The debt crisis in the United States of America has reached apocalyptic proportions. A new and horrifying report out details the reason why 63 of America’s largest cities are completely broke: debt and overspending.
According to a recent analysis of the 75 most populous cities in the United States, 63 of them can’t pay their bills and the total amount of unfunded debt among them is nearly $330 billion. Most of the debt is due to unfunded retiree benefits such as pension and health care costs. That means those depending on that money, likely won’t see a dime of it.
“This year, pension debt accounts for $189.1 billion, and other post-employment benefits (OPEB) – mainly retiree health care liabilities – totaled $139.2 billion,” the third annual “Financial State of the Cities” report produced by the Chicago-based research organization, Truth in Accounting (TIA), states. TIA is a nonprofit, politically unaffiliated organization composed of business, community, and academic leaders interested in improving government financial reporting.
“Many state and local governments are not in good shape, despite the economic and financial market recovery since 2009,” Bill Bergman, director of research at TIA, told Watchdog.org.
The top five cities in the worst financial shape are New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Honolulu, and San Francisco. These cities, in addition to Dallas, Oakland, and Portland, all received “F” grades. In New York City, for example, only $4.7 billion has been set aside to fund $100.6 billion of promised retiree health care benefits. In Philadelphia, every taxpayer would have to pay $27,900 to cover the city’s debt. In San Francisco, it would cost $22,600 per taxpayer.
By the end of Fiscal Year 2017, 63 cities did not have enough money to pay all of their bills, the report states, meaning debts outweigh revenue. In order to appear to balance budgets, TIA notes, elected officials “have not included the true costs of the government in their budget calculations and have pushed costs onto future taxpayers.” –Hartford City News Times
To say that more simply: your children have been sold into debt slavery and owned by the governments; both local and federal. The government is officially punishing the unborn for their inability to handle money. What a time to be alive…
One major problem area TIA identifies is that city leaders are lying. (What a shock! A lying politician…) These political masters have acquired massive debts despite the balanced budget requirements imposed on them by scamming the public and enslaving them.
“Unfortunately, some elected officials have used portions of the money that is owed to pension funds to keep taxes low and pay for politically popular programs,” TIA states. “This is like charging earned benefits to a credit card without having the money to pay off the debt. Instead of funding promised benefits now, they have been charged to future taxpayers. Shifting the payment of employee benefits to future taxpayers allows the budget to appear balanced, while municipal debt is increasing.”
It’s only a matter of time until this system built on debt and theft comes crashing to the ground. How prepared are you?
State tax money always flows directly to the urban centers, so this will just rob country folks more than normal.
Urbanization is extremely illogical. Any increase results in less possibility of carrying capacity(removing transportation from the equation), thus a self-fulfilling Malthusian prophecy.
That’s basic ecology. Freakin’ dolts pack ’em in like sardines then wonder why they get disease, fires, robberies, theft, graft, rape, mayhem, etc. It’s analgous to industrial poultry farms. All these deleterious effects then cause a vast increase in remediation through extra government employees.
Why are urbanites such dumbasses???
Mara,
“Why are urbanites such dumbasses???”
It is because they are mostly Democrats.
The article is in error, Honolulu
is not a city. There are no legal entities
known as cities in Hawaii.
County is the lowest level of government
under Hawaiian law.
It is more correct to say the entire
Island of Oahu(Honolulu county)
is bankrupt.
But Nail( Maui county) and I( Hawaii county)
knew this already.
Truth /\
100% of all government is bankrupt. Why do you think they have had to resort to calling debt money? Debt is all government has.
Only gold and silver are money. Government has none of that. They have IOUs and guns, and they use the IOUs to hire idiots to use the guns against any and all challengers.
You’re right! The US “dollar” is fiat currency and has NO VALUE! The “government”, through the federal reserve, just keeps printing more and more currency to keep it going. It will soon come to a point where they cannot print enough and then the whole scam collapses.
Invest in precious metals, especially LEAD!
Crazy Disqus is acting up.
Why are people there…Democrats? I can’t fathom it.
rellik , Hawaii has been just another shithole for a very long time. Drug addicts thieves and whores run amok ! And a far left governance that has been insolvent for years just like all of the left coast. It is all exactly the same dog shit ! Nothing new at all. Another beautiful place destroyed exactly as Kawleefornya was.
