Is now a good time to move to Detroit?

Detroit

I tend to think that it is always darkest just before the dawn. This contrarian attitude of mine sometimes works. Then again sometimes it does not. One thing I have learned the hard way: don’t ever try to catch a falling dagger.

For the last 50 years the People of Detroit have voluntarily been in thrall to a combination of crooked Democrat politicians who sold themselves to the highest bidder (in this case the government service unions), and an equally crooked bunch of politically well connected financiers who made a ton of money by shucking Detroit bonds to little old ladies and pension funds, and putting Detroit deeper and deeper into unmanageable debt. The combination has been catastrophic for Detroit. The city government has essentially ceased to exist as a functioning government entity that provides services to its population, and instead has become little more than a collection outfit for a bunch of criminal extortion racketeers.

But now Detroit is in bankruptcy, and no matter how negative the word “bankruptcy” is taken by many, it opens up a world of opportunity if used correctly.

I guess the real question is: Has Detroit reached rock bottom and is it now ready to abandon the people and policies that brought it to ruin?

Bankruptcy will give Detroit many benefits including stripping it of its crippling debt, voiding corruptly obtained union contracts, and allowing the Detroit city government to restructure itself so that it is actually capable of providing the services a city is supposed to provide for its people.

But this will only happen if the bankruptcy goes through without any Obama interference. The Special Interests who have backed Obama and his corrupt cronies (government service unions and the investment moguls) are going to yell like crazy, and I suspect demand a GM type solution which will leave the union contracts and pension funds in place, the debt mostly untouched, and Detroit not much better than it is now.

And this is where the People of Detroit are going to have to step in and get involved.  Are the people of Detroit going to demand real solutions, or demand more government bailouts that are usually nothing more than a bandaid that gives the corrupt politicians and financiers time to get out of town with their loot? That is the real issue. Many libertarians talk glowingly of how Iceland not only thumbed its nose at the international bankers and the global intervention zealots, but they also fixed their problems in a very democratic way (see http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/01/11/why-did-media-keep-the-recent-peaceful-icelandic-revolution-quiet/). It was the people of Iceland that did it. And the people of Iceland are very special sort. Very independent and rugged. Calm and determined. And not prone to being bullied by others or looking to others for handouts. No place on earth had the successful transition during the financial meltdown of 2008 like Iceland because no place on earth has Icelanders.

In conclusion, I would advise those of you who share my contrarian views to wait until we see what really happens. Will the Obama Regime, the Special Interests (corrupt unions and financiers), and the People of Detroit allow the bankruptcy to proceed as it should? Or will they impose restrictions that cave to special interests and allow the very corrupt people who destroyed Detroit to remain in control?