來看看底特律吧，這裏是美國的未來-Charlie LeDuff

我認識一位老婦人，十年沒打開過一次家裏窗户。她怕外面有人爬進來。可自家屋裏，瀰漫着腐臭味。

我還認識一個女人，她打電話給我説，看到窗外有具屍體已經在那兒六個半小時了。原因是當地的太平間大幅削減經費。在這裏，連死者都沒有尊嚴。巴格達都比這兒好。

最新消息？有個人被殺了，扔在一棟廢棄的房子裏，然後付之一炬。這裏有幾萬棟房子可供縱火犯選擇。

我知道有個11歲男孩遭遇槍擊，子彈打穿了手臂。警察把他塞進警車趕往醫院。這就是我們處置傷者的辦法。沒有救護車。底特律每天大約三分之二的救護車是壞的。

**我認識一個警察，他的警車底下有好幾個破洞。沒計算機設備，沒空調，里程計的讀數已經超過14.7萬英里（約23.6萬公里）。他的防彈衣已經報廢。**工資已經削減了10%。

我認識一個消防隊員，他因為一場大火而死。但不是被燒死的。當時他在一棟廢棄的房子裏，天花板突然塌了下來，壓在他身上。同事找不到他，因為他身上的定位報警器壞了，發不出聲音。等到發現時，他已窒息而死。

最近，在我們鎮上，911急救電話壞了15個小時，但大家似乎習以為常。急救電話正常運轉的時候，平均等待時間是58分鐘。除非“立刻有生命危險”，否則消防員不能使用液壓梯。一旦火災，大家想想吧。液壓梯已經好幾年沒檢修過了。

如果這些事情發生在紐約，足以成為傳遍全球的大新聞。但這裏是底特律，根本沒人鳥你。就算是在底特律，人們也已經習慣了接受這一切，不願提這些芝麻大的瑣事。

麻木的情緒以奇特的方式轉化為某種力量。大家都想盡辦法熬過去。

我們破產了。在底特律，我們早就知道結局如此。上週不過是用《破產法》第九條規定的程序對外宣告。美國歷史上最大一筆城市債務——至少180億美元。美國忽然又關心起我們了。

怎會落得這個下場？別人問我。畢竟，99年前，亨利•福特曾為底特律工人提供5美元一天的薪酬和額外分紅。還不到一百年時間，怎會落得這個下場？

簡單的回答是：城市管理不善、種族騷亂、白人大逃離、黑人大逃離、死人大逃離（人們通常會把死者從墳墓掘出，遷往郊區）。還有能量巨大、但不會做事的工會和管理層。證據？汽車工業數十億美元的紓困。感謝你們美國納税人！

還有就是令人驚歎的市政腐敗：前市長奎姆•M.基爾帕特里克（Kwame M. Kilpatrick）正在等待聯邦監獄的牀位，他犯有敲詐、勒索和受賄罪。他捲走了底特律數百萬美元，以及數萬當地兒童的未來。讓他下地獄吧。我可不想為了他的下半生支付半毛錢。不過，感謝你們，納税人！你們會付錢的。前市長的豪華律師團的費用也將由公眾買單。

底特律終於走上了破產申請程序。這有什麼意義？美國讀者們請當心，很快就會降臨到你們頭上：洛杉磯、巴爾的摩、芝加哥、費城。2011年，穆迪計算了伊利諾伊州三家最大的養老金機構的負債是1330億美元。（預計明年的數字將會更高。）這相當於6個底特律。

**底特律至少180億美元的負債，其中大約70億美元的抵押品是賭場利潤和發電廠的税收。這意味，大銀行都將得到賠償。剩下110億美元左右的壞帳，大約90億美元是屬於退休人員和現在的市政工人，如消防員和警察。這些債務源於退休金和醫保基金，這些基金被市政府忽悠了。**這批人是潛在的受害者。

簡單算一下，我們應不應該犧牲3萬名工人和退休人員，以拯救70萬人和他們的子孫後代？大多數底特律人的答案是“應該”。別輕易下判斷。我們感到很遺憾。但我們畢竟是美國人。我們是條骨瘦如柴的喪家犬。我們看不到任何希望。你在審視、端詳我們。

退休金、醫療補助和奧巴馬的醫改方案所允諾的福利都將削減。再次感謝你們納税人！

北美五大湖還有些希望。我們有飲用水源，利潤可觀的汽車公司，每年與加拿大超過1300億美元的貿易額**（底特律與加拿大温莎市接壤，是美加貿易的重要通道——觀察者網譯註），**世界級的研究型大學，還有，乾淨的財務狀況表。嗨，這對保持卓越地位有好處。亞特蘭大，你有什麼？

來看看底特律吧，我的美國同胞們。來看看你們的未來。給堆積的輪胎踢上一腳。如果你想把錢要回來，大可以去扒掉廢棄房屋的銅管和電線——如果你還找得到的話。可能有人已經搶先一步。

本文由觀察者網朱新偉譯自《紐約時報》Charlie LeDuff專欄文章《Come See Detroit, America’s Future》，點擊下頁閲讀原文：

 

   

DETROIT — I KNOW an old woman who hasn’t opened her windows in a decade, afraid that what’s outside will climb inside. Inside, there is the stale odor of dead air.