The problem is simple and obvious. She has no solution. A zero or low interest rate does not yield a pension fund. An increase in interest rates slows the economy.
kovran, no question the fed has boxed themselves in. But that is only a part of the real problem that exist of the insolvencies of most larger municipalities all across the nation. These insolvencies are just another of the many outlier events I speak of often that are already in motion and in place. They are of course all held together and have not collapsed because of the many illusions created to hold them together by gov entities and the corporatocracy they have created. A sort of collective insanity that is accepted as workable that will one day come to fruition. for one simple reason. None of it is sustainable in perpetuity based on more debt, more spending and of course never ending consumption or consumerism with no bounds !
We have already hit these boundaries and few grasp much of any of it ? But we are there and the next shoe will drop one day. USA is now declining in every way possible. Trump simply put the brakes on that decline for a while and is exposing it in many ways for all to see.
I am not aware of even one of the larger cities that is solvent . Nor most of the states for that matter and there is no question the fed gov is beyond insolvent in the many trillions. The reason we see more spending is simply to keep it all afloat. Not that anything is actually better or solved ?
We will see many retirement funds or better said schemes, get cut and reduced and some will completely fail, then what ? Can the gov bail it all out ? Not even close and that will be the day when all the freebies stop and chaos takes hold. It all revolves around the many outlier events already in motion and unstoppable. The events or mix to bring it all down simply has been forestalled so far with schemes. lies and distortions. That is why I know it is all unsustainable !
Perhaps it is the best possible outcome at this juncture and we can start over with some lessons learned once we get past the chaos and carnage that will ensue ? We shall see one day and that day grows closer everyday.
Yeah… well. On the flip side. How’s that hospital out there in the middle of nowh…
…oh.
Study some of the situations, in the teaching or decaying or business hospital. There will be things that make you angry or mortify you.
You might refuse treatment or pay for it, privately, or seek alternatives or live right next door to the hospital, if that’s what’s keeping you alive.
What to do, if you are hurt and on your own. That would be something useful and borderline-illegal to write. It’s humanly possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcOooD1dM3g&pbjreload=10
Once or twice, I saw footage of wildlife, running through.
Some of the roads, themselves, which I have used as a child, have returned to nature, newer architectural elements being made of literal styrofoam. Cardboard furniture in the bathroom.
Comparing debt and apocalypse is an apt analogy, because you can’t tell the difference:
https://cdn.iwastesomuchtime.com/51620151126140.jpg
Beaumont, anybody who still believes we have a real health care system and that doctors and hospitals are a good thing is well past dumb and will suffer greatly and unnecessarily !
New article coming in the matter that explains it all in detail and common sense. Anybody can be healthy and fit with tremendous well being rather easily and it odes not involve doctors, pharma or any of what many call health care here in USA today ! It is all a very bad joke on the masses.
Another Great Reason to Get of out the Cities ASAP, as they will continue to raise Property taxes to make up for bad mismanagement over decades. They will tax you right out of your home. Go look at the list of Property Tax delinquencies in every county and large cities. The Cities unfunded liabilities are over the top, and will never recover. Just borrowing more junk bond money to finance more mismanagement is a dead end and will not end well at all.
Your Prepper Goals should include getting out of the Big cities into the country side, off the grid and happily ever after. Florida is not bankrupt. Choose a State to live in that is fiscally responsible. Michigan, IL, NY, California are all losers.
Those are all black run cities. You know the blacks, they can never pay their bills on time.
They’re not all black run cities, however, they all have a public pension debt problem. TIFIFY
Time to stop giving even one red cent to the generational welfare free loader breeders…….mostly black, in these cities. LET THEM DIE. Watch how the costs of cities and counties decreases.
Anon” DING DING DING – just what I was thinking the incompetent stupid, low I.Q. baboons yet again. This $hit is absolutely inexcusable and a huge god damn disgrace just like them and their no good ape race. WTF…
It was the “white man’s burden” that was the impetus in the Spanish American War to educate the aboriginee in the Philippines……strange how the white man has let down the American “aboriginee,” but I guess the same logic applies when the “War of Southern Independence” was fought to “free the black man,” when after the war, the Army looked West to exterminate the Red Man.
