The city of Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. has declared bankruptcy. Everybody has opinions on why the city went broke, but it all comes down to this: Over a period of about sixty years, politicians in Detroit raised taxes higher and higher until people couldn't afford to pay them. Much of the tax money that was collected disappeared and no seems to know where it went, and the remaining tax money was spent unwisely. Over two billion dollars was squandered on artworks alone. Detroit was toppled by politicians, not by the bad economy or anything else.

First the auto manufacturers abandoned the city, and then other businesses left because they could not afford the high taxes, and then the resulting unemployed working people fled to find new jobs in other parts of the country. Detroit was built to serve a population of two million people, but today only 713,777 people remain. Many of those people have no jobs and therefore pay no taxes needed to keep the city going. An estimated 98,000 houses, businesses, and other types of buildings are vacant and in the process of being demolished. Entire neighborhoods are being torn down.

When politicians raise taxes so that they can get rich quick and become millionaires and then go on massive spending sprees, they can destroy cities. Are you paying more for electricity, water, sewage, and trash pickup in recent years? Are the politicians in your city making themselves multimillionaires with your tax dollars and other fees, and is your city in danger of becoming like Detroit, or do you feel that your city is being managed by wise, thrifty politicians?