From a point of curiosity, how many employees are there for the city? I mean, If there's 700,000 people and 10,000 people lose there job, there's not doubt it will be painful. But to put things in perspective, we're really only talking about 1.5% of the city population, and many of those don't even live in the city limits.
There's no question that you cannot cut your way to success here. Even the GOP-tilted Detroit News states that Detroit needs to grow its way out of this. I think what's hard is that you can't grow until you cut first. And you can't know how you're going to grow until after the cutting is done.
The cutting will undoubtedly be painful. But the pain will also hit some more than others. There needs to be a shift made so that the private sector is the primary employer of city residents, not the city. This will be healthier for the city -- in the long run. But we don't get the luxury of waiting for the private sector to show up before we cut the city workers. You have to cut then gain. Obviously, this is scary for many reasons.
The people who will be hurt the most are those who rely on the city for both services and employment. The people who will be hurt the least are those who rely on the city for neither of those.
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