Destruction of Detroit

I wish you could see the pictures of Detroit. This guy talks about why the city is destroyed and the pictures are just awful. It looks like a war zone. I wonder if any of the city is intact.

http://www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frosty506.htm

The Downfall of Detroit.

...what happens when Democrats take over the Government...

It took only six decades of “progressive” policies to bring a great city to its knees.

By the time Detroit declared bankruptcy, Americans were so inured to the throbbing dirge of Motown’s Greatest Hits — 40 percent of its streetlamps don’t work; 210 of its 317 public parks have been permanently closed; it takes an hour for police to respond to a 9-1-1 call; only a third of its ambulances are driveable; one-third of the city has been abandoned; the local realtor offers houses on sale for a buck and still finds no takers; etc., etc. — Americans were so inured that the formal confirmation of a great city’s downfall was greeted with little more than a fatalistic shrug.

But it shouldn’t be. To achieve this level of devastation, you usually have to be invaded by a foreign power. In the War of 1812, when Detroit was taken by a remarkably small number of British troops without a shot being fired, Michigan’s Governor Hull was said to have been panicked into surrender after drinking heavily. Two centuries later, after an almighty 50-year bender, the city surrendered to itself. The tunnel from Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit, Michigan, is now a border between the First World and the Third World — or, if you prefer, the developed world and the post-developed world. To any American time-transported from the mid 20th century, the city’s implosion would be literally incredible: Were he to compare photographs of today’s Hiroshima with today’s Detroit, he would assume Japan won the Second World War after nuking Michigan. Detroit was the industrial powerhouse of America, the “arsenal of democracy,” and in 1960 the city with the highest per capita income in the land.
—National Review Online

(Written by NH's own Mark Steyn--excerpted).

Long article on the Detroit meltdown. It appears Detroit elected itself into its present condition. I received it as an e-mail with pictures—if the few commenters argued "it was Bush's Fault", they never saw the pictures.

http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/detroitthe-beginning-of-the-end-of-america-as-we-know-it/question-3649975/?page=3&postId=109620145#post_109620145&link=ibaf&q=&esrc=s

Did you see the pics of Detroit? It looks like a war zone.

Detroit has 11,000 city workers and 48 unions to bargain for them.

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) pays a “horseshoer” $29,245 in salary and roughly $27,000 in benefits. There’s only one problem…The DWSD has no horses for the horseshoer to shoe.

The Democrat solution: Get some horses!!!

Unions and corrupt politicians brought down Detroit and they will bring down the country. Unions do not belong in the public sector. Public sector wages and benefits should mirror the counter parts job in the private sector. Unions have out lived their usefulness. We have labor laws to protect the worker.

The ONLY job of government, local or federal should be to represent and protect the taxpayer. Contracts should be structured for the best interest of the taxpayer, not the unions and not the contractors. If they wrote contracts like they write their own checks to their personal bills, we would have construction done on time, on budget, and to specification. Instead every public service job is over budget.

Instead we provide these ridiculous pension plans. Police officers get 100% pensions + cost of living or better. Firefighters commonly get promoted and retire in the same week and receive retirement based on their highest wages. Teachers get their salary for life+ and medical. Trash collectors, highway department workers retire with better pay than they made when they were “working” and politicians have even better packages. All this on the taxpayer’s backs and it has proven to be, unsustainable.

All we hear from the left is we don’t care about the children or we don’t care about the less fortunate because we won’t give more money to teachers who can’t teach, or the city worker that can’t work all in a system where we are not allowed to fire ANYONE.

I totally agree.

Anyone else remember when Government employees were called "Civil Servants"?

(...and gratefully took low-paying—but "safe"—jobs?

 

Yeah, but anyone who works for gov. does not work for us now.  They are our superiors.  Don't kid yourself.  
 

I heard Detroit is going to go ahead with some kind of stadium (baseball?) for something like 4 million.  Didn't hear the details.  HOw can they do that when they re bankrupted????

It's a hockey arena. And it's over 4 millon.

Last night, Wilcow said the only way to make Detroit come back is by privatizing everything, including parks and rec, libraries even maybe school. Of course that won't happen, but he is probably right. Common sense just isn't in this government anymore.