What happened to Detroit?

Detroit's demise is directly attributable and ultimately the responsibility of.......Detroit.

They elected their leaders and passed their bonds and built their debt and made the mess that is Detroit.
The citizens concurred with their votes.

It's actually a neat little analogy of where the USA is headed.

Too bad that every voter who supported fiscal insanity and political corruption gets to leave the mess and go vote like a moron somewhere else.

mikell
True on the Ronald Regan he has pretty much managed to kill the country with TEAR DOWN THIS WALL. All good AMERICAN jobs went overseas for pennies on the dollar. If it's the unions fault just explain how the country was strong when the union was and how it's now so weak just like the union. The largest union is government workers and we see how good that's going

Unions get abusive with their demands. Explain to me who a simple forklift drive is worth $30/hour + another $30/hour in benefits. How expensive would those products have to be in order to make an actual profit for the company at those rates? And further, how do you price to compete against companies that do not have that cost of labor for their own products?

reply to post by WhiteAlice



Funny you mention Boeing. Alabama is currently courting them and Airbus. I dont blame them after all of the goings on with the mayor of Seattle encouraging the workers to seize the means of production by force like she is the 2nd coming of Trotsky.

reply to post by NihilistSanta


It was a Socialist councilwoman, Kshama Sawant, that said that workers should seize the factory should Boeing leave but the mayor was in attendance. The Socialist part definitely points to a Trotsky wannabe. From what I can tell, there is a bit of a love/hate relationship between cities and their major companies that I imagine is probably from years of demands/exchanges to retain them. The terrible thing with Sawant's suggestion is that, historically, workers seizing factories has turned out very, very ugly every time that it has happened in the past (ie Ludlow and the Pinkerton) and it's completely out of bounds with the Constitution. After all, that minority that was the most likely to need protection, according to Madison, was the wealthy property owner.

reply to post by ExPatRat

What happened to Detroit?

Saying this often ruffles a lot of feathers but...

Up until roughly the late 1960s, the US auto industry ruled this land. Nearly every American who owned a car, owned an American-made car. As such, there was very little external competition and the unions and auto makers ruled the landscape.

Things changed... and it came home when OPEC embargoed the US during the 1970s. The US auto industry was caught unprepared as gas prices skyrocketed and imports... mainly from Japan, began to out-class GM, Ford and Chrysler. Brands like Toyota, Datsun (Nissan) and Honda began showing up next to brands like the VW Beetle.

Over the years and decades that followed, Detroit could not keep pace with quality and gas mileage because the UAW was unyielding, refusing to recognize the change of reality that faced the US car industry. The money the domestic industry needed to upgrade design and tooling, was not reached until the late 1980s and by then, it was too late.

From that point, the Big Three and the UAW were already on a dead-end road.

Today's situation is that brands from overseas build their vehicles here in the US in right-to-work states... where unionized closed shops are not required... while Detroit, still locked in to an archaic conundrum, is dangling on its last breath.

There's nothing at all wrong with organized labor. The problem is when that organization becomes entirely disorganized in relation to the reality of the moment.

reply to post by WhiteAlice


Thank you for clearing that up. I agree that type of opposition/demonstration is probably only going to be met with failure unless there is some kind of political upheaval. The rabble love it though and these rabble rousers are only trying to garner votes with tough rhetoric. I wonder if she could be held responsible if any such action would have transpired?

The illuminati told us about Detroid on Robocop...

reply to post by NihilistSanta


I don't know. When it comes to free speech, that which incites "imminent lawless action" is considered to be unprotected. Although she's suggesting something lawless in response, it's more of a threat than saying "do it NOW". IF Boeing leaves, the workers MAY do this. There's no immediacy or imminence to it but I'm not a lawyer. Just somebody with a few terms of poli sci under my belt, lol.

JBRiddle
One Word - Democrats

Two words , Bush family.

xavi1000

JBRiddle
One Word - Democrats

Elaborate, exactly how did the Bush Family destroy Detroit?

Two words , Bush family.