Who Is Really Too Blame For The Down Fall Of Detroit

I lived in Michigan until I became an adult able to chose where I wanted to live. Based on my 21 years there, I think they are decent hard working persons who have a wonderful vision of how they would like life to be. The problem is, they make important decisions based on this fantasy world of how life should be, not how it is. It is an emotional goodie-goodie mind-set, a liberal mind-set In my opinion, a liberal mind-set in that state infects management, labor, and the state government. More than anything, it was the cumulative effect of decades of emotional knee jerk feel good decision making that destroyed GM.

I don't agree with you in this analysis, primarily because I doubt there is anyone working for the Big 3 who earn anywhere close to minimum wage...not with the UAW controlling wages. They push year after year for higher wages and have used their ability to call a strike, stopping production completely to hamstring the automakers. The UAW could care less about it's members or the industry...they're goal is, and has always been, to line their own pockets. I also believe that the Big 3 have shown little foresight when it came to the future of the auto industry in relation to the state of the world...and the country. They pushed their big SUVs as status symbols no self respecting middle class family could live without and extended the life of auto loans from the long standard of 3 to 4 years, up to 6 years so that people would afford the monthly payments on outrageously expensive automobiles. Who cares if you're paying twice as much for that big monster, as long as the monthly payment stays the same? And don't get me started on the ultimate status symbol...the Hummer. My brother-in-law has one...it gets horrible gas mileage and costs more than some people's homes...but being a big land/real estate developer he needed a vehicle that he could drive out to job sites that said, "Hey, I have a lot of money."

The only thing I would disagree with here is, why do other auto factories and industries thrive under the same requirements and conditions as the "Big 3"? The truth is, the arrogance and incompetence of the leadership of those corporations can't be dimissed. They took what was once the standard bearers of modern industry and destroyed it in a single generation. The beginning of the end of the Big 3 was when they illegally raided the pension funds. Before that, the pension programs were mostly funded by the interest made off the trust funds. It cost the company a relatively small amount to maintain the pensions for retirees. Since they raided the trust funds, but were required to continue paying the pensions anyway, supporting retirees has become a money pit. Before anyone blames the Republicans or Demorcrats for this, I remind you, neither did anything about it, even though both parties have been in a position to be able to. Another group that can't shrug off their responsibility in the fiasco are the governments of the city of Detroit, Wayne County or the State of Michigan over the last 40 years. They have done their level best to bleed their cash cow, thinking the well could never run dry. Even after it did run dry, they made promises to make things better, but only if they could take more money from the companies and the people. Then there are the unions. Those who continuously pressured for more and more for people willing to do less and less. The workers on the line got so bad that most new car dealerships had people whose job it was to ready cars for sale. How incompetent and uncaring can a worker be to leave trash in the bodies and engines of cars? How dishonest can a person be who would sit on a toilet reading newspapers or magazines long after the need to be there is past. The problems of the Big 3 are a study in corruption from the lowliest line worker to Congress itself.

The only thing you left out was the Unions pricing themselves right out of a job. You are exactly right... once again it was government interference in business that created the situation... of course the highend perks that the top people got doesn't sit well or say much in their defense either. I keep hearing about all the corporate jets, yet Pelosi tried to get one of those for herself on the taxpayers dime. At least the cooperate leaders had a reason for them... Pelosi just wanted to "put on the dog".

Well I would not want to see auto workers work in unsanitary conditions, but I would want to see their minimum wage be equal for the minimum wage of a worker of that category. For instance, if the minimum wage in a Western country for an auto worker with no experience was $10.00 that is what it should be. However living in Canada, I am against laws that reflect diversity. And i am against corporate tax. So there are things i would agree with, but some I would not.

Wow this is something you apparently feel deeply about. I truthfully believe that there's an over abundance of cars and that's what caused the sales to go down considering the factor that we are in a state of crisis right now. Granted it may have to do with the sales marketers not doing their job and getting the right kind of cars made for the likes of the citizens right now, but could you imagine buying a new car right now. It's a crisis out there and no one's buying cars whether they need a new car or not.

Me and my husband were just talking about this. I dont know who's fault it is, but man Michigan gets the shaft on everything! the carmakers are about to go under and who knows if we will bail them out, job are really hard to come by as it is, so I hear and their football team can't even win a game!! It's hard times up there in Detroit. I really feel bad for them. It's kind of not fair that one state is targeted like that.

The workers in these plants make far more than minimum wage - high wages, benefits and pensions negotiated by the unions.