Had Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder not stepped in and let it borrow $137 million on the state’s credit card, Detroit would have defaulted on its debt obligations as well as payment to employees and vendors months ago.Oh, please. This is total nonsense and no one with even a spark of rationality would think that Governor Snyder is some kind of closet Klansman seeking to subjugate the blacks of Detroit. Mayor Bing and his cronies, of course, got away with it and Governor Snyder backed off.
But in exchange, Snyder wanted the authority to clean up the city’s books so that it wouldn’t be back rattling its tin cup again next year. His original proposal would have left Detroit Mayor Dave Bing ...and the city council, a corrupt and dysfunctional entity, in charge of the city’s daily operations. But it would have handed the city’s finances to a board with powers to sell city assets, outsource services, lay off employees and void union contracts...
This was much too threatening for city leaders, who joined hands with unions and professional race-baiters like Jesse Jackson and accused Snyder of orchestrating a white conspiracy to send Detroit’s predominantly black population “back to the plantation.”
Why? When does this end?
My suggestion: This will end when someone like Governor Snyder responds to the racial grievance crowd like you would to a tantrum-throwing four-year-old. Something along the lines of, "OK, work it out of your system. March and chant and picket all you want, but you're still going to be subject to a governance board. If you want to spend our money, young man, you'll live under our rules." I'd have my staff put on an air of exasperation and make sure they practiced rolling their eyes and shaking their heads for the cameras. I'd treat this like the transparent, childish nonsense that it is. I wouldn't give them a syllable of sympathy and under no circumstances would I ever treat their accusations with anything even resembling seriousness.
Note: I'm sure Michigander Tim can correct my errors here. Is it really as simple as this?
That seems to be about right, yes[1]. The city of Detroit proper is widely regarded by the rest of the state as something of a boat anchor, keeping in mind that this is just the city (population about 700,000), not the Detroit Metro Area as a whole (population 4.3 million).
ReplyDelete[1] Although, I live 500 miles away from Detroit, about as far away as is possible without leaving the state. So my observations of what is going on in Detroit are about the same as of somebody in Eureka CA commenting on the conditions in Los Angeles.
Are they not living on a plantation of sorts as it is?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the difference between Detroit and Equatorial Guinea? The government sucks all the wealth and leaves the people destitute,poor and begging for scraps of govt. dependence. The top officials are the richest and most powerful due to manipulation of public finances. Anyone who opposes the government is silenced. Outside accountability is stiffled. Rule of Law and Justice do not exist.
ReplyDeleteWait, was I talking about Detroit or Washington?
Dean, that's kind of what I was thinking, too. What's the difference here?
ReplyDeleteKT and Dean: I think the main difference is, the residents of Detroit can vote with their feet. Which they have been doing - the city of Detroit has lost 300,000 people just since 1990, which is about a 30% population drop. I kind of suspect that what Snyder has in mind, is that if he waits a bit longer the ongoing population crash will reduce the City of Detroit's political power sufficiently that he can actually do something about it.
ReplyDeleteSo the difference is that, on a real plantation or in Equatorial Guinea, people can't leave. But in Detroit, the people who are being oppressed can just walk off to leave the criminals who run the government to stew in their own juices. Which is why, eventually (and possibly a bit catastrophically), Detroit's problems are going to be settled. One way or another.
Meh, I say let them go broke and default. Unfortunately I don't see anything other than total financial collapse waking these idiots (in Detroit and Washington) up.
ReplyDelete