Question

The Causes and Effects of the Detroit Bankruptcy 2 to 3 Pages MLA or APA style Five primary resources Use the words of the thought leaders and experts. Properly quoted and referenced Paint a vivid picture with your words. Take the reader on a journey through the depths of the Detroit bankruptcy. Be interesting and draw the reader in. Provide a reference page DO NOT CUT AND PASTE. USE YOUR OWN BRILLIANT WORDS AND THOUGHTS

Answer 1

Detroit was not the first city to bankrupt nor will it be the last. What we need to understand is that what were the grassroot causes owing to which the city went bankrupt. Below is a word picture of what happened to city that it went from flourishing to bankrupt:

- Imagine a country whose population is shrinking, but the people allotted to take care of the citizens is exactly the same in number and increasing with every year. Detroit's poulation shrank drastically from 1950 to 2010, however the city's government did not shrink with it.

-Detroit was caught in a vicious cycle of unemployment. There were no jobs for people in the city , thus they had to relocate. The high cost of the government drove employers away . That meant even fewer jobs plummeting the city and its residents into a financial standstill situation.

- Any country which has a mountain of debt which cannot be repaid by existing resources will declare bankruptcy eventually. Detroit had $18 billion of debt !! It had been working towards this situation of insolvency for years.

-One would think why does the city has so much debt? The reason can be traced to the first point. The city's government population did not shrink thus pension liabilities continued to grow at an alarming level. The city of detroit simply could not afford it.

-Corruption was also one of the reasons to take the city down. Now imagine a scenario wherein the guys employed to manage the pension funds take off on an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii and return back with a bill of $22000 in hand for the government to pay. The cherry on the cake is they claimed the trip was taken for work. This looked especially peculiar when the country's general population was suffering and did not have money to pay for utilities.

- That is not the end to the corruption stories. The mayor of the city was notorious for giving out jobs to friends and family over qualified citizens and availing illegal kickbacks. He also wasted the citizen's hard earned money on fraudulent contracts.

-As the situation became worse, the city's infrastructure began to collapse. Even basic amenitites like the ambulances and street lights stopped functioning leading to a major dip in the city's morale.

- The interesting thing to note about this city is that while the pensioners were paid , the actual cops who were deployed to take care of the city were not leading to unsolved criminal cases and a general sense of insecurity in the city.

However, as Sydner said" I think the bankruptcy will be a foundation of the city's future. With this decision, we begin to provide a foundation to rebuild and grow Detroit." As they say, "As they fall, so shall they rise".