Bankruptcy and the Mafia

The city of Detroit has been allowed to file for protection from bankruptcy by a federal judge. This means the city can now tell its creditors that it is sorry, but will not pay debts that were negotiated in good faith. The news is of particular interest to thousands of retirees who worked for the city under the assumption that the pension they were promised would indeed arrive, after they had worked a lifetime for it.
 Young people are being brainwashed into thinking that unions and pensions are evils to be avoided. Nobody bothers to tell them that pensions were part of legally negotiated contracts, and that pensions were often accepted in return for a lower hourly wage. Charlatans claim that unions ruined the auto industry in America, when the exact opposite is true. The American auto was the envy of the world, until foreign companies began to compete with machines made by people who worked all day for next to nothing. American management's response was to cheapen their products to the point where no sane person in America wanted to buy one. The result was catastrophic for the entire industry. Workers were told the only choice was to lower the American standard of living, to downsize their dreams, to realize that it no longer mattered if you worked hard and saved your money. You had to learn to work for a bowl of rice a day and be grateful for it. In other words, go back in time to the 1920's, when someone who went on strike would get his head bashed in by hired goons. The heartfelt dream of Corporate America.
 Which brings us to the question, was Detroit mismanaged? Of course it was. All cities are, as are most companies. Organizations generally prosper in spite of management, as long as conditions are favorable. Detroit has been crumbling for decades. You can buy a house in Detroit for less than it would cost for a garage for your car in most other cities. Nobody wants to live there. The folks who were elected to run the city have been floundering and failing relentlessly, and bankruptcy comes as no surprise, except that it took so long. The retirees have no choice now but to hope they don't get torn up too badly.
 In America, we have what is spookily referred to as "The Underworld". In the Underworld, you can buy drugs, hire prostitutes, and make bets on literally anything, as big a bet as you dare to make. I know personally of two guys whose fathers made such bad bets that they had to sell their homes to pay them off. On the street, everyone knows you have to "do the right thing". You have to pay your debts. I'm glad I wasn't in the room when those guys told their wives what they had done. There is no such thing as bankruptcy in the Underworld. Saying you can't pay the debt you owe is signing up for a one- way ride in a cement canoe. Which wouldn't be a bad thing for those who mismanaged the finances of Detroit. It would be the right thing.