Detroit Wants the "Bacon"
By chrystalia
@chrystalia (1208)
Tucson, Arizona
December 6, 2012 4:49am CST
Well now... I was wondering which city or state would start the parade (New York and New Jersey are an exception, due to Sandy--though not entirely).
A Detroit councilwoman has flat out said that since Detroit voted for Obama (75%) they should get a bailout. As she put it, "there ought to be a quid pro quo"--citing a former Detroit politician who went to the Carter administration "and came home with some bacon".
Seriously?
Apparently so...Detroit has been bankrupt for a while now, and didn't get their last payout of funds because they wouldn't route the money through a certain specified law firm. They've managed to mismanage not only all their own money, but all the other types of funding they've gotten their hands on--so it stands to reason they want more, throwing bad money after bad seems to be all the rage nowadays.
New York and New Jersey, of course, want the government to foot 100% of the cleanup bill for Sandy, which I expected--even though it's not supposed to be that way, this was an extraordinary event, so they have some justification (of course New York City has been bailed out before, in 1975 and with extended credit in 1978). But Detroit has had problems for a while now, and has shown no real signs of solving them, either.
New York City was "too big to fail". Chrysler and GM were "too big to fail". The banks were "too big to fail".
Unfortunately, we need to seriously consider the implications of bail outs. After all--where will the money come from? The banks paid it back--New York paid it back the last 2 times. Our auto industries--not so much, despite administration assertions that GM is back on top (it isn't), Chrysler is back on top (it isn't either) and the Chevy Volt is the best thing since sliced bread (sales figures don't show that at all). The only people who came out ahead in the Auto bail out were the unions-- the shareholders and the American people got shafted.
Considering the attitude of this councilwoman, I have to wonder who will get shafted if we bail out Detroit. I must say it's refreshing to hear a politician say to another politician--we voted for you, so we expect our bacon--normally they aren't quite that blunt. That being said--I wouldn't give them a dime.
1 person likes this
4 responses
@GardenGerty (160665)
• United States
6 Dec 12
Honesty!!! In politics?! Now we know why he won. Bailouts should not be the norm for life in the US. It it was the norm, the same amount of money that would bail out a city could be spread among individual tax payers and bail out hundreds of thousands and have more positive effect on our economy. Look at you, you could use a bail out. I wish your business were here, hubby would work for you in a heart beat. Probably me too! Wouldn't you like a bail out to save your business and relocate it to a better labor market? I would like a bail out to restructure and repair my big old house. Hatley would like a bail out to give her son full time work and provide an apartment for them to share. I could go on and on. It would not take millions, but would do more good than some of these big corporate and city bail outs will/have done.
@chrystalia (1208)
• Tucson, Arizona
7 Dec 12
I'd take a bailout to relocate me, the alpacas and the company to a comparable rural area, or to stay here, in a heartbeat--of course the government would never give practical bailouts, and if they did they would hold us hostage forever--I can picture that, the 40 acres and a mule thing again--we'll bail you out if you vote democrat. I was amazed to see such a totally honest statement from a politician. It boggled my mind. What I find even more amazing is the total lack of public outcry over her statements--since she was essentially saying--we voted for you, we want our pay for doing so.
@GardenGerty (160665)
• United States
7 Dec 12
@Chrystalia. . . there is free land in Kansas. I know of at least two rural communities less than an hour from me that are offering free land. One in particular is looking for businesses or was, when I used to go there. Llamas do fine in Kansas, and I may be supposing too much, but I believe that alpacas would too. Give me a reason, I will come help you move.
@chrystalia (1208)
• Tucson, Arizona
7 Dec 12
Personally, I don't like the CIC (current idiot in charge). But then again, from what I have read about some of the previous idiots who camped out at 1600 Penn. Ave., I probably wouldn't have liked them all that much either.
Nothing about politics truly surprises me at this point. The GM thing was just unbelievable. Probably going to get more bailouts, too.
1 person likes this
@thegreatdebater (7316)
• United States
6 Dec 12
What this councilwoman said is ignorant and should be viewed that way. With that being said, what is the difference with what Detroit is talking about doing, and what many states (Alaska being the most notorious) do already? Were you surprised to hear that Gov. Palin hired a lobbyist to bring as much money back to Alaska as possible? This is common practice in cities and states throughout the country.
