The Detroit model: Permanent rule by the banks

All Americans need to read this report about what is being done to Detroit:

The authority is to be charged with ensuring that the city “continues to implement financial and operational reforms” outlined in the restructuring plan. This includes an effective 30 percent cut in pensions and health care benefits for more than 30,000 current and retired public employees. The “robust governance structure” outlined in Orr’s plan will promote “long-term public confidence in the fiscal health and stability of Detroit, in particular with financial markets.”

It could hardly be stated more clearly: the proposed body will be accountable solely to Wall Street. It will remain in power indefinitely and will not be subject to a popular vote or recall.

The state of Michigan has been at the forefront of establishing anti-democratic forms of rule. Twelve Michigan cities and school districts—all ravaged by decades of deindustrialization, corporate tax cuts and financial manipulation—are currently under the control of emergency managers.

Orr, who has described himself as a “benevolent dictator,” has outlined a plan to attack public employees, override constitutional protections for pensions, and hand over city-owned assets—including the Detroit Institute of Arts and the streetlight, electrical grid, and water and sewerage systems—to private interests and big investors.

What is happening in Detroit is a model for cities and states across the country that are looking to unload pensions to pay off the debts stemming from the financial crisis of 2008 and the years of economic stagnation. “If this city gets it right, it's going to lay a nice foundation for other cities, other municipalities to go forward,” said, Martha Kopacz, the “turnaround expert” hired by the bankruptcy court to review Detroit’s financial plan.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/05/13/pers-m13.html

A "nice foundation"? Give me a break !!! This is more like a freaking disaster.

Welcome to the market state, useless eaters. Enjoy life while you can, since your brutal overlords have big changes in store for all of you.