Detroit Abandoned

The story of Detroit's decline is told in pictures.

Detroit has immense excess supplies of buildings and furnishings. But, the owners of these assets have abandoned them, because they no longer have economic value even as great as their maintenance costs. The land isn't even worth enough to scrape clean of abandoned buildings on it either (and while toxic waste cleanup risks are present in a small minority of buildings, it is minimal economic value and not environmental laws that explain why the other now useless buildings aren't at least scraped).

There are limits to the value of land and physical capital. Economic prosperity ultimately comes down to what people do in a place. Abundant natural resources and supplies of physical capital are far down the list of things important to economic development and prosperity. Many places awash with natural resources are poor. Many places with almost no natural resources are rich.