I know another woman who called me about a corpse lying outside her window for six and a half hours. This was because of cutbacks at the morgue. No dignity in death here. They do it better in Baghdad.

The latest trend? When a person is murdered, he is thrown into an abandoned house, and it is set on fire. There are tens of thousands to choose from.

I know of an 11-year-old boy who was shot, the bullet going clean through his arm. The cops stuffed him in the back of a squad car and rushed him to the hospital. That’s how we do it. There was no ambulance available. About two-thirds of the city’s fleet is broken on an average day.

I know a cop who drives around in a squad car with holes in the floorboards. There is no computer, no air-conditioning, the odometer reading 147,000 miles. His bulletproof vest has expired. His pay has been cut 10 percent.

I knew a firefighter who died in a fire, but not from the fire. He died when the roof of an abandoned house collapsed on him and his brethren could not find him because his homing alarm was broken and did not sound. He suffocated.

In our town, the 911 dispatch system recently went down for 15 hours, and no one seemed to give a damn. When the system is running, the average wait is 58 minutes. Firefighters can’t use hydraulic ladders on fire trucks to do their jobs unless there is an “immediate threat to life.” In a fire — imagine that. The ladders haven’t been inspected in years.

If this were New York, these stories would have ricocheted around the world. But this is Detroit and, of course, nobody gives a damn. Even here people have been conditioned to accept these things as normal, a nuisance, the buzz of a fly.

This numbness, in a peculiar way, is a sign of strength. People here manage to get along somehow.

So we went broke, bust, bankrupt. We’ve known that in Detroit for years. Only now it is official with a Chapter 9 filing last week. The biggest municipal default in United States history — at least $18 billion. Suddenly, America gives a rip.

How did it get this way, I’m asked? After all, it was just 99 years ago that Henry Ford offered the workingman $5 a day and profit-sharing. How, in less than a century, did it come to this?

The short answers: municipal mismanagement, race riots, white flight, black flight, dead flight (people routinely disinter their deceased and relocate them to the suburbs). There were the overreaching unions and management that couldn’t balance a ball. Proof? The multibillion-dollar bailout of the auto industry. Thank you, American taxpayers!

Then there is our spectacular civic corruption: A former mayor, Kwame M. Kilpatrick, waits for a bed in federal prison, convicted of extortion, racketeering and bribery. He looted the city of millions of dollars and stole the future of thousands of children. They can send him to hell for all I care. I don’t want to pay for his upkeep. But thank you, taxpayers! You will pay for it. And the ex-mayor’s team of super lawyers will also be paid with the public dime.

So Detroit files for bankruptcy. What does this mean? Pay close attention because it may be coming to you soon, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia. In 2011, Moody’s calculated the unfunded liabilities for Illinois’s three largest state-run pension plans to be $133 billion. (It is expected to be even larger this year.) That’s the size of six Detroit bankruptcies — give or take a few hundred million.

Of Detroit’s debt of at least $18 billion, about $7 billion is secured by collateral like casino revenues and utility taxes. That means creditors — read: big banks — will get paid. Of the remaining $11 billion dollars or so in unsecured debt, about $9 billion is owed to retirees and current municipal workers, people like firefighters and police officers. These debts come in the form of promised pension checks and health care benefits, all backed by a false, unsecured promise. These are the people who are likely to lose out.

In simple math, do we sacrifice 30,000 former and current workers to save a city of 700,000 people and their progeny? Most Detroiters will tell you yes. Don’t judge. We feel bad about it. But we’re simply Americans. We are a gaunt dog. We are desperate. And you are watching and studying us.

Pension checks will be much smaller than planned and health care benefits will get foisted off on Medicaid and Obamacare. Thanks again, taxpayers!

There is hope up here on the Great Lakes. We have fresh water, profitable auto companies, more than $130 billion a year in trade with Canada crossing through our city, a world-class research university and, eventually, a clean balance sheet. Hey, it helps to be first. What do you have, Atlanta?

So come visit Detroit, my fellow Americans. Come take a look at your future. Come give the tires a kick. And if you want your money back, come strip copper pipes and wiring from the abandoned buildings — if you can find any copper. Chances are, someone beat you to it.

Charlie LeDuff, a reporter at the TV station WJBK and a former New York Times correspondent, is the author of “Detroit: An American Autopsy.”