Friday, July 19, 2013

Unions Bankrupt Detroit


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Opinion: Detroit got what it deserved


Add another one to the list of bankruptcies because of ridiculous union pensions. We really need to look at making pensions illegal and replacing them with retirement accounts. This will prevent retires from getting the bum end when these bankruptcies happen.
Check it out:

If the residents of Detroit want to blame any person or organization for its Chapter 9 filing, they only need to look as far as the unions that controlled labor there and the politicians who ran it the past four decades. Detroit earned its bankruptcy the easy way — through greed, the desire for political power and poor planning.
Kevyn D. Orr, the city’s emergency manager, offered interested parties a likely way to avoid the bankruptcy filing just weeks ago. Employees of Detroit, past and present, could share the pain of the restructuring of financial obligations with bond holders. Each blamed the other for the city’s problems. Each said the other should absorb the brunt of a restructuring. Neither budged. Orr ran out of options, as two city pension funds went to court to try to protect their assets, motivated by a final grab for Detroit’s money.
The media’s take on Detroit was to post pictures of rundown and vacant homes and to publish the estimates of Detroit’s obligations — about $19 billion. The press also has pointed out the clear conclusion that bond owners will take cents on the dollar.
Unions will have parts of pension obligations voided. City workers will lose their jobs. The two largest employers in Detroit are the school system and the city itself.






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