The problem in Flint and in countless American cities is not incompetence but the invasion of private equity into government. The truism that somehow capital is

The problem in Flint and in countless American cities is not incompetence but the invasion of private equity into government. The truism that somehow capital is better at unprofitable public goods like water, prisons etc than the evil lazy government ignores the fact that the steep decline in competent management stems from the clientelist willingness to sell off public properties to private equity under "city managers" who are unaccountable and hold more power than elected officials. The right-wing strategy is consistently to smear competent government systems while working tirelessly to undermine them with the final goal to sell them for cheap to private interests. There is a LOT that competent legislation could do to rein this in. But it isn't in the interests of the investor class. So no, the $140 missing part is not the problem, it was a thoroughly corrupt city management that was the problem, and it's brought to you by the same ideology that sees taxing the rich as "unproductive."