City of broken dreams

[martybegan]

From: City of Broken Promises

A comparison between the current city/pension situation and a more family-oriented interaction.

When I was a kid, my mom promised to take me to an amusement park on our summer vacation if I brought home nothing worse than a B on my report card, and performed some extra chores around the house. Weeks later, I fulfilled my part of the bargain, triumphantly presenting my mom with a report card with nothing but A’s and B’s on it. I pointed to the spotless yard and tidy bedroom. Visions of a fun day at the amusement park already filled my head. I told all my friends about my impending trip, and saved every nickel I could for toys and food at the park.

However, as the big day came near, my mother sadly told me that the trip was off. Her hours at work had been cut back, and we could barely scrape up rent and gas money. We simply could not afford a day trip to the amusement park. I was devastated, and incandescently angry at my mother. She had promised, and I had fulfilled my part of the bargain. I don’t remember the details of my tantrum that day, but it wasn’t pretty, and it ended up with my mother blowing her stack and banishing me to my room for a couple of days.

It was only in later years that I realized how sad and ashamed my mom must have been for breaking the promise she had made to me. She had no choice in the matter; there was simply no money to waste on that kind of entertainment. We were barely getting by as it was. She made the promise to me when times were relatively good and she was getting plenty of overtime, and she had made the mistake of assuming that the status quo would continue indefinitely. She was mistaken, but the mistake wasn’t malicious. Things just...didn’t turn out like we expected. But it was years before I really forgave my mom, and I never did get that day-trip to the amusement park. It remained a bitter seed in my heart for a long time afterward.

There is bitterness and anger on all sides, and recriminations flow like water. Much of the anger is perfectly justified. Many of the pension promises made to public employees were made in the spirit of “IBG,YBG”, or “I’ll be gone, you’ll be gone” before the repercussions of these promises were felt. Unions pressed for ever-richer benefit packages and pensions, and politicians and city managers alike found this an easier way to placate the workers than raising their per-hour wage. Twenty or thirty years ago, the consequences of these decisions seemed far-off and relatively minor. Taxes could always be raised; bonds could always be sold. The workers accepted the promises of future benefits in lieu of (or, more usually, in addition to) raises in pay. All the players in the drama accepted the status quo and assumed it would continue.

The fact that it cannot continue today is readily apparant, and detroit is the canary in the mine. Well the Canary is dead, and the question is did the warning come in time to save the situation.

 

[Kondor3]

Canary in the coal mine, indeed...

Chicago is on the Short List of Candidates for Who Will Collapse Next?...

 

[Defiant1]

The communities close to these failing cities should start preparing by building walls topped with razor wire.

 

[MACAULAY]

Did liberals learn anything at all from Detroit?

 

[DiamondDave]

They think what is learned is that they have not gone far enough with big government

 

[PoliticalChic]

Did liberals learn anything at all from Detroit?

Seriously?


No.


Don't expect any changes in DEMOCRAT LEADERSHIP!



Detroit, MI (1st on the poverty rate list) hasn’t elected
a Republican mayor since 1961;

Buffalo, NY (2nd) hasn’t elected one since 1954;

Cincinnati, OH (3rd)… since 1984;

Cleveland, OH (4th)… since 1989;

Miami, FL (5th) has never had a Republican Mayor;

St. Louis, MO (6th)…. since 1949;

El Paso, TX (7th) has never had a Republican Mayor;

Milwaukee, WI (8th)… since 1908;

Philadelphia, PA (9th)… since 1952;

Newark, NJ (10th)… since 1907.
Top 10 Poorest Cities run by Democrats « Scattershooting