Posted on 11/22/2008 7:53:40 PM PST by mathwhizz
“You just sit and you worry,” said Pat Weber, a construction administrator in Fennville who was laid off more than a year ago. “In the last year, I’ve put in for more than 100 jobs. I stopped counting after 110. It’s just so defeating.”
All around Fennville and its neighbors here in southwest Michigan, front lawns are peppered with for-sale signs and merchants complain about slow days. But while this remains a beautiful place with none of the obvious blight of Detroit on the other side of the state, residents say the hardship beneath the surface is very real.
It is the same story in other parts of Michigan, as the state’s already entrenched recession — in at least its fifth year, according to economic experts — digs deeper as a result of the recent global financial crisis.
New data show the state’s unemployment rate crept up to 9.3 percent, almost three times what it was in 2000, and, along with Rhode Island, the highest in the country. Just last week, Herman Miller Inc., an office furniture company based in Zeeland, Mich., announced that it would eliminate or lay off 400 to 650 workers, many of them in western Michigan. SKD Automotive, an auto parts manufacturer in Jonesville, Mich., where it is the largest employer, indicated it would eliminate 300 jobs.
As a result of the steady job losses that began in the summer of 2000, 1.82 million Michigan residents, or close to 20 percent of the population, are now on some form of public assistance, including food stamps and home heating credits, a record for the state.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
***The HOUSE?
Right, yeah, okay....***
We did it three times back in the late 1950’s.
I met a man who abandoned his farm back in the 1930’s. He even had a neighbor who wanted him to take over the neighbor’s farm as he also was leaving.
I remember as a child on the high plains when every 640 acres had a house on it. today there may be one house every 6000 acres.
Abandoning homes is nothing new. I see them round here all the time, and I am talking about $100,000 to half a million dollar homes! Empty.
US Army is closing Ft Monmouth NJ and moving it to Aberdeen Proving Ground MD as part of its Base Realignment. About 2/3 of the Ft Monmouth workforce will retire, thus over 2500 slots need to be filled in Aberdeen Proving Ground. They are looking for college degree engineers, software engineers and computer engineers. Check the DoD job announcements for Aberdeen Proving Ground.
>>A little reading comprehension on your part would have gone a long way in your discussion with me. Reread my posts, s l o w l y.<<
Put it where the sun don’t shine, doofus.
You have no clue who you are talking to, nor how many of my friend’s kids have been going for YEARS to do their confirmation community service hours cleaning up your part of the country. My pastor finally stopped it when parents complained of the way these kids were treated by the nimrods who sat on their butts with their “FEMA bought my Plasma tv” t-shirts. No one on this thread is looking for ANYTHING from you but a bit of sympathy. Apparently you have none.
Get over yourself honey. You look like an idiot.
>>We did it three times back in the late 1950’s.<<
Oh okay.
So within a ten year period, you bought three houses and abandoned them.
Dude, you must have money falling out your butt.
Or you’re doing something illegal.
Thanks!
They are trying to do it right. They could walk away from the house, but are very conservative and won’t do it.
God Love them!
***Where did the cash come from?***
We auctoned off everything we didn’t need. If it would not fit in the back seat (up to seat hight) and trunk of a 1954 chevy we didn’t need it.
We did it twice. How bad were the times? The bank never repo’d the farm as no one would buy it. When my dad got ozark fever we simply returned from NM and took ove the same farm again.
The third time a ne’er do well uncle had moved in. We had to move him out to take over the farm a third time. Still no ban reposession. That is how bad it was in the late 1950’s Arkansas.
Now Walmart money has made this a very expensive and nice area to live in but there are still high dollar abandoned houses everywhere.
There are several high dollar homes empty or abandoned half built within two miles of me.
***you bought three houses and abandoned them.***
No, we bought ONE house. This area was so economicly depressed that the bank never repo’d them as no one would buy them. When the old man got Ozark fever again we simply returned and took over the still empty home. The third return found a ne’er do well uncle had moved in.
How the old man got Ozark fever I’ll never know. We had NEVER been to or lived in this area before.
