Reason Writers Around Town: Shikha Dalmia on Detroit's Ongoing Fiscal Farce

A sigh of relief swept through Detroit recently after a judge threw out a legal challenge to the "consent agreement" the city just signed with the state to clean its books and avoid bankruptcy. The lawsuit, filed by the city's megalomaniacal legal counsel, represented a level of overreach ridiculous even by Detroit's lofty standards, notes Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia in her latest column at The Daily. "But in the tragicomedy that is Detroit, it would have been better if it had succeeded and expedited Motown's rendezvous with bankruptcy."

She points out:

Many cities across the country are facing unsustainable legacy costs. But Detroit is uniquely impervious to political solutions because the ratio of its public moochers to private producers is far higher than others. There are too few Detroiters with a vested interest in fixing the city and too many with a vested interest in sucking it dry. Only bankruptcy will convince them that there is nothing more to be milked.

Read the whole thing here.