The road to bankruptcy is paved with socialist intentions – consuming magic money trees whilst planting none
do no work, pay no taxes, print debt/money, go bankrupt
From here:
Report: 5 largest U.S. cities don’t have enough money to pay bills | National | thecentersquare.com
“(The Center Square) – The five largest cities in the United States, all led by Democrats, did not have enough money to pay their bills in 2024, according to a new Truth in Accounting report first provided to The Center Square. “
It’s an all too familiar lesson -socialism is only ever sustained by making undeliverable electoral promises to buy votes from those that demand more from the state than they contribute to satisfy th mantra ‘do no work, pay no taxes, print debt’.
Combine that mantra with the lying, cheating and stealing - corruption -and the longer socialism is employed in governments of all sorts – local, city, state and country the faster the road to bankruptcy is travelled.
Here’s a manifestation of that road to bankruptcy being followed by the largest US cities.
“Its Financial State of the Cities 2026 report examines the fiscal health of the cities of Los Angeles, Houston, Philadelphia, Chicago and New York City, with New York City again leading the U.S. with the greatest taxpayer burden.
“The analysis is based on the most recent audited Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports from fiscal year 2024. It assesses the amount of money city governments need to pay their bills, dividing this number by the estimated number of city taxpayers. The difference is the taxpayer burden, or what every taxpayer owes in order to pay off the city’s debt, TIA explains.
According to the data, New York City residents have the highest taxpayer burden of $61,700, followed by Chicagoans’ $42,600, Philadelphians’ $17,000, Houstonians’ $4,800 and Los Angeles residents’ $1,300.
At the end of fiscal 2024, all five cities didn’t have enough money to pay their bills despite having balanced budget requirements. In order “to claim their budgets were balanced, as is required by law in the five cities, elected officials” didn’t include “the full cost of government in their budget calculations and shifted costs onto future taxpayers,” TIA said.
Combined, the five cities had $144 billion in assets; their combined debt, including unfunded pension and other post-employment benefits (OPEB), totaled $384 billion. Their combined shortfall was $240 billion, according to the analysis. This included $92 billion in pension debt and $112 billion in OPEB, mainly retiree health care, debt.”
A hundred billion here, a hundred billion there and pretty soon you are talking real money – trillions of dollars. The mantra extends to the federal level. Here is the US debt clock that is hurtling toward 39 trillion bucks:
U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time
Back to the TIA article.
“The report also grades each city based on its taxpayer burden. New York City and Chicago received F grades; Philadelphia received a D; Houston and Los Angeles received C grades for fiscal health.
It recommends the following(amongst other recommendations:
“Present a net position that accurately reflects the government’s f financial health, without distortion from misleading or confusing deferred items.
• Require that the city and retirement system annual reports undergo an independent audit by a certified public accounting firm.
• Enact rules requiring all retirement benefit plans to be funded using the Actuarially Determined Contribution amount, so that contributions are sufficient to accumulate the required assets to pay benefits when due, mirroring what ERISA did in the private sector.”
I would complete zero based budgeting for staff levels and their salaries/benefits immediately to prevent the deficits from continuing to balloon into the stratosphere!
I wonder how many city employees vote democrat – 90 per cent, 95 pr cent?
If ever a DOG was needed at grass roots level, it is in these cities (and, in fact all of cities in the US whose bloated salaries and numbers are out of control). People are paying taxes for (socialist)?) idiots in administration.
Onwards!!!
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News from Germany: The once proud Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart head of the state of Baden-Württemberg one of the two strongest industrial clusters in Germany (Greater Stuttgart and Greater Munich) has faced a rapid decline.
In 2018 still being debt free (!) the town is now at the edge bankrott/insolvency.
Happened quickly. In charge of the desaster are the ruling conservatives (CDU) and green party.
Important reason: decline of business-tax incomes to the town by local industries by 40%. Because of decarbonising-agenda? Probably not the only reason.
The people who worked or are working for local government in these cities and others are in for a nasty surprise when they retire, as are existing retirees. Unfunded pensions and medical benefits are going to result in these municipalities being unable to pay pensions or medical benefits.