Robert Reich: The Bankruptcy of Detroit and the Division of America

Robert Reich--economist, professor, and activist--published a grim blog post about what happens if Americans continue to segregate by income and place. When cities lack a mixture of incomes and become increasingly poor, city services and quality of living decline. Detroit is ground zero for that reality--when the city residents, mostly poor and elderly communities of color, must deal with inadequate services while wealthier white Americans have the luxury to ignore social problems.

Detroit is the largest city ever to seek bankruptcy protection, so its bankruptcy is seen as a potential model for other American cities now teetering on the edge.

But Detroit is really a model for how wealthier and whiter Americans escape the costs of public goods they’d otherwise share with poorer and darker Americans.

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Related Content: A Foreclosure Conveyor Belt - The Continuing Depopulation of Detroit