The Detroit syndrome
Several years ago I was in Detroit. Americans call it a "dying city", but the airport is modern and the headquarters of General Motors dominates the skyline. It too is very modern. The urban area is dying out: abandoned homes, businesses and land. A city of 713 thousand inhabitants (still 1.8 million in 1950) is in the process of being recaptured by nature and is a ghost town at night. She symbolizes the conscious acceptance of decline into collective self-destruction. This 'Detroit syndrome' also threatens Europe, and especially France.
The bankruptcy of Detroit is necessary and even beneficial. The ruling Democrats in Detroit point to the population declining by 60 percent since 1950. Yet in 63 years leaders and government labour unions have done nothing to make Detroit adapt to the changing demographic reality. On the contrary: race riots chased whites out of town and crime did the same to the black middle class. Declining revenues were accompanied by structural over-spending. Detroit piled on huge pension deficits, forced by government labour unions which only supported Democratic candidates for City Council who clung to the 'old order'. This way the city built itself a debt of $ 18 billion (13.6 billion Euros). Detroit degenerated: the city leaders are incompetent and 47 percent of the population is illiterate.