Failure....

[exedir]

Failure is not uncommon, and yes, probably more common than success. And no, it is not just a matter of the eye-of-the-beholder, it can and usually does represent a fact.

One of the facts is that failure is not pleasant, and failure has consequences, also, usually not pleasant. And one part of failure is choice, the wrong one, or the one that wasn't the right one. And normally failure is not the issue of a random or spur of the moment, though that certainly does exist, or at first look appears to exist. Failure is usually a process or a part of a process that starts and then runs a course that leads to well, failure.

And failure is endemic to all sorts of processes, human being only one form of those things that experience failure.

We can experience failure in a number of ways, and one way, is to give failure a word that defines what form the failure represents. One of those words is "divorce", the failure of a form of human relationship. And other word that represents failure is "bankruptcy". Now most humans have experienced one type of failure than others, such as, divorce is more common than bankruptcy, and of course, humans can experience both, and both at the same time, but I digress.

And bankruptcy can be experienced by more than one individual, say, a corporation and even a community. The city of Detroit is potentially going to experience the process of bankruptcy, and as such, those that live in Detroit and those that loaned funds to Detroit. Now, some of the money is owed to some of those that lived and worked in Detroit and have pensions and health coverage provided as a part of their public service and participation in labor contracts that now, can't be paid, or paid at the full rate of the benefit intended.

Nor is the bankruptcy unique for community entities in America, the same has occurred to cities in California; Stockton, CA, being the largest example, so far.

What it means is that this failure, bankruptcy, came about as a choice and a part of a process that started decades ago, a choice that bet on a future, a future that did not exist except in the minds of those that were entrusted to safeguard the people and community of Detroit. What happen was that trust became more of a wish than a fact, a wish that voters ratified in more than one election.

And yes, of course, one wishes for a lot. A better life being one for one's self and one's family. And of course, if wishes were dishes what a fine feast we would all have.

For the people of Detroit it is going to hurt, but its going to hurt those more that believed in the promises of those that they elected and thought they were going to have benefits that can no longer be provided.

As to what it tells us all, is, failure is an option, a rather common one at that...unless....

[ProblemAgain]

not quite right....both parties have their grubby little mitts in the dough so to speak....the banking regulations were relaxed over the years beginning in the 60s (remember banks used to only be open 10am to 3pm?)...and the huge relaxation was under clinton...the housing bubble was both parties tho these days the republicans whine and wring their hands about it like a reformed madame bemoaning morality...the unpaid wars are largely in the lap of bush tho he was sitting on cheney's lap and remember congress voted FOR those measures both houses and it was both parties....one of the troubles america has is we keep looking for sam the stalwart in his white hat to come riding to the rescue....guess what? sam is boinking the intern in the senate cloak room. pick the best of the available weasels and be informed. they HATE that...after all how can they sell the big lie if you read widely enough to say bulls--t when they start blabbing their weaselspeak?

[exedir]

The point is, the point, that the focus of automobile industry has gone global, going much beyond the old Big 3 which was what the industry of Detroit was originally built around as where the American market started and grew.  

What is left is a theme  park of sorts, a larger, not so green and pleasant Greenfield Village, but what was the industry and the places that made the industry, not the industry itself.  

[Lifesighs]

For at least 30 years or more the plants that built autos in Michigan were in hamtramck, warren, flint, pontiac, very few were in Detroit. The failure of the City started with Coleman Young who plundered and those that followed did the same, no leaders. The school system followed suit, the money disappeared.