Our Local Economy
It is hard for many people here in Michigan to believe that the nation's economy is actually doing quite well. Each man can only see through his own two eyes and things are not good here, no matter how the rest of the country looks. Michigan's economy looks like a European country's economy.
And for us it's going to get worse.
The difference between America's economy and Michigan's reveals that it is a regional problem rather than a general problem, but the rest of the country should look real hard at Michigan and see what is wrong here. What is haunting Michigan could easily come to the rest of the country.
Michigan has lost one third of its manufacturing jobs since 1999. Over 200,000 jobs that were in the midwest have moved to the sunbelt - not to mention the jobs that have gone to other countries. Michigan has lost 20,000 factory jobs in the last year. A lot of it is our own fault and changes have to be made.
Will wonders never cease? It seems that the UAW has finally woke up and smelled the coffee and realized that they have to work with the employers instead of against them. Our situation in Michigan could have been a whole lot different today if the unions had realized this 20 years ago. In fact, personally, I blame much of Michigan's economic woes on the unions, along with employers failing to plan for future technology. They have resisted the changes needed to keep our state economy afloat, and in many ways they own this state. The Michigan economic mindset is still 40 years behind the rest of the country and now we are finally beginning to wake up to the reality that it is a new world.
posted by shoprat at 5:58 PM
10 Comments:
It's a shame that Michigan is in such a mess.
"What is haunting Michigan could easily come to the rest of the country." You bet, and I'm beginning to think that's exactly what the moonbats want. :(
The UAW seems to have the biggest responsibility for destroying Michigan's jobs. Here in Oregon it was the tree-huggers in cahoots with the unions who destroyed our fishing and logging industries. Our unemployment rate here was 8.5% when I got here in 2003. It's now down to 5.5% because of California money for housing construction coming in. In the 1980s the tree-huggers managed to drive it up to 12% and we have a "lost" generation of white people who know nothing except welfare.
Yikes! ... That sounds pretty bad. Up here when a union gets locked out, replacement workers are trucked in the same or next day, and the union gets no sympathy. One was on strike for 2 years, and the company never let that union back in. The laws, and I'm not sure what it is, are intended to balance the power between unions and employers so that the business can still function during a dispute.
Gayle Unfortunately there are some who profit politically from the economic ruin of Michigan and they are in both parties.
CC Even John Engler didn't have the guts to face down the almighty UAW over RTW. If he had Michigan might be different right now.
PJC Wherever you are there is someone who doesn't want prosperity for some reason or another.
ABF It is bad but it could be worse. Here the laws mostly favor the unions though companies do have rights and do stick to them.
Interesting stuff. My parents live in Michigan but they are retired. I blame Unions for a lot of things. My husband had a good union job for 5 yrs. but the Union was so greedy the company went belly up and my husband lost his job.
I just hope it's not too late to turn things around...
I would not blame it all on the UAW. Management made these decisions. I don't think any of the commenters here are millionaires, but do I detect maybe a little envy that the UAW guys are better paid? True, now that the auto industry is in decline here the UAW guys are going to eat it big time. Let's remember that CEO pay at these companies is astronomical, and what are these guys accomplishing for this high pay? When can I get a job that pays millions for driving a company into the ground, and then get a huge golden parachute to leave?
I guess I think hard work should be more than just a commodity like soy beans or lumber. There should be honor in work.
When all these jobs go, they will be replaced with inferior jobs that pay less.
Federal policy over the last several years has directed growth towards the southern and western states at the expense of the northern states. Why is Michigan, which could really use some help from the Federal Government still a donor state (reaping about 90 cents for every dollar sent to Washington). It kills me when people from the south complain about high taxes when we a flitting the bill for their highways and social spending up here in the north.
I'm with Tim (for the most part) on this one, although I think there is plenty of blame to go around.
tim and tom
Regarding what I have said about executive pay for GM, go to my archives for January of 2006, and drop down to January 12th and read my posting called Don't Cut My Pay!. I do agree with you about executive pay but do not feel that this justifies union greed. Greed in one group does not justify it in the other. My attitude has always been that "greed is greed is greed" and it doesn't matter if your rich, affluent, middle class, working class or poor.
Tim's right, it's not all on the union, though their greed is half the issue. The other is managment too afraid of a strike to get hold the line.
The tea leaves were quite legible in 1973 about what the "Big 3" and UAW needed to do to be competitive, but it's taken 33 years to get to it.
Unfortunately, they may have waited too long.
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