President Barack Obama proposed giving Colombia about $323 million in aid next year, mostly to combat drug trafficking and violence. Detroit, with an 81 percent higher homicide rate, will get $108.2 million.In linking to the above article, a forum poster asked "What does Colombia and Detroit have to do with each other??"
As Michigan’s largest city entered a record $18 billion municipal bankruptcy on July 18, the message from Congress and the White House was that no new money would be forthcoming.
Well, other than the fact that a significant percentage of federal aid money that goes to Detroit probably eventually ends up in Colombia anyway, there are some other similarities:
- They're both corrupt autocracies that are sinkholes for U.S. tax dollars?
- Their declines were both accelerated by governmental meddling in a free market?
- They're both hosts to simmering low-level guerrilla conflicts?
21 comments:
d: All of the above
Oh, and they both smell like pee and garbage.
Yes, we really need to subsidize pee and garbage. We have a real shortage of that
It did not like my end snark comment. Maybe this ""
I'm not so sure they compare. Columbia produces products for export. Columbia has a reasonably stable government. Columbia has a future. Columbia likes America and Americans. Detroit, none of the above.
Most kids who graduate high school in either location can't read or write English?
Subsidized internecine warfare.
AND your point? (read in Maxwell Smart's voice)
gfa
I bet nobody in the White House wants your evaluation repeated to the general public, it is much too spot on!
Matt beat me to it, kinda. The probability of "fixing" Colombia is higher than that of fixing Detroit.
There's plenty of blame to go around for how Detroit got so f*cked up. Corruption and the FSA are high up there, but incompetent, complacent automotive-company management and the unions did their parts.
The leftists in Colombia are in the jungle trying to take down the government, the leftists in Detroit are in office and have already taken down the government...
I notice that this comes from BLOOMBERG News.
If Lil' Mickey B. is so concerned about Detroit, why doesn't he cough up some of his 27 BILLION dollar personal fortune to help out?
After all, wasn't Detroit one of the original MAIG Cities?
What Gard Duck said.
Everyone in either place who could get out and get to America already has?
Both have more than once had U. S. military forces dispatched thereto to maintain order in the face of active civil violence?
No, wait, that's not Colombia...
All of the above is right, and that's only the 'above board' money going into Detroit... Who knows how much will be slipped under the table?
It's probably already too late.
All of the above, and yeah, Guard Dog for the win, at least the award for succinct summing up.
Well, we can't have either of them deciding they don't need the U.S. federal government, can we?
"Well, other than the fact that a significant percentage of federal aid money that goes to Detroit probably eventually ends up in Colombia anyway,"
That's quality right there. Way to slip that knife in.
Very nice.
Another difference between Columbia and Detroit is that FARC isn't running Columbia.
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