I personally understand both sides of the bailouts, and to ignore the pros and cons is foolish. It would help the country if the government was honest today about why it bailed out the banks so everyone would understand why it happened. Most understand the GM and Chrysler deal, but the bank deal is much more complicated, and is much more scary. All of these bailouts served a purpose, some were political and economical, and some were need to avoid a total collapse of the entire economy of the world. I have said many times on here that the average American has no idea how close we came to going back to the stone age. Do you think the bailouts were worth saving the world?
@chrystalia (1208)
• Tucson, Arizona
7 Dec 12
Yes, it was ignorant--but from her point of view, probably justified and honest. That's the problem with politics, in general. I am not against bailouts in necessary cases--I know very well how necessary the bank bailout was, though in a well run system things shouldn't have gotten that far. I also understand states hiring lobbyists and grabbing all they can--that is the way the system is working, at the moment. I think that properly managed bailouts, where the money is paid back, can be very useful. But I really don't go along with bailouts where the money gets essentially wasted--Detroit is a bottomless money pit at the moment.
1 person likes this
@thegreatdebater (7316)
• United States
7 Dec 12
I agree that giving Detroit a bailout would not be in the countries best interest. The problem with our system is that it is very well run for the people wanting to make all the money they can in a life time, no matter what it does to the world economy. They also know that they can do what they want, and nothing will happen to them. The laws for white collar crime are so sad, but the people that would make tougher laws are the ones that need money from the ones they would put in jail so you are hurting your political career by helping the country. Sadly, it is almost impossible to tell the crooks from the politicians, from the thieves today, on Main Street or Wall Street.
@chrystalia (1208)
• Tucson, Arizona
7 Dec 12
Yes, that is true. That's one of the things that has really caught my attention--it was bad in my memory, but not as bad as it is now. Thievery has become the rule rather than the exception, and people just don't seem to understand what it does to everyone. One of the biggest problems I have noticed with this new world (and for me it is one, since I have severe retrograde amnesia) is the dumbing down of people in general, coupled with an entitlement attitude and a lack of common sense that is rather frightening. People just don't seem to understand the long term consequences of what our government is doing, and what they themselves participate in and advocate in some cases. It was pretty bad back in the 70's but not nearly as bad as it seems to be now. But then again, I am more sensitive to it than those who lived through it happening, perhaps.
@dragon54u (31634)
• United States
6 Dec 12
I don't think they need a bailout, they need emergency politician relief. The people voted in casinos in the late 90’s and 45% of the revenue was to go to schools and 55% to fund programs like fighting crime. Now, years later, the city is broke in spite of the millions that the casinos fed the city. The mayor does things like requiring city employees to go to a customer service class and pays them overtime to do so. That would be fine if things were stable but no sensible person does that when a city is broke.
Detroit used to be a great city but greed and corruption has destroyed it. Last time I was there, around 2009, I saw entire neighborhoods that used to be pretty homey were crumbling with graffiti all over, fire gutted houses, littered streets and not a soul to be seen. It's really sad what greed has done to a once-beautiful and thriving city.
I don't agree with bailing out cities. Let the free enterprise system work. The people will move to more prosperous cities and contribute their taxes there and help those grow while the corrupt ones like Detroit will lose population. Eventually maybe someone might come in and rejuvenate it.
@chrystalia (1208)
• Tucson, Arizona
7 Dec 12
Yep, I agree, as a matter of fact. Considering the automakers are still there, I suppose people will hang around. But I think they ought to just go belly up and unincorporate. The businesses and communities who stay there can figure out how to take care of things, probably a lot better than the current people are.
Detroit isn't the only big city falling apart, by a long shot. Chicago is a nightmare, New York City is bad, Boston is pretty bad (according to friends I still have there) and Washington DC is becoming a ghetto. They ALL need politician relief, and more.
@debrakcarey (19887)
• United States
7 Dec 12
He owes a lot of folks, the latinos said about the same thing...YOU OWE US.
Wonder how he's gonna pay them all back. NOT
@chrystalia (1208)
• Tucson, Arizona
7 Dec 12
We'll find out all too soon how he intends to pay them all back, unfortunately. It should be interesting to watch, though financially disastrous.
