Weekly Standard: The Death of Detroit (Laughable, Harrowing and Appalling at the same time)

The Weekly Standard ^ | Matt Labash

[quesney]

Before I'd left [for Detroit], I'd asked an acquaintance if he was from Detroit. "Indeed I am," he said, "Give me all your f--ing money."

Another colleague, always mindful of my desire for maximum material, suggested, "You should go when it's warm, you'd have a better chance of getting hurt."

Somewhere along the way, Detroit became our national ashtray, a safe place for everyone to stub out the butt of their jokes...

But with millions of jobs on the line, including their own, the Detroit Three honchos went to Washington to endure the kabuki theater, first in their private jets, then in their sad little hybrids. All to get their slats kicked in by Congress (and who has been more profligate than they) in order to secure a bridge loan to withstand an economy wrecked by others who'd secured no-strings bailouts before them. The absurdist spectacle was best summed up by car aficionado Jay Leno: "People who are trillions of dollars in debt, yelling at people who are billions of dollars in debt."

It happens, though, when you're from Detroit. In the popular imagination, the Motor City has gone from being the Arsenal of Democracy, so named for their converting auto factories to make the weapons which helped us win World War II, and the incubator of the middle class (now leading the nation in foreclosure rates, Detroit once had the highest rate of home ownership in the country), to being Dysfunction Junction.

To Detroit's credit, they've earned it.

[truthguy]

The end of the domestic auto industry in America will not be the catastrophe that the Dem-lib old timers claim. US consumers will have to buy cars somewhere, and I truly believe Honda, Toyota, and a few others will quickly build new modern car production plants on AMERICAN soil. Instead of “made in Detroit”... cars will be made in Tennessee, or Kentucky, or North Carolina... by AMERICAN workers... working for multi-national companies.

Your post is breathtaking in it's ignorance and stupidity.
You really need to learn a little bit about manufacturing. First of all Honda, Toyota, and the rest DO NOT MANUFACTURE CARS here in the US. They do low tech final assembly. There is a huge difference between manufacturing and final assembly. This is chump work or better stated chimp work.

All the really good jobs in engineering, design, R&D, Marketing are offshore. The profits also go offshore. If we were to lose the auto makers it would be a catastrophe for American Manufacturing. We would lose our ability to manufacture cars altogether. If a smart kid in college wanted to be an automotive engineer where do you think he would go to work? The foreign car companies aren't going to hire Americans to do anything substantial. I can assure you of that.

Plus there would be no reason for foreign manufacturers to stay here. With US Auto Manufacturers gone what would stop them from leaving? Most of these car companies really don't want to be here. They only came here to avoid the restrictions on imports.

And once the Auto Industry is gone, don't expect it to come back. NO new AUTO COMPANIES are created without large government assistance in today's world. No one has the type of capital necessary to start a successful auto company. It isn't going to happen. You really need to study up on how manufacturing works in today's world.

[Lancey Howard]

Have you ever heard of Steve Earle? For some reason Charlie LeDuff, as he is portrayed here, reminded me of Steve Earle. I never heard of him before, but I will remember the name (and also the name Matt Labash) whenever I scour the web for worthwhile stuff to read.

FRegards,
LH

[paristwelve]

Part of my family moved from Italy to teach music and play violin at the old Detroit opera house. Those were the days! People would go to Opera riding in an Hispano Suza, dressed in a tuxedo. It looks like they’ve still got a good Opera program though. As it’s always done, Detroit breathes and breeds good music. For example, like it or not, the real Slim Shady is from Detroit.
Merry Christmas folks.

[alfa6]

marker

[Rummyfan]

But...but...Detroit gave us KISS, Eminem, Nugent, and Kid Rock!

Well, two out of four ain't bad....

[jim_trent]

I went to Detroit several times about 20 years ago. One time I went into a nearby cafe at lunchtime. It advertised on the front window that it had Mexican food, Italian food, Chinese food, and French pastries.

I saw when I got inside there was a pot of red stuff on the stove. When someone ordered Italian food, they scooped the red stuff up and put it on noodles. When someone wanted Mexican food, they scooped up the same red stuff and put it on beans. It did not wait around to see what they did with the red stuff when someone wanted Chinese food or French pastries.

[grellis]

If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.

[grellis]

"People who are trillions of dollars in debt, yelling at people who are billions of dollars in debt."

Maybe not funny, but absolutely dead-on.

