Of all the ruins left by the exodus of American manufacturing and the 2008 economic crash, perhaps no place embodies it so vividly as Detroit. Most Americans see Detroit teetering on the edge. Most in Detroit know that they've already gone over. The reality is bleak.

We watched Anthony Bourdain's "Parts Unknown" a few nights ago in which he visited Detroit and documented his visit. He described his actions with mixed emotions as he said he didn't want to participate in the "ruin porn":

I'd seen the heartwrenching photos before of ruined schools, churches, houses, and theatres, where the ghosts of their previous elegance and beauty could be seen amongst the dust and bricks and broken glass. To see the video of blocks of houses boarded, houses that would easily go for $700K in our neighborhood, to see the remaining people gamely making a life in their seemingly post-apocolyptic landscape was still nonetheless shocking and enlightening. There are no major grocery stores left in Detroit, abandoned homes are burned down by the remaining neighbors rather than be left to become crack houses, people make and sell food out of their front yard just to get by.

It's obvious that those who remain love their city, despite it being on life support. They take care of each other, and do what they can to retain some livability, where there are no tax dollars left for the city to provide what most of us take for granted.

It is both a casualty of the past and a premonition of our future if we don't look out for each other. Whither goes Detroit goes the other big cities and small towns in America that don't invest in themselves, that don't do what they can to prevent jobs from leaving our borders, that allow money to be siphoned off into the hands and bank accounts of the very rich.

Republicans say socialism will destroy America. I look at Detroit and wonder if capitalism might do it first.