Detroit: WTF America!

Just been listening to a news program on the BBC about the 17,000(just this month) Detroit homes who've had their water supply shut off due to the economic situation(loss of jobs, mortgage foreclosure etc) in that area.

As someone who lives 4000 miles from Detroit It seems incredible to me that one of the most powerful countries in the world can't provide something as basic as fresh water to it's citizens.

A Muslim wedding party on the other-side of the planet can be be precision bombed from space....but supplying water to people back home is a problem?

Shock doctrine. They are trying to privatize sewer and water there.

Your numbers are off though. It's been about 19,000 homes since they began in March. 24,000 last year. Currently, 5,000 households are without water. Still far too many, but do you not have water bills 4,000 miles away?

Magic9 said:

Your numbers are off though. It's been about 19,000 homes since they began in March.

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They are not my numbers they come from the BBC who are usually pretty accurate compared to most news sources & they are taken from the last month not from march to this month.

tuk said:

Just been listening to a news program on the BBC about the 17,000(just this month)

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I believe Detroit shut off the water to people who refused to pay for it. The Detroit municipal water department has something like 100 million dollars in uncollected water bill debt as well as crumbling infrastructure that they can't fix do to lack of funding.

That said, I cant think of a single utility that I get that wouldn't get shut off cold turkey if I failed to pay my bills for any decent length of time.

Also not sure what this has to do with anything going on in the middle east but I'm going to assume the logistics behind laser guided munitions and getting people to pay their bills aren't exactly the same.

Magic9 said:

... but do you not have water bills 4,000 miles away?

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I have 2 wells on a lot that's only 3/4's of an acre, not everyone has to pay for water? I've never lived anywhere where water wasn't free.

Magic9 said:

... but do you not have water bills 4,000 miles away?

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No.

Health care + meds & college/uni is free also.

Caligula said:

Also not sure what this has to do with anything going on in the middle east

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You appear to confused about many things in life. I suggest turning off Fox News and picking up a book.

Caligula said:

....but I'm going to assume the logistics behind laser guided munitions and getting people to pay their bills aren't exactly the same.

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Your right the logistics are not the same ...it's a trillion times easier & it's cheaper to run some fresh water along a pipe than it is to bomb brown people from space on the other side of the planet.

Failed economy and social welfare system. Unfortunate since Detroit was once, not so long ago, such anamazing and vibrant city. I grew up an hour away and was born in the 60's, so my recollections of the place have always been of a once great city in steady decline. FWIW, my granfather once made a good living playing in the DSO and my uncle works here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_Building so there is connetion to the place in the genes.

So sad, but the story speaks of a larger situation in the world. I now live 10 hours away and see the same thing going on in my community, as good paying union blue collar jobs fade away. I guess nobody wants to pay the price for domestically made products. We have no one to blame for this except for ourselves.

As for WTF? Well OP, all I can tell you is that in this country, nothing is free and no one wants to have y to pay others expenses. That's just the way it works here.

If you ever want to see something tragically beautiful and sad, check out Anthony Bourdain's Part's Unkown segment on the city. Heartbreaking.....

Why be so small minded? Hating is silly. Isn't it? Why start a thread to judge the logistics of our municiple system unless your intentions are to rouse an argument.

Maybe, you need to stop watching the bbc too and make your judgements based on facts.

If your going to question any other countries integrity whether it be the US or any country for that matter than take it to the fuck you thread so we could tell you how we feel without violating FC's be nice rule.

No country is perfect and you know it. It easy to hate on others to deflect the negatives in your own life. Well @tuk guess what? The whole planets fucked up and the more time we waste fighting and bickering with each other the further we get from fucking fixing it.

Yes, I pay for water. And I pay for healthcare. And as much as that sucks it's better than worrying that some fucking extremist straps a bomb to his kids back and sends him into my daughters school.

I think I speak for everyone when I say fuck arguing, fuck fox news, and fuck the bbc. I thought this forum was about pot and the amazing things it does for both of us.

We're all the same, let's just get used to it!

RUDE BOY said:

I have 2 wells on a lot that's only 3/4's of an acre, not everyone has to pay for water? I've never lived anywhere where water wasn't free.

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Water is free, the expense is in the delvery. My community is on and taps it's municiple supply off of Lake Superior yet we have one of the highest rates in the state. Somebody has to foot the bill for all the infrastructure and mismanagement, might as well be the consumer and be based on user volume.

Sinking a well is far from free as well.

Caligula is absolutely correct in this statement:

I believe Detroit shut off the water to people who refused to pay for it. The Detroit municipal water department has something like 100 million dollars in uncollected water bill debt as well as crumbling infrastructure that they can't fix do to lack of funding.

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And I say this knowingly since I am from the Detroit area; should you question my ability to judge this.

@tuk several of your comments in this thread have treaded pretty heavily on our be nice rule. Threads that are made to provoke usually do. And since this is a vaporizer forum and not a political one, I'm closing this thread before it gets any uglier.