2009/11/22 Ricardo Aráoz <[email protected]>: > Publius Maximus wrote: >> http://bit.ly/7bREPn >> >> - - - >> The abandoned corpses, in white body bags with number tags tied to >> each toe, lie one above the other on steel racks inside a giant >> freezer in Detroit’s central mortuary, like discarded shoes in the >> back of a wardrobe. >> >> Some have lain here for years, but in recent months the number of >> unclaimed bodies has reached a record high. For in this city that once >> symbolised the American Dream many cannot even afford to bury their >> dead. >> >> ... >> >> After years of gross mismanagement by the city’s leaders and the big >> three car manufacturers of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, who >> continued to make vehicles that Americans no longer wanted to buy, >> Detroit today has an unemployment rate of 28 per cent, higher even >> than the worst years of the Great Depression. >> >> The murder rate is soaring. The school system is in receivership. The >> city treasury is $300 million (£182m) short of the funds needed to >> provide the most basic services such as rubbish collection. In its >> postwar heyday, when Detroit helped the US to dominate the world’s car >> market, it had 1.85 million people. Today, just over 900,000 remain. >> It was once America’s fourth-largest city. Today, it ranks eleventh, >> and will continue to fall. >> - - - >> >> Another success story for decades of Democrat pro-union policies! >> > What are you complaining about? It's your beloved market adjusting > itself at the cost of lives and suffering (as usual). > The article you are citing states that "mismanagement by the city’s > leaders and the big three car manufacturers of General Motors, Ford and > Chrysler" are to blame, and not unions. OTOH it clearly states that the > reason for the present situation was that they "continued to make > vehicles that Americans no longer wanted to buy". Not that they have > strong unions.
Actually, the reason is because they could not make the cars people wanted to buy at profitable cost, because of union obligations going back decades that made the cost of labor too high. A personal example: my uncle worked 30 years at an auto plant, from the time he was 18, and has been retired ever since his 48th birthday. It's a great deal, as long as you ignore the havoc it wreaks on society. The vast majority of GM's "bad debt" was union-negotiated health and retirement benefits, many of them to people long out of the workforce. Politically speaking, there hasn't been a Republican sited in Detroit in many, many moons. 100% owned and operated by union goons. What's that about doing the same thing, over and over, expecting different results...? Many of these metropolitan areas, like my hometown, Cleveland, keep electing the same nanny-state liberal Democrats, no matter how bad it gets. Detroit is a great case in point. Talk about making things people don't want to buy... Ford is going in the opposite direction of our Glorious Innovator In Chief, who has mandated GM scrap SUVs like the Hummer and build green vehicles instead, and they're the one American auto company doing relatively well as the others continue to founder---or in any case, the only one not with its hand out in a mendicant position. They turned their ship around by cutting costs, not fleecing the taxpayer. What a concept! - Publius > > So please Bobby, stop trying to emulate your beloved Goebbels. > > [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
