Detroit Residents on Bankruptcy - We Have No Democracy!

David Bacon @ Truthout - On July 18, 2013, Kevyn Orr, the city emergency manager appointed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, declared Detroit bankrupt under Chapter 9 of the bankruptcy code. According to official accounts, Detroit is $18.5 billion in the hole, making this the largest of several recent bankruptcies declared by US cities and counties.

In theory, such a declaration means that all the city's creditors will suffer and will have to accept only a fraction of what they're owed. But when a bankruptcy judge decides who will have to make sacrifices, those making the most painful ones will be Detroit's 21,000 retired city employees and its 9,000 current ones.  Read more.