[grellis]

...couldn’t we find it in our hearts to bring back the great city of Detroit?

Our hearts have nothing to do with it. You ask most Detroit residents--those who vote in socialists like Levin, Stabenow, Granholm, 0bama, etc--and they'll tell you that there isn't a damn thing wrong with the city.

Until Detroiters want true change, they will continue to get exactly what they deserve.

[dfwgator]

But...but...Detroit gave us KISS,

Uhhh, KISS is four Jewish guys from New York, yes they did "Detroit Rock City", but they are not from Detroit.

[Drew68]

It hooked me before I realized how long it was, and then I couldn’t stop reading.

Same here. Especially memorable was halfway through to the part about being a fire fighter in Detroit.

[grellis]

Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler should never have set up shop in Detroit, or Michigan for that matter. They should have each set up shop in different cities other than Detroit.

That would make sense if the auto industry got its start in the mid-1960s. It didn't. You make no sense when you disregard history.

[Malesherbes]

I read the whole thing and was completely depressed by the time I came to the end. I shudder to think what our USA will be like in 30 years.

I was born in California when it was still the Golden State, and I left before it became what it is now. Sadly, there are “Detroits” all over our country.

We are headed for a calamity, but maybe something good will come out of that.

[joe fonebone]

while i agree with some of your post i disagree with other parts of it. The engineering is already mostly done offshore, with the bulk (over 60%) of the parts manufactured outside the US. While it is true that you cannot get alot of work for the foreign plants here in the US ( I work in automation and assembly line machinery ) we are making headroads in. But, at the same time, the US manufacturers are buying more of their machinery offshore. So, as of right now it is a crap shoot.... I heard a union guy stating that we need to support the big 3 because the profits stay here, and do not go oversea’s, but the union also bitches when profits are made because they do not get their “ fair share “ ...sorry, but there is little to no difference right now between them......

[CharacterCounts]

Congratulations, Jim, you managed to go to the worst restaurant in Detroit.

[bert]

You completely misunderstand the problem. The residents of Deeetroit crapped in their nest. They did it to themselves. They are at fault. I have no obligation to them.

The correlation to trade is fallacious and with no basis whatsoever.

The blacks burned Deetroit and now are responsible for the sorry state after the destruction.

[truthguy]

Nobody dislikes the UAW more than I do. They ARE the major reason that Detroit is in the situation they are in today. That said we need to maintain a manufacturing capability within the United States. This is crucial for our economy and national security.

Look I don't care if we get our sneakers and wicker baskets from offshore. That's something we could always reinvent with very little capital or effort if we ever needed to.

But serious manufacturing is not something we want to lose. For if you lose the capability you eventually lose the knowledge that goes into it. For example if we want to start to rebuilt our nuclear energy producing capability we will have to go overseas for the technology. This is because the number of schools of nuclear engineering has declined to just a few. We don't have the latest technology because we haven't been building nuclear plants for over 30 years.

The same is true with any technology or manufacturing. We cannot afford to lose the KNOWLEDGE based jobs involved in the automotive industry. This is where the so called free market guys make their mistake on this issue. Starting up an auto manufacturing company isn't like a software startup or a restaurant. It takes too much capital and time and we don't have patient capital any longer in the US. They money guys want a quick buck and that ought to be apparent to anyone paying attention lately.

[truthguy]

If you really want to get the point of this article you need to read between the lines. Detroit is the worst large city (although not that large anymore) in America. But you know that there are a number of other cities that aren't that far behind. Oakland, CA is just about the same as Detroit in being dysfunctional. If it were not attached to the rest of the SF Bay area it would be in just as bad a shape as Detroit.

There are probably about 2 dozen or more cities in the US that are in horrific state. It would take too much time to list them all but I think the average reader understands this. I think the average poster to FR understands the common denominator in all these cities. For reasons of Political Correctness, I can't mention what the problem with Detroit really is.

That said what I really worry about is that the same type of stupidity that destroyed Detroit will destroy the US. This is exact same type of stupidity that got Obama elected. A very large percentage of the US population want something for nothing. These are the types who have been growing fastest through unchecked immigration and high birth rates. We are in serious trouble indeed.

[Crolis]

Same here...I started reading...got hooked and then couldn't put it down when he started writing about the firefighters. My wife is from Michigan, and we have family in the Grosse Pointe area. Every time we visit we pass through the Detroit area and see the husks of what were at one time proud buildings.

One of the Freