Detroit first... Who's next for US City bankruptcy... Chicago?
This study “An exodus of people and money” on Illinois seems to point to many of the same elements that Detroit suffered before filing the largest bankruptcy in US history.
There are many factors contributing to Illinois exodus. Weather, tax burden (especially estate tax), population density, but page 6 of 17 specifically notes Illinois Union membership at 18%. Much of the population is leaving for neighboring states with Union membership at 10%. Illinois housing costs are $10G higher per year than other states.
“Illinois lost a net of 1,227,347 residentsto other states between 1991 and 2009,or slightly more than one resident (1.22)every 10 minutes.”
Were there to be another US City file bankruptcy, who, other than Chicago would you think to be next?
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I’m sure that Chicago has its problems, aside from the gun violence in the strictest-gun-laws-in-the-nation idiocy (and other things that go along with that kind of blindness to facts), and including a lot of fiscal problems, as most other cities and states have and have had for a long time.
But Detroit has been skidding downhill for decades. Take a look at some of this.
Undoubtedly Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and other cities large and small (even Boston, I suppose) have their share of ruin, but in Detroit this kind of neglect and decrepitude is pretty common. (It was common when I visited there in the late 1980s to see a jobsite, and I hear from my in-laws who live in Michigan that it was not uncommon in the late 1960s when they lived near there.)
@RealEyesRealizeRealLies
Philadelphia,
Houston,
Los Angeles,
New York Cities,
Baltimore,
Miami,
New Jersey,
Scranton,
Harrisburg,
Oakland,
Chicago.
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I happen to be familiar with both Chicago and Detroit. Detroit has been on a downhill slide for at least 20 years. Chicago, however, is large and diverse and not likely to fail anytime soon. I would bet that someplace like Reading, Pa. has already failed. The rules in Pa are different than the ones in Illinois.
The last time I was in Reading, it was the “stolen car” capital of the country.
I expect Huston will become a low pay mecca for companies that want to exploit their employees but it won’t fail because rich Texans will protect their own property.
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