What happened to Detroit?

How did Detroit fall so far? From being the fourth largest city in the US at 1.8 million people to 700,000 today?

Some blame the Democrats who have been in power for over 50 years.

Detroit bankruptcy – this is what happens if you vote Democrat for 51 years

How much of the blame should go to Democrats? How much blame should Republicans get if any? Should unions get some of the blame? Should globalist outsourcing get some of the blame?

25 Facts About The Fall Of Detroit That Will Leave You Shaking Your Head

reply to post by ExPatRat


I don't know if it was Democrats or Republicans, it's kinda hard to keep track of which side is more clueless or corrupt, frankly.

But I used to live in Rochester, NY, home of Delco; they made parts for Detroit's carmakers. For a very long time, someone with a C grade high school graduate (or who had a father working there) could get a job at Delco paying pretty much the same wage as a teacher or a nurse; it was just production work and didn't probably require more than a few hours' training.

Fast forward 20 years and these people had paid for houses, several cars in the driveway and a little used big fishing boat parked in the side yard. But no savings; they thought the gravy train was permanent. When layoffs due to NAFTA and the frequent recessions started happening, and junior couldn't automatically get a job paying $25 an hour to start with benefits, you should have seen the squawking.

These were illiterate people (you could tell by the letters to the editor) who took their good paying jobs for granted and hadn't prepared for anything else. They also had no particular job skills to take elsewhere.

I imagine much the same thing has happened in Detroit, to the 10th power, since most of their money was US Carmakers' money, and the quality never came up to Japanese or German standards.

And history repeats itself once again...Greed and corruption. A microcosm perhaps, but eventually the headline will read -

"What happened to the USA?"

One Word - Democrats

Detroit is just the beginning.

1) The city of Detroit owes money to more than 100,000 creditors.
2) Detroit is facing $20 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities. That breaks down to more than $25,000 per resident.
3) Back in 1960, the city of Detroit had the highest per-capita income in the entire nation.
4) In 1950, there were about 296,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit. Today, there are less than 27,000.
5) Between December 2000 and December 2010, 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in the state of Michigan were lost.
6) There are lots of houses available for sale in Detroit right now for $500 or less.
7) At this point, there are approximately 78,000 abandoned homes in the city.
8) About one-third of Detroit's 140 square miles is either vacant or derelict.
9) An astounding 47 percent of the residents of the city of Detroit are functionally illiterate.
10) Less than half of the residents of Detroit over the age of 16 are working at this point.
11) 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.
12) Detroit was once the fourth-largest city in the United States, but over the past 60 years the population of Detroit has fallen by 63 percent.
13) Detroit is bringing in about 11 million dollars a month in tax revenue from the casinos.
14) There are 70 "Superfund" hazardous waste sites in Detroit.
15) 40 percent of the street lights do not work.
16) Only about a third of the ambulances are running.
17) Some ambulances in the city of Detroit have been used for so long that they have more than 250,000 miles on them.
18) Two-thirds of the parks in the city of Detroit have been permanently closed down since 2008.
19) The size of the police force in Detroit has been cut by about 40 percent over the past decade.
20) When you call the police in Detroit, it takes them an average of 58 minutes to respond.
21) Due to budget cutbacks, most police stations in Detroit are now closed to the public for 16 hours a day.
22) The violent crime rate in Detroit is five times higher than the national average.
23) The murder rate in Detroit is 11 times higher than it is in New York City.
24) Today, police solve less than 10 percent of the crimes that are committed in Detroit.

theeconomiccollapseblog.com...

reply to post by ExPatRat


I heard they signalled for the Batman to solve this, but the bulb burst and they couldn't afford to replace it.

Didn't they send their car factories to Mexico?(no pun intended, or to point fingers).

Dertoit like others cities, was a one trick pony. They never thought to diversify from the automotive industry. Once that pony started dying, there was no stopping the decay and rot. Add horrible governance and entitlment behavior ontop of that and you have Detroit. Any region that doesn't diversify its economy will suffer the same fate.

reply to post by pavil


A modern day ghost town...No more gold to mine.

reply to post by pavil

There's a good answer!

reply to post by signalfire

Yes quality has definitely been a factor.

Do people remember the movie Robocop from the 80s ?

Detroit has been in a death spiral since the 80s, everyone saw what was coming, but they double down on stupid.

That is the bed they made, and they have no one to blame, but themselves.

They played to their ids, and when that happens there is only but one outcome.

There is a lesson to be learned from Detroit.

The only real question are we going to learn from it?

Not likely.

reply to post by Maluhia


That has got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. People without a 2nd grade understanding of the English language really shouldn't be creating memes in an effort to pass themselves off as informed. "Handel"? Really!?

Michigan , Detroit will rebound in time, they have just come to realize wes gots all the water.

The world is in the process of change, things will never be the way they were.

But as in Birth there is also pain in rebirth, the next time is to come.

The Water will always make Michigan, Great.

Water, winter, wonderland.

A commenter from one of the sources in the OP mentioned this being a part of eventual regionalism as municipalities begin to be annexed and amalgamate due to flight to the suburbs and other cities (dwindling tax base). This is the first time I have seen this mentioned and actually would line up with something like Agenda 21. Is anyone else familiar with this regionalism or is the commenter full of it?

GREED. Detroit automakers were more concerned about making huge profits instead of meeting the quality challenge by Japanese automakers back in the 70's. Unions were also getting greedy and demanding excessive salaries for unskilled workers. The end result not only affected Detroit but auto part manufacturers across the United States.

This same greed will be the demise of the United State. Manufacturer's sending jobs overseas for larger profits and poor quality goods is already causing a lack of jobs and a decline in the U.S. economy.

Watch liberals come in and say "Republicans and Democrats are equally at fault" or some such pseudo-harmonizing nonsense.

Anyone who believes in left-wing economic principles will go dead broke sooner or later. Happens all the time. People who have Democrats ruling for more than 50 years and expect anything other than going dead broke to happen are completely ignorant of how the Economy works. You can't make money off of nothing.

reply to post by lucid eyes


Nafta was a Clinton thing. I remember the repubs having Chinese asylum seekers crying on cspan. They are doing the same thing right now, but idiot democrat liberals can't figure that out,
.
Same old throw the stupid people that vote for them under the bus. Welfare and food stamps are good enough for them, and they serve a purpose to populate their prison farms, too.

Poor people that vote democratic are just doing themselves in, for pennies on the dollar. And they,all will never bother to learn.

What happened?

Coleman A Young happened..

The racist black mayor told honkey to hit the road,
and we did.

Nobody wants to be associated with the "chocolate city" mess he created

As a son of Detroit, and having watched the city decline from "the Paris of the West" into a war zone, the answer is both very simple and extremely complicated. But at it's base, it can be summed up by one phrase: Political Corruption. All of the other problems stem from that.