4 ms·

If a city is going to go bankrupt, it will be because of pension and healthcare costs and not infrastructure maintenance costs. If all else fails infrastructure

If a city is going to go bankrupt, it will be because of pension and healthcare costs and not infrastructure maintenance costs. If all else fails infrastructure can be abandoned but pensions and health plans will be politically untouchable, and in some places they are legally untouchable. Detroit abandoned swathes of the city for decades, but in the end it was the pensions that did them in. However having driven through the Kansas City metro I was impressed, and not necessarily in a good way, by the massive amount of paved roads. It was nice in a way; there was very little traffic. However it seemed to have the most roads of a city of its size that I have every seen. I have never been to Houston or Dallas however.

afthonos 7y ago
> If a city is going to go bankrupt, it will be because of pension and healthcare costs and not infrastructure maintenance costs. If all else fails infrastructure can be abandoned but pensions and health plans will be politically untouchable, and in some places they are legally untouchable. There are two issues here: bankruptcy, which is a crappy legal and financial situation to be in, and which you may or may not avoid, and city decline, which can happen even if you avoid bankruptcy. Leaving swaths of the city to rot is the latter, and does not strike me as necessarily better (and certainly not for the residents of those swaths). Moreover, the infrastructure problems compound any issues with pensions, since if people leave, it will be harder to have the tax base to fulfill previous obligations. Saying that the last expenditure left standing in a financial Armageddon was the one that “did them in” sounds like an oversimplification.
anm89 7y ago
There is no way americans would accept their infrastructure failing. The average American just doesn't believe this is a possibility in a way which meaningfully affects them because they've never seen it or they believe ive some exceptionllalism nonsense.
- beart 7y ago
  Infrastructure has definitely failed and the general public has shown very little passion for doing something about it. Take a drive through South East Michigan some time.

afthonos 7y ago

> If a city is going to go bankrupt, it will be because of pension and healthcare costs and not infrastructure maintenance costs. If all else fails infrastructure can be abandoned but pensions and health plans will be politically untouchable, and in some places they are legally untouchable. There are two issues here: bankruptcy, which is a crappy legal and financial situation to be in, and which you may or may not avoid, and city decline, which can happen even if you avoid bankruptcy. Leaving swaths of the city to rot is the latter, and does not strike me as necessarily better (and certainly not for the residents of those swaths). Moreover, the infrastructure problems compound any issues with pensions, since if people leave, it will be harder to have the tax base to fulfill previous obligations. Saying that the last expenditure left standing in a financial Armageddon was the one that “did them in” sounds like an oversimplification.

anm89 7y ago

There is no way americans would accept their infrastructure failing. The average American just doesn't believe this is a possibility in a way which meaningfully affects them because they've never seen it or they believe ive some exceptionllalism nonsense.

beart 7y ago
Infrastructure has definitely failed and the general public has shown very little passion for doing something about it. Take a drive through South East Michigan some time.