Most Cities And Towns Are Bankrupt--And Pensions Too

by Monica Davis

Detroit’s situation is the perfect example of schadenfreude: enjoying someone else’s misery. Many in the rightwing and in conservative politics are giggling with abandon at Detroit’s descent into bankruptcy. Add a bit of racism: blacks don’t have management capability, and you have another chapter in America’s perverted politics

The nation is becoming more polarized by class, with the rich getting richer and everyone else hanging on by their fingernails, but, as always, the overlords are using the media to divide and conque with racism and hatred.

For those who have no understanding of the history of jounalism in this country, newspaper were never “fair and balanced.” They were always in the hands of an elite, who manipulated and played with them, and used them to maintain the status quo.

In fact, the first modern “newspaper” was printed by the government.  That’s right: newspapers in the West began as govenment mouthpieces. Hence, the government WAS the media and printed what it wanted to print.

The 17th century saw the rise of political pamphleteering fuelled by the politically contentious times[4][5] - the English Civil War followed by the Interregnum and Glorious Revolutionpolarized society along political lines and each party sought to garner maximum public support by the distribution of pamphlets in the coffeehouses where people would gather. TheOxford Gazette was printed in 1665 by Muddiman in the middle of the turmoil of the Great Plague of London and was, strictly speaking, the first periodical to meet all the qualifications of a true newspaper. It was printed twice a week by royal authority and was soon renamed the London Gazette. Magazines were also moral tracts inveighing against moral decadence, notably the Mercurius Britannicus. MOREHERE

Looking at the conflagration of failing cities, the media and failing newspapers, will both print, mainstream newspapers and the nation’s urban centers sing their death songs together? Major metro newspapers are dying, and so are cities. Are we looking at gated communities for the wealthy and connected, and dangerous streets for the rest of us?

Remember New Orleans? The city drowned, the surrounding cities fielded cops to keep New Orleans citizens out of their towns, and the wealthy New Orleanians hired private security to safeguard their mansions.

Detroit is on the ropes and it won’t be the last to fall.

It’s a fact even the mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing, acknowledged Sunday, when he predicted his city was the first of “many dominoes that will fall.”

The situation in Detroit is the result of a unique mix of civic corruption, poor financial planning and economic collapse. But one of the driving factors in Detroit’s bankruptcy is an unsustainable public pension crisis, similar to what many other cities are facing. MOREHERE

There are eight cities and/or local governments which have filed for bankruptcy: three are in California.

General-Purpose Local Government Bankruptcy Filings (8):
– City of Detroit
– City of San Bernardino, Calif.
– Town of Mammoth Lakes, Calf. (Dismissed)
– City of Stockton, Calif.
– Jefferson County, Ala.
– City of Harrisburg, Pa. (Dismissed)
– City of Central Falls, R.I.
– Boise County, Idaho (Dismissed) SOURCE

Not only are our cities bankrupt, but so ar MOST pension plans.

It is highly likely that nearly every pension plan in the country is busted. The solution is for every city and municipality in a predicament to “pull a Vallejo” and declare bankruptcy. Please see Judge Rules Vallejo Can Void Union Contracts for details. Read more