Detroit bankruptcy question

[fight_professor]

Ok so its all over the news that Detroit is filing for bankruptcy. I was just wondering how a city of ~ 1 milion amasses $18.6 bn in debt?

That's crazy!

[Enayze]

Ok so its all over the news that Detroit is filing for bankruptcy. I was just wondering how a city of ~ 1 milion amasses $18.6 bn in debt?

That's crazy!

Careless spending without a balanced budget.

[fight_professor]

I was wrong, only 700,000 people as of 2012.

18 bn debt for 700,000 people is unimaginable. Must be the worst govern city in America!

[One_Tycoon]

Too many consumers and recipients and not enough producers/wealth creators etc,. Simple stuff really.

[fight_professor]

This was the home of the auto industry, no? The engine room of America?

Now I know lots of places globally are in hard times, but its the scale of the debt that shocked me. Countries have debts of 18bn, not cities (exc. super cities like NY or London, who have country sized budgets).

[GeneralZod]

Why don't you mortals just pull a heist on that pawn shop from that show on TruTv? Hop to it.

[fight_professor]

The city will sell its art collections and stuff?

The emergency manager asked for an itemized list of holdings from museums et al?

[Mayweather41-0]

Careless spending. Economics should be taught throughout grade school and high school.

[Carpe Diem]

Detroit is a hellhole. I bet there are a lot of Yanks who'd prefer to live in some third world countries instead of living in Detroit.

[Drunken Cat]

Basically a long term consequence of dendustrialization, with the continuing economic depression being the galvanizing factor.