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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

It's all well and good to talk about "honoring commitments made to retirees", but if the city can't provide basic services because 40 cents of every dollar it spends goes to debt service, the city isn't in a position to honor those commitments anyways; it will simply fail harder and more painfully for all its residents in the futile attempt to honor those intractable commitments.

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I know, it's a shame for Detroit that it isn't "Too Big to Fail."

Is there some constructive alternative you have? In your dream world, how would Michigan have handled its Detroit problem?

In dream-world, we'd never have problems like this! A constructive alternative to Detroit's problem? They should have declared bankruptcy a long time ago, before levering up their debt with bond schemes.

I'm not sure it counts as a constructive alternative if it requires time travel.

I do. Raise property taxes and sales taxes until you can pay your bills. The solution is actually simple. It is impossible for elected officials to do and keep their job, but simple.

That might not actually work, seeing as how Detroit already has a population problem and higher taxes will probably force even more of them out, leading to flat or lower overall revenue.

Wouldn't work in the least. Property tax delinquency in Detroit is already > 50% (http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130221/METRO01/30221037...)

You can't squeeze blood from a stone.

Fnord is also being a bit misleading...

Not to put too fine a point on it...

But the VAST majority of the money spent "honoring commitments made to retirees" is not made to "current residents of Detroit". Most of it was just a one-way funnel of money from Detroit out to the suburbs, other areas of Michigan and beyond.

It makes no sense for Detroit... to essentially be funding people in the suburbs... by taking on debt. That was just craziness.

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