good idea, even if the taxpayer voted to do it.

[pyramider]

Didn't NYC declare banckruptcy in the 70s or 80s? NYC got a federal bailout, so will Detroit and California.

[Whirlaway]

Yes and No !

NYC never declared bankruptcy, but came close.

President Ford famously told NYC .........



Ford would later sign the New York City Seasonal Financing Act of 1975 which extended a miserly $2.3 billion worth of federal loans to the city for three years; but the State of New York State saved the city finances with the creation of the Municipal Assistance Corporation ($9 billion in financing) - Chaired by Gotham's Batman, Felix Rohatyn.

Originally Posted by pyramider

Didn't NYC declare banckruptcy in the 70s or 80s? NYC got a federal bailout, so will Detroit and California.

[fletch]

so after bailing out GM, promising voters he 'would not let Detroit go bankrupt', smearing Romney because he said that GM should have gone through a 'structured bankruptcy' - because there are no more elections Obama takes a page out of Romney's playbook and lets the city go bankrupt. how's that for irony.

[billw1032]

If history is any guide, we will learn nothing from this.

[Guest092216]

I say the bankrupt states should be required to legalize prostitution and pot for revenue. See their economies recover and soar.....very very quickly.

[pyramider]

Can we just sell Detroit to the Canadians?

[Sugar Mr. Poon?]

Originally Posted by thathottnurse

I say the bankrupt states should be required to legalize prostitution and pot for revenue. See their economies recover and soar.....very very quickly.

And I will be nominating thathotnurse as Rick Perry's replacement. I'm making yard signs in my house as we speak.

[Lust4xxxLife]

Detroit is a living example of a city without a healthy middle class. A model example of what the Romney/Ryan vision would have created across America.

Having said that, I think Detroit's downfall is the fault of liberals, specifically the unions.

The Auto industry is still there, the jobs aren't. The unions drove labor costs up to the point that it became viable to move plants to the south where there weren't unions. Then the Asian competition made it necessary to adopt as much automation as possible.

In the next election, I will vote for the candidate that supports the middle class, the engine of our economy.

[playerplano]

THATHOTTNURSE for president !

We need to stop allowing marginal groups to run our country. I don't care if they are right wing nut jobs or left wing wackos. Just because they scream louder they should not hold the rest of us hostage to their agendas. We DO need to legalize activities between consenting adults. We DO need to stop wasting money because some people want to tell everyone else what to do. We spend billions to stop it, then millions to punish it and then lose billions in potential tax income! All in favor of saving/collecting billions of dollars raise your hand.

Everyone that is a patriotic American needs to get high and go see a hooker.

"Save American fuck high!"