Come on guys. You should know by now sub Saharan blacks have an average IQ of 70 – about that of a moron.
Anonymous, many are but definitely not all, not even close.
Generally the urban centers are a legacy from the Industrial Age. Manufacturing fled to cheaper labor outside of the US with the skids greased with “Free Trade”, the tax base eroded simultaneously with greater social demands so bankruptcy / insolvency was the only plausible result. In some rare instances, the exception to the norm, new technical industries replaced the old. Labor used to chase the work, Europeans traveled to the new world, no one is going to Asia. Multi generational dependency has become the norm. All fixes are bandaids.
Good to see you’re still kickin’.
I thought maybe you went to the Great Refinery Operator’s Convention in the sky.
JRS
Thanks for the “welcome home”.
I took a break posting. Actually I wasn’t going to post anymore because of posters that were calling for political violence up to and including assassination was way way out of hand, uncalled for, provocative, and either “bait” from “agent provocateurs” or the words of childish idiots accomplishing the same. I’ll be no party to it. I “monitored the BB from afar” but I just can’t keep my mouth shut.
Oh I bet the Refinery is in operations turmoil with these temps, glad I’m not there.
Kevin: Man up and don’t be such a typical pussy ass, hairy vagina.
I’m in my 60s, didn’t get this far obtaining this much behaving foolishly so you’re incapable of effectively insulting me. I posses far greater knowledge, intelligence and hence cognitive reasoning than you.
Sure you do.
sounds to me like he does indeed…….
Knock off the lame excuses cities run by republicans do just fine soon as the democrats take over they get run into the ground. Detroit was the richest city in America when the last republican left office in 1962. He left office amid a swirl of corruption charges but compared to what was coming he was the golden age of Pericles. The democrats have been running the place quite literally into the ground ever since much of it looks like Hiroshima after the bomb. Not even criminals & welfare recipients want to live there anymore.
Kevin2, 100% agree on all points and a few more
Has anyone noticed the failed cities mentioned in the article are frequently run by Marxists. Those same fools want to run the country. Can the leftists connect-the-dots to predict the end result? I doubt it.
You are correct. Socialism and Marxism has ruined all the metropolitan regions by creating ghettos. Why would you ever onpurpose concentrate the impoverished into substandard housing projects? How does that create wealth? Long ago Republicans suggested urban homesteading as a remedy such that after seven years of improving an apartment, the impoverished citizen would gain title. Then they could sell it or even as a corpus sell an entire development to investors so choice downtown locations could be developed into expensive condos.
Other Republicans suggested closing housing projects and bulldozing them and disbursing the inhabitants so that crimes by gangs would diminish.
The last thing we need is stupid Democrat policies in rural regions as they have a history of total failure in urban policy.
Some Men Just Want To Watch The World Burn……..
No… Some just want to roast marshmallows and hot dogs instead of watching the idiot box tv. Me personally, i find a solace at staring into the burning coals while the stars burn overhead and the breeze stirs the night skies. There is peace and calm tranquility.
But, somehow, some way, there gonna find enough money to build a new stadium every few years for the brain diseased masses.
It worked for the Romans – at least for a couple centuries!
Being broke isn’t going to stop them from spending money.
Especially on leftist welfare and social programs.
That is 63 little Venezuelas scattered around the country. Where are all those people going to emigrate to?
Jim in Va. excellent points and the are many more as well !
As long as the people affected are invisible (i.e. pensioners) nothing much will change.
When the day-to-day Bills can’t be paid: (cops, trash collectors, bus drivers, firefighters, etc.) that’s when the financial shtf happens.
As that shtf occurs in bits and pieces, those cities will become completely unlivable…
<bb
dang it, I did it again…
Am not Anonymous
<bb
All democrat controlled hell holes, all of them knowing their pensions and other debts will be paid for by the American tax payers thru the federal government. Why stop spending when you know others will eventually pick up the bill…
would like a breakdown as to lefties and righties running these city’s
Let me guess……..most are Northern blue state liberal hell holes
This situation is EASILY fixed.
Just sell more Bonds!
OC
The Federal Reserve Act and giving over the printing of money to a handful of criminals was not enough. We had to give them the “right” to steal even more by a Federal and State income tax.
