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Not a single mention of the factors I see living here in Michigan:

1. The auto industry, while not the force that it was in 1978, is still the source of many many jobs. The remaining jobs were thought to be safe 10 years ago, but now we see massive layoffs, the bankruptcy of Delphi, and the movement offshore of manufacturing.

2. Health care is expensive here. The health insurance scene is dominated by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, which has to be the worst-run organization on the face of the earth. I know of no employer who is happy w/ BCBS, but there are precious few alternatives. The State of Michigan has Medicare and Medicaid thru BCBS, as well as the health insurance of virtually every public employee in the State.

3. Why do we have a full-time paid legislature? Does this make us significantly better-run than neighboring Indiana, which has a part-time legislature?

4. We have term limits here that are too short. The effect is that every politician is busy job-hopping, something like a big Musical Chairs contest. Worse yet, the House never gets leadership organized. I'd propose 12-year limits for both houses.

"Not a single mention of the factors I see living here in Michigan."

Let me tell you a story:

In 1958, as a young Naval Aviator I drove the family back to Flushing (near Flint) from NAS Norfolk to visit my Aunt and Uncle over Christmas. My Uncle was Plant Engineer of the large Fisher Body Plant in Flint.

A discussion ensued regarding the outlandish union pay garnered by the labor force in the automotive industry. It turned out that the Laborer-sweeper in the Fisher Body plant made more money than I did -- on flight pay -- with two masters degrees.

I was a bit stunned. But, I put the family back into our Volkswagen Bus and drove home, duly noting well over 20,000 Morris Minors, Renaults and Bugs stored on virtually every bit of vacant land adjacent to the offloading docks in Norfolk.

And, I bought one -- becoming a two Volks family.

The rest is history. Detroit's demise has been a long time coming -- and very well deserved, I might add.

Despicable quality control; lack of innovation; and failure to learn and implement global marketing strategies -- all the time constrained by the death-knell of unsustainable union contracts.

Fini Detroit!

TWol,

BCBS may not be the only reason. If my memory is correct MI has one of the unhealthy populations of any state, i.e. overweight etc.

I heard at breakfast today of another housing development of McMansions in SE MI that are all foreclosed, and the hits just keep on coming.....

When the imports aren't kicking their butts, the Big Three are experiencing self-inflicted wounds.

While the Big Three have improved quality, their marketing is horrid. There's one answer that fits everything - run more TV ads. Chevy has a Sliverado launch commercial with images of Rosa Parks, King, Nixon, Vietnam, protesters, a forest fire and Hurricane Katrina. Sure makes me want to but a truck.

Chrysler launched the "Dr. Z." ads in July and suffered a 35% sales decline even though it brought back "employee pricing" for everyone. Ford is running commercials that show people rather than cars. Makes sense to me.

VW of America is also located in the Detroit area and its marketing director (officially known as Director of Brand Innovation) is a total nut-case.

They don't make bad cars in Detroit, but they sure make tons of bad adds.

At the same time, Toyota is reducing its media budget and taking vehicles to more events where people can actually see and touch them. Why do something dumb like that? SARC.