

Did you know Detroit Water shut off water for 17,000 poor residents? - thebnn
https://medium.com/local-changes/detroit-is-the-civic-canary-in-the-coal-mine-ed1c4d4326ad

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rmason
This is just partisan politics from the Schauer campaign. The shutoffs have
been temporarily stopped. Millions have been raised to help the truly needy.
There were multi-million dollar businesses that were also not paying their
water bills. You will never get politicians to take bold risks such as
rebooting Detroit if you rip them every time there's a problem. Both Democrat
and Republican governors have been kicking the Detroit problem down the road
for forty years.

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mullingitover
What is the utility supposed to do when people effectively cancel their
service via non-payment? The utility isn't a charity, and utility service
isn't a civil right.

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Broken_Hippo
The utility is a company: But humans actually need clean water for basic life.

Not everyone possess the resources to pay everything, for various reasons.
This isn't an excuse to deny people life, though. There are solutions that do
not involve being cruel to people or make them grovel multiple places just to
get water - but it seems that as soon as anyone suggests those, they label it
communist or socialist and try to make it go away.

I'd happily allow charities to fill in the gaps, but at this time, either
there aren't enough charities or money in those to provide the resources - the
one in detroit delivering bottled water won't be able to last forever, plus
bottled water is inefficient. It is cheaper than catching up past bills.

Do you have a solution that doesn't put people at the risk of water borne
disease, allows people to be clean an sanitary, and most importantly, does not
mean people are dying of starvation?

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mullingitover
> The utility is a company: But humans actually need clean water for basic
> life.

There are ways of getting assistance, it's not really clear how many of those
due to have utilities shut off have pursued them.[1]

The bigger issue is that Detroit is a wasteland, and it's not fair to the poor
that they're stuck in an economic cesspit. I'd be all in favor of programs to
get Detroiters relocated to places with better employment prospects.

[1]
[http://www.needhelppayingbills.com/html/need_help_with_elect...](http://www.needhelppayingbills.com/html/need_help_with_electric_bills.html)

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Broken_Hippo
Michigan might have higher standards, but most of the assistance is
underfunded (Indiana county offices would run out of money mid-year at times)
and the cutoffs are low enough in some states that working full time at
minimum wage is enough money to be denied help. There are a few crisis places,
but they aren't exactly well known, especially if you are newly 'poor'. Once i
lacked transportation, I couldn't even get to some of the places, and my
experience has been that utility companies do not offer much outside of what
is legally required (did short collections for a phone company; What you got
depended on state laws where you lived).

Detroit, you are correct, has unique problems. I think reloction might work
for some people, but it is hard to say where to put people. I often wonder
what the residents would do to the neighborhoods and city if money wasn't an
issue, but unfortunately that isn't going to help people have utilities or
street lighting or things like that.

Granted, I don't have actual solutions either. I support socialist policies
because from what I can see, they work, at least better than the patchwork of
assistance that is available in the US. Even with that in mind, it all comes
down to money, and the only ways I can see to fix it involve money and someone
or another is going to complain that they are 'losing'.

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thebnn
This only the beginning of the shenanigans to come called #Detroit bankruptcy
reorganization

