ricatic wrote:
bmanning wrote:
Thanks for the insight Ricatic; I think living there has given you more perspective than the vast majority of us, for whom it's easy to develop an "out of sight, out of mind" way of thinking when NOT confronted with empty buildings and ghost towns in our daily life.
I usually try to stay out of these type of discussions/arguments, but I shudder to think of what may have happened had the bailout not occurred.
Sometimes understanding the reasoning of certain things involves looking deep, well beyond the obvious, and for some that's not an easy thing to do.
A lot of society desperately craves a black & white life and struggles with the grey.
Thanks for the kind words...
I grew up here in SE Michigan in a construction family that specialized in commercial and industrial construction. It is no exaggeration when I say I have worked on many hundreds of construction projects for companies that were direct suppliers, manufacturers, engineering companies and tool and die manufacturers. The company was always busy because there was so much automotive related work being done in SE Michigan and buildings were needed to house these businesses.
The automotive downturn has drastically hurt this segment of the construction industry in Michigan. The number of closed machine shops, tool sales facilities,steel retailers, engineering firms and light manufactures that built parts for the industry is huge. Their empty buildings sit as a testament to the depth of the problem.
Even if their is a sort of recovery for the industries mentioned above, the construction industry will likely never recover. With so many, numbered in the several hundreds, empty buildings being sold at fire sale prices when a buyer does appear, the need for new light industrial construction will remain at very low levels...I hope I am wrong...but this is why for the last 8 years, I have had to travel the country to remain employed...
Regards
To expand upon Rick, there were many that chose to walk away (or be thrown out)from their homes during this time. Banks could not resell the property. Many stopped paying property taxes. Many could not afford local health care. People, including blue and white collar individuals, stopped paying their bills or spending money because they had too.
In SE Michigan, the hospital systems have grown and improved because the patients had health care. The schools, receiving tax payer money, were able to provide top education and pay teachers. The hospitality industry grew because there was money.
All of this stopped. Without a quick solution, it would have never recovered.
Additionally, if you only base the numbers of affected individuals based on true employees, your are way off. GM and Chrysler have huge numbers of contracted employees. These were also impacted.
There was concern with the dealerships forced to close as it was, but, if there was a slow bankruptcy, more dealerships would have closed. Many of these support the rural towns throughout America.
So the past is history. Hopefully we can learn from it. Hopefully the mistakes will not be repeated.
