Top Links: When the ‘Detroit as America’ metaphor does — and does not — work

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Top Links: When the ‘Detroit as America’ metaphor does — and does not — work

Top story: “Detroit is the new Greece” and other tales of shaping the facts to fit your narrative.

Detroit, like America, could use a little more in-sourcing.AP

Jul. 22, 2013, 6:37 PM EDT

By John Flowers

Top story: “Detroit is the new Greece” and other tales of shaping the facts to fit your narrative.

If you hadn’t heard, Detroit is a proof that the liberal agenda just doesn’t work. (Heritage Foundation)

Also that greedy, greedy unions and their Cadillac-sized pensions are to blame for everything from deficits to hair loss. (Steve Stockman)

Chuck Todd: “In wake of Detroit news, look for more Democratic mayors and governors, not just GOP ones, to start picking fights w/public sector unions” (Chuck Todd)

In fact, “Detroit” is a metaphor for everything you hate and/or fear. That horrible relationship you just got out of? It’s like you just left “Detroit”. (The Wall Street Journal)

Basically, a lot of people are using “Detroit” as a way to make a lot of uninformed opinions. Here are four more. (The New Republic)

The fact is that capitalism’s “creative destruction” happens, even on a scale as large as Detroit: “Sometimes the losers from economic change are individuals whose skills have become redundant; sometimes they’re companies, serving a market niche that no longer exists; and sometimes they’re whole cities that lose their place in the economic ecosystem. Decline happens.” (Paul Krugman)

Mind you, pensions are one area where the metaphor is, if not 100% accurate, at least more understandable. After all, a Boston College student last year estimates pensions nationally are underfunded to the tune of $1 trillion (CEPR)

Or maybe it’s closer to $2 trillion if you trust Moody’s estimate. Either way, it’s not a small amount of money. Mind you, it’s not Greece, either. (Reuters)

Another potential area where the metaphor may work — again, to a degree — is immigration reform. The CBO already has said that reform would boost economic growth. Likewise, regional visas could bring in much-needed new blood to a city that could use a much-needed new anything. (Modeled Behavior)

And then there is Detroit as metaphor for fight over how to pay for unsustainable debt. In Detroit, about half of the nearly $20 billion in debt involves retiree’s pensions and healthcare. That begs the questions: Who takes the bigger haircut, creditors (business) or the public sector? (The New York Times)

Similarly, President Obama’s remarks this week may be about the economy … (The Knox Student)

… but are also about something else: “The remarks instead seem intended to lay down a clear marker on the debt ceiling/government funding fiscal fights to come this fall.” (Morning Money)

John Flowers