Cities across the country are facing a red-ink cascade. On April 22, Mitch McConnell recommended that cities and states try bankruptcy if they’re struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. This is a terrible idea, and we don’t need to look farther than Detroit to see why.

Although filing for bankruptcy enables a city to renegotiate debts with its creditors, freeing future revenues for uses beyond interest payments on outstanding debt, the maneuver exacerbates negative trends. Bankruptcy does not bring back lost jobs or shuttered businesses, nor will it magically reconstruct a tax base.

While some cities with resilient industries may have reserves to weather the storm, many that were already contending with unemployment, stagnant wages and rising inequality will fare worse. Officials in San Jose, Calif., anticipate losses of $110 million in revenue, three times higher in relative terms than the 2008 financial crisis. The mayor of Dayton, Ohio, has modeled a future with 30 percent fewer firefighters and police officers, while the New Orleans mayor forecasts $100 million in reductions from the city’s operating budget.

Detroit’s 2013 bankruptcy and the experiences of people who endured it demonstrate the limits of a bankruptcy declaration as a cure-all. Instead, it’s important to invest in people directly.