Somebody needs to be tried for treason and hung. If we knew then what we know now, no doubt those Aldrich, Warburg, et al would have been hung.
The question is, now that we know it is all a scam, what happens next?
I predict that the thieves will do what they have done in other Countries: starve the people and offer food for their guns. Once disarmed, the people have no chance,
Unless the people handle the problem before the rug is pulled.
.
I read about a famous Russian who was asked what brought down the Soviet Union and he replied; “it was the sum total of ALL the lies”. That struck me somehow and I’ll always remember his response. I suspect it will be the same for us. You can deny truth and reality for awhile, but it WILL catch up to you.
The piper MUST always be paid!
Test
I think that innocent, hapless people can be enslaved, for life, trying pay-off and odious ‘debt’.
Organizations like TIA and the Paul’s want to appraise all of their valuables, never to repudiate.
Pardon my typos, but I hope you get the idea, anyway.
JACOB BOAUER { ALiUS-ROTHSCHiLD!}HE 0WNS ALL THE BANKS – IN THE W0RLD AND CAUSE’S DEBT!! WHAT HE DOES BEST!! HE’S- GERMAN!HE IS A ZiLLi0NARiE !! HiS NiCKNAME IS – [ ROTTENSCHiLD ! ] HAVE A NiCE LiFE ? ? ?
A former mayor of Cincinnati (Mark Mallory) should have a statue of Infamy raised in recognition of putting the final nail in the demise of the city. Going along with the WH occupant of the time and the virtuous utopia policy – Mallory pushed for a streetcar(!)to be inserted (at mammoth cost) into a classic downtown GRID layout. OK – here we are in 2019 – the thing interrupts the former easy flow of traffic, is like 70% off projected ridership – and the 30 millennials who constantly pushed for it are crickets. Not operating today b/c of frigid temp.and the list grows of collisions w/cars. Probably will be a never ending drain.
Print Money! Inflate the debt away. Happy days are here again!
Have you ever looked into the CAFR’s of the bankrupt municipalities to see the hidden assets, and the income generated from these assets, which don’t appear in their budgets? Combined, all the municipalities own more stocks that any other group. They will claim these assets represent their rainy day funds. In a year, the rain will be relentless, but they will only increase taxes to see if blood can actually be sucked from a stone. They will only find it in the streets.
I have personally met about 150 Sudanese, mostly black as midnight Dinka, who were well spoken, had backbone, were upright moral Christians, and despite ENORMOUS hardships since childhood, could do excellent math like word problems without calculators. They had learned in refugee camps and only had chalk and blackboards. They didn’t have even pencil and paper.
Historically duting the medieval period, they were fierce people who were mercenaries that were exceedingly brave and scared the heck out of their enemies.
A Dinka as a wandering refugee might kill a hyena or a lion using a spear, even when they leap at him, in order to protect livestock. And as a group,might go hunt a rhino, which they felt tasted much better than excellent roast beef.
By no means were they stupid. They were survivors who had walked hundreds of miles from Southern Sudan to Ethiopia to Kenya and the settled in Kentucky. And the first three parts of their journey was on foot as 7-9 year olds, sometimes without shirts and shoes and no knife.
How many preppers could do that???
Question should be, how many preppers WOULD WANT TO DO THAT.
The question is ‘who cares’?
What prudent prepper would do that if it accomplished nothing useful. Whats wrong with bugging in and fixing your own home locales problems? Running away is the LAST RESORT, economi “migration” refugeeism is the first? They should be fixing their own hometown shitholes rather than go beggaring someone else. Change has risk, but meaningful change is something worth living for if only they had the courage and intelligence to accomplish it, right down to removing/killing off the problem.
The Sudanese were aged 7-9 and were doing their daily chores as goatherds when their village was attacked by Muslims from the North. Their parents were often killed and the young women like their sisters were enslaved as slavery is allowed in Islam.
There only choice was to flee.
Could your son flee as a nine year old without a canteen and a knife and shoes and make it? I doubt it and I doubt most American preppers who are not former soldiers could make it.
But these Christian boys did.
THe USSA is a FAILED, BANKRUPT Entity – not only economically & politically but – more importantly – morally & spiritually
The ONLY way USSA can survive – in the short-term – is by thuggery & mugging rest of the planet with its wars.
