Illiteracy is Fundamental

That’s from WPRO’s Top Ten (Bottom Ten?) list of Detroit’s troubles:

The city’s unfunded liabilities top $18 billion.

The city owes money to over 100,000 creditors.

Nearly 80,000 buildings have been abandoned and many are unsecured.

Population of Detroit has fallen from 1.86 million in 1950 to 700,000 today.

Some 47 percent of properties are delinquent in paying their taxes.

Police take an average of 58 minutes to respond to calls.

Only 8.7 percent of violent crimes are solved and Detroit has the highest crime rate in the U.S. of large cities.

Manufacturing jobs in the city have slid from a peak of 200,000 to just 20,000 today.

Only 7 percent of the city’s eighth graders are proficient in reading.

Only 8.7 percent of violent crimes are solved and Detroit has the highest crime rate in the U.S. of large cities.

But according to Paul Krugman, Detroit’s just a victim of free markets.