I’ve written about Detroit’s financial woes in these pages. High taxes, an anti-business mindset, and a surplus of government meddling has caused the city to lose residents at an alarming rate. Losing taxpayers results in reduced money for government budgets. When faced with such a situation, the only sane response is to make hard decisions and cut back on non-vital programs. If these decisions aren’t made, then eventually even vital government services will be overwhelmed.
The political leaders in Detroit have failed the test of their sanity. Things just keep sliding into the crapper, with no end in sight.
The latest chapter in this tale of woe is a doozy. It would seem that people in and around Detroit don’t have the cash to make arrangements for their deceased loved ones, and the city doesn’t have the cash to cremate the bodies which are now choking the morgue.
I don’t want to be anywhere near the place if they have a power blackout for a few hours!
Obviously what is needed is a city crematorium. About 10 million in fees for paracitic professionals, another 40 in construction and a featherbeaded, no show overstaff operating budget of …say…10 mil per year.
So, ah…Michigan..can you ‘loan’ Detroit 50 or so million? You know, for the dead.
(Even the dead are held hostage in the Democrat Welfare Plantation)
Will the last person who leaves Detroit please turn off the lights?
Seriously, I find it hard to believe that any persons family or extended family can’t come up with $695 to creamate the loved one. Really? If the dead person even had just ten people that cared about them it would only be $69.50 a head. About a single days wages at minimum wage.
But then again, what do I know. I have been putting money away for years as I slave 70 plus hours per week and have a reserve kitty for emergencies. Something these people apparently don’t have – or want to give up.
If the bodies go unclaimed for “x” period, say three months, they should pile them up in one of the scores of abandoned structures in that miserable city, light the thing on fire and give their firefighters some practice. Oh, there is probably some firefighters union regulation that would forbid that. Forgive me, that was my practical side coming out.
“I don’t want to be anywhere near the place if they have a power blackout for a few hours!”
Though a movie producer w/ a brave film crew would be wise to be there…. no need to pay or round up extras for the next urban apocalypse movie and certainly no need for special effects with what would probably start going down in minutes.
Here in Illinois the Chicago Democrats routinely sign up the dead to vote. Perhaps Detroit needs to follow suit. This situation could prove to be a vital electoral resource!
From the article:
…the county’s $21,000 annual budget to bury unclaimed bodies ran out in June.
It’s really pathetic that a city and county the size of Detroit has such a miniscule budget for indigent burial in the first place. Secondly, it’s pathetic that they don’t have the means to scrape together that much money. Can’t they sell the mayor’s limo or something? Thirdly, it’s sad that no individual or group in the community will step up to donate another 20,000 or so such that the indigent dead can have some last measure of dignity.
I don’t think this is a story about a lack of finances, I think this is a story about political and community dysfunction.
Detroit is not sovereign. Detroit is a convenience, a subsidiary creature of the State of Michigan, which is sovereign. If Detroit is a net negative for the state, Detroit should have its charter pulled and its municipal code tossed in the round filing cabinet.
This point should be raised and the state economists should calculate the cost/benefit of maintaining Detroit on a regular basis. The buildings will still be there. The people will still be there. The community will still be there. But can anybody tell me why it is beneficial for the mismanaging government to still be there?
Shannon – “I think this is a story about political and community dysfunction.” Exactly.
Elmwood Cemetary in Memphis, TN has a grassy area that actually covers a trench in which yellow fever victims are buried. That’s always an option, if people can’t make other arrangements. Beats, as you say, having the power go out.
Elmwood Cemetary in Memphis, TN has a grassy area that actually covers a trench in which yellow fever victims are buried. That’s always an option, if people can’t make other arrangements. Beats, as you say, having the power go out.