The jig’s up for the USSA. It’s epitaph will be “Just Too Damn FCKING DUMB To Survive”.
USSA is going down – HARD! Count On it.
If it’s any consolation, know that much of the rest of the modern world is going down with the USSA too.
Misery loves company.
We could always do a “John Galt”, and step back, let it happen, and then go in and rebuild everything like it should have been to begin with. At that point, there would no longer be any competition.
Quote: Most of the debt is due to unfunded retiree benefits such as pension and health care costs. That means those depending on that money, likely won’t see a dime of it.
Politicians promised down the line benefits for votes, knowing they would be out of office or dead when these came due, so never have to face the consequences of their promises.
Now they figure the way out of this mess is to tax those most able to move. Let’s see how that works out!
“Quote: Most of the debt is due to unfunded retiree benefits such as pension and health care costs.”
Where the hell is Eisenkrutz? He should be screaming this in all caps! Blame the boomers!
proof positive they really are the dumb masses.
I would. Where is your sense of adventure?
The point is that only fools presume all Africans are alike when they are not whatsoever.
This would be akin to comparing some Yankee foofoo commie limpwrist millennial and a Western Kentucky super redneck like me who has been into bushcraft for six decades. All Americans are not alike and neither are Africans.
Fully agree. Racism sucks.
Have to say I envy your bushcraft experience by the way, which I’m sure would greatly improve your chances of survival once TSHTF. Please share a few tips with me if we ever cross paths. 😉
The amazing aspect of buscraft or ancestral skills is that every ethnic people developed them. That is quite amazing as each developed a throwing stick, then a spear, then a atl-atl, then bow and arrow, then improved the bow and arrow, then javelins from horseback by various means, the bow and arrow from horseback, then lances, then couched lances, etc.
We are all not so different as we think.
I watched a Japanese film the other day, and the heroine lived in a rural area, and much of the film she is harvesting wild edibles, or cultivating them, then cooking them especially for her friends.
That is exactly what I have done and what my ancestors did. If we would focus on that, then diplomacy would be much easier.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2014/09/10/films/film-reviews/little-forest-natsuaki-little-forest-summerautumn/
Little Forest Summer Autumn is the name of the film.
htt ps://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2014/09/10/films/film-reviews/little-forest-natsuaki-little-forest-summerautumn/
Well ever since Fiat Dollar came into existence we are all technically broke. Using Banking Cartel debt instruments (IOUs) to purchase stuff, kind makes the Banking Cartel the owner of everything.
Chris, you are right though most people don’t realize the cartels actually own the People as well because FDR pledged us as collateral when he bankrupted the US.
This Site is sickening! All of you individuals that make derogatory remarks about BLACK PEOPLE should be ashamed! If you had been BORN BLACK, how would you feel if another RACE said these things about YOU!
Come on James. You know people say stupid things. In my case, I’m a Heinz-57 mutt, all ethnic jokes are about my ancestors. So what, I laugh along at funny punch lines. We once vacationed with a Polish guy, he told us that when he hears a Polish joke – he substitutes Russian for every mention of Polish. Then he laughs along at good punch lines. Folks have a natural tendency to generalize when someone of any race abuses them. All the smart folks know you must judge each person on their personal merits. God bless you.
Why are you such a weakling? How do you know commenters are not black themselves?
Grow up. And I mean that kindly.
Race is a totally unscientific, discredited theory. It does not exist. If race does not exist, then racsists do not exist!
Bigotry is boneheaded, not Biblical, thus without merit and actually is the antithesis of The Great Commission in the Bible, a charge given to all Christian believers.
Bigotry based on ethnicity is ridiculous. But that cuts both ways. If you think whites are cruel merciless denigrators of minorities, well…that is idiotic and illogical for if that were so, then no minority would ever succeed in America.
Hey, James, living in a “major South Carolina city” all my life, I have heard blacks calling each other the “N” word all the time. And trust me, there is a difference between “black” and the “N”‘s out there – and we all know it.
