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T We can all learn from Detroit's fall from grace Dollars & Sense Peter Watson Guest Contributor 9 | Thursday, August 1, 2013 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com he once proud city of Detroit, which was affectionately known as Motor City, has run out of gas. In July, Detroit was the largest public institution in the U.S. to ever le for bankruptcy. This has signi cant implications for both Americans and Canadians. Detroit was a force during much of the last century. It was considered home to the American auto industry. Referred to as Motown, it produced an entire generation of musicians, including Stevie Wonder. By 1950, its population had grown to almost two million. But as the saying goes, "good things do not last forever." That applies to the good fortunes of this iconic U.S. city neighbouring Windsor. There are many lessons to be learned from Detroit's fall from grace. They apply to everything and everyone. Sometimes good things just go wrong. We all should be thankful for whatever level of prosperity we enjoy. Count our blessings today but be realistic and plan ahead in case that prosperity vanishes. The population of Detroit has declined to just more than 700,000. This includes a 25 per cent decline CorreCtion notiCe: since the year 2000. It now RBC advertisement from has fewer citizens than it did July 25th, 2013. in 1910. This now The RBC advertisement that small city still published in the July 25th has big city edition of this newspaper nancial obligacontained the incorrect tions. branch location information. Their legacy costs are 38 per cent and it is that nancial gravity that pulled the once Please find the correct branch location information in today's issue. proud city under. The rst 38 per cent of the city's tax revenue was being spent on retired city employee pensions and the interest costs of its $18 billion debt -- city services had declined. The Governor of Michigan said the wait time for a police of cer's response to a call is close to one hour where the national av- erage is 11 minutes. The bankruptcy strategy is to eliminate much of the nancial overhead so the city can stop their 60-year decline and return to prosperity. This is where we see rsthand who will suffer from the bankruptcy and realize this could happen to us. 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