Detroit a warning for other cities

The city of Detroit in Michigan, once the industrial center of the United States and famous across the world as Motown, has filed for bankruptcy protection, although the court has asked it to withdraw its application. The possible reasons for Detroit's decline are its failure as a manufacturing base, over-reliance on the market, rising labor disputes, racism tensions and wealth gap. But the structural defects of the US political system, too, is to blame for Detroit's decline from being the center of the world's automobile industry to almost a ghost town, says an article in People's Daily. Excerpts:

The heavy debts that Detroit has accumulated have a lot to do with party politics that dominates the US landscape. In order to get popular votes and win elections, American politicians have spent huge amounts of money. They have also ingratiated constituencies with welfare policies that are unrealistic and unsustainable. As a result of massive welfare spending, Detroit has run up huge debts that it thinks cannot be repaid.