Bob Haase’s Another Can Of Worms

Detroit – A Reason to be Concerned

Many people have probably heard of the financial problems that Detroit, Michigan is having, but are not concerned about it because it does not affect them.  The city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy with debt and liabilities of around 18 billion dollars.  This will be the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United States.

 

The financial problems leading up to this filing for bankruptcy has brought with it many other problems.  One of the problems is the affect on public safety, having to cut back on police and other public safety programs.   This has resulted in Detroit being placed on the top ten list of our countries most violet cities for 24 of the last 27 years.  Other services such as garbage pickup, street work, and other municipal services has been cut to a point where people continue to leave and there are blocks with nobody living in them.

 

Detroit is not the only city in Michigan to be having these problems as there are other cities encountering the same financial problems and also looking at bankruptcy.  What affect is this going to have on the people living there?  What affect will this have on the cities bond rating and ability to borrow money?  What affect will this have on providing needed services?  Filing for bankruptcy may be the only solution Detroit has left and the effects of this will be long lasting.

 

If we as individuals spend more than we are making and continue to borrow beyond our means of being able to pay it back, we will find ourselves in deep financial trouble.  Any company that spends more than it is bringing in will also find itself in deep financial trouble and may end up filing for bankruptcy and going out of business.  

 

There is a reason to be concerned with the city of Detroit going bankrupt.   One major concern is that Detroit is not the only governmental unit of government with financial problems.  The United States is also facing deep financial problems like Detroit.  If we wait to try to fix our financial problems they will most likely get worse, not better.  Nobody would ever expect the United States to go bankrupt, but then again, how many people ever expected a city the size of Detroit to file for bankruptcy.

 

Maybe we should look at this as a wake-up call to address the financial problems facing our country and do it now.  Detroit could not spend its way out of debt and I don’t think our country can either.  Most people do not realize how serious our national debt is getting and how important it is to address this issue now before it gets any worse.  For as complicated as it might seem it is really pretty simple.  You can’t spend more than you are bringing in or you will end up like Detroit!

 

Bob Haase is the host of “Outdoors Thursday” heard Thursday mornings at 9:10 a.m. on News-Talk 1450 KFIZ.