4 ms·
Lots of ways: Chicago's ability to pay (lack of political power to tax the rich), the dependence on deferred wealth (lack of real savings amongst teachers), pol
by astazangasta 11y ago
Lots of ways: Chicago's ability to pay (lack of political power to tax the rich), the dependence on deferred wealth (lack of real savings amongst teachers), politicians who don't have to respond to middle class people and can continually raid their pension funds.
- tptacek 11y agoChicago is not a country. It's a city. It can't simply "tax the rich". If it does so, the rich will leave the city. When rich people claim they'll leave the country over small increases in taxes, we rightly mock them for making idle threats. But rich people don't even have to threaten to leave a city with unreasonable taxes. We know they can easily leave. Someone upthread suggested that Detroit was an example of how unfunded pension liabilities were the product of looting and corruption. I submit that Detroit is a better example of how artificially provoked demographic shifts can kill a city. However corrupt Detroit is, nobody can argue that it was better off after "white flight".