So you always kept the farm, did you?
That’s not happening today. You lose it, it’s gone and they garnish your wages in the new spot.
This is 2008, not the 1950s where you could get a car and run a cab service or bake pies out of your house.
We'll never see it. Rumor has it the Lions are moving to Division II.........
I wish you the best also...I am praying for our country and hoping things turn around soon-nyconse.
Funny you should mention that. Where I live there are two weekly papers, one called the Advisor and the other The Voice. For the heck of it last week I checked out the want adds. There was absolutely nothing in there.
There used to be a time when small tool shops would advertise for mill hands, die makers, bridgeport operators and even press operators. These days, absolutely nothing.
I think the major reason is because most of these small companies have closed their doors.
***So you always kept the farm, did you?***
Not because we wanted to. The second time we left he said he hoped he would never see this area again. The bank never repo’s it as no one would buy it.
A year later he got the fever and returned.
When I escaped from here ( Greetings from the President of the United States) I never came backfor about 10 years. Then I moved here to take care of my aged parents and found you still could not make a living here (1976-77). Then I landed a dream job! and attached myself to it like a leech and just retired a month ago. ( No, it was not Walmart).
My dad and other well to do uncle always said “Go where the jobs are!” So why did my Dad keep returning to this economicaly depressed area then? I still don’t know.
Lots of “Work from Home” and “Sell Avon” ads in our Source paper.
Well, we’re trying to do it, but they won’t let us just leave the house and return.
We either make the payments while it sits empty or they take it, we owe back taxes, garnish for the payments and we live in our Pop-out.
It’s not quite as easy as they say.
Or we could come to a kind state, sit on the dole and become part of the problem. We aren’t going to do that.
Me too!
Prayer is about all we have and we are confident Our Lord will keep us safe.
Yep, I get the same one you do.
Where do you live? How long do you think $100.00 lasts? Where will your children go to school? How will you pay for food. This just hop in you car and leave nonsense...is ridiculous. As for government ‘benefits’ like unemployment. If you are unemployed and eligible for such benefits and need to feed your family, you’re going to need take them. You want people to starve? Some of you must live in your parent’s basements and not in the real world. You guys who are bashing the Mid West should be quiet. The Mid West has dealt with hard times for a while. They are a tough group. I wonder how the rest of you will fare because if you think only the Mid West will affected in this downturn, you are unfortunately mistaken.
Judging from what I am seeing from the MI posters, is their home is the anchor around their necks. If they can sell their home and rent, then they can move around the country to look for jobs. Right now many cannot leave MI due to their inability to sell their homes. Any freepers have any good ideas?
I need to say this. Up until this thread, I have had nothing but kindness from FReepers.
Many have offered us jobs but it hasn’t panned out. Most give us a pat on the shoulder and tell stories of how they came through hard times without being judgemental. A long time ago, a FReeper said we could come and live on his land in TX. That land is gone, pitifully.
Maybe it’s that people are weary of the bailouts or are seeing that we are where they will be in a few years. But this thread takes the cake.
In a year or two, no matter where we are, I refuse to say, “Sucks to be you” because it’s not in me to do it.
It’s like my daughter who had Rotovirus and refused to eat at a year old. People would say things like “Have you tried eggs?”
Um, well yeah. I’ve tried everything. What, do you think I’m stupid? Like I’m going to smack my head and say “EGGS! Why didn’t I think of that?!?”
Hindsight is 20/20. Had I known it would be like this, we would have never bought this house and lived in our Pop-out.
The $100 is for transportation to another state. If you had no job in your current state, and you didn’t own a home, all the other costs are meaningless.
Once you are in the other state, you can do whatever you were going to do in the original state, only you might be where the rents are lower and there are actually jobs.
My county added a thousand jobs this year. And our houses are half the price they were two years ago, and we have a lot of cheap rentals.
And we’ve had a lot of illegal immigrants leave.
So if a few unemployed but hard-working Michiganders hopped on the train and ended up in our town, they’d probably be much better off.
I’m sure our county is not the only one with better circumstances than Michigan.
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