The problem is insidious! Here in Houston TX where I live the problem is that the indigent population is growing vastly faster than those who are paying the bills. Tax revenue is not able to keep up with the “sanctuary.” We have the second highest number of illegals as any city in the USA. They cost money, lots of it. The meager wages they make doing dishes and mowing yards doesn’t even begin to pay for all the services the city has to provide. Our school system is second only to Los Angles in failures. The numbers are manipulated to make everyone look like they are passing! DOOM! BUILD THE WALL!
Isn’t it just FASCINATING, that the major debt cities are all Democrat-run strongholds, and ALL push for gun control? Am I the only one who noticed that? City debt is just a reflection of National debt. ON-budget debt is approaching $22T. OFF-budget debt is past $200T! If we have roughly 320M people,do the math. Write out both #s, and start slicing 0s off both #s;1/1,3/3,etc. You get down to $22M ÷ 32 people. Comes out to $687.5K per person; for every man, womAn, and child…IN THIS COUNTRY! And how does US Gov’t plan on paying thAt size debt? “On the Taxing Authority of the US Gov’t”. You got that kind of cash just lying around? Because, IF NOT, Uncle Sugar has to take EVERY ASSET YOU OWN; house, car, checking/savings, paycheck, pension, EVERYTHING! NOW, do you understand why gov’t is SO DESPERATE to ban firearms?
When some men are worth more than some countries the economic system is corrupted; especially when these men get richer while countries and cities get poorer. The natural conclusion of such a system is most people will own nothing and everything will belong to a few trillionaires, dictators, drugs cartels and mafias.
We know the city managers and “leaders” have lied to the People just like the feds have which means when they cannot pay their bills, they will push the bills on us to pay for THEIR lies. It is a crime for which We the People must hold them accountable.
If we do not do so now, they will simply write it off using some excuse, escape responsibility, then the People will be forced to pay higher taxes which if we do not pay, they can then STEAL OUR PROPERTY to pay for THEIR CRIMES!
Folks, they are criminals no different than any organized crime syndicate and must be punished under RICO statutes.
When it does HTF, in our city, 600 police officers will have their hands full with 200,000 people. Of the 600, 75% of them will be with their families. 150 police ‘serving and protecting’ 200,000 peep. Think about it. Three shifts per day leaves 50 officers. Hmmm. This is why we prep.
Anonymous, I answered that question above and have many times prior. It is not exactly a secret of any sort why it all continues, at least so far ?
Sometimes when a vibrant healthy church grows, then a group of believers will go elsewhere “to plant a new church”. They intentionally leave to spread the Gospel, yet it’s far easier to stay and rest on their laurels.
Maybe the smartest thing to do is leave when a city exceeds 25,000 and never have large cities. Instead build a hub of little communities around a university, and museum and laboratory and factory.
In such a paradigm, the carrying capacity is always sufficient and there is no unnecessary replication, and everyone could homestead, and taxes are lower, and crime is minimal, and there are few fires, and little disease, and graft is absent.
Oh wait…that is common sense as it prevents central urban planning and a leader in a capital, and doesn’t rob from the rural villages to concentrate wealth and power and artisans and craftsmen.
Houston, Texas is broke as you can get. Can’t and won’t give the firefighters a long overdue pay raise even after votes yes for proposition B. Sanitation equipment such as garbage trucks are now 16 years old and breaking down on a consistent basis, they can’t afford new equipment. They are now outsourcing trash and refuse pickup to other companies. They can not fix roads or freeways without state and federal dollars even for local residential streets. The mayor of Houston is a moron I don’t understand why people continue to vote these idiots into office. Where is the financial oversight and transparency to the public? They can’t borrow any money either something doesn’t add up.
Idiot state and local politicians hired too many government employees and then mismanaged the state pension funds.
They did that because idiot federal politicians signed stupid international trade agreements, killingjobs, and they themselves hired too many government empoyees and then mismanaged the federal pension funds.
Why is that my problem?
Like Hell they’re broke. Check their Comprehensive Annual Financial Report; that is, their CAFR. You’ll find that the majority of the money they take in is siphoned off into their pension plans, among other things. Corrupt judges allowed Detroit and Stockton to declare bankruptcy without looking at these reports. Don’t take my word for it. You can legally do a request for these documents from any city government. You should also demand, at a City Hall meeting, that they submit their CAFR to an independent public audit. Then watch them stop breathing. They NEVER talk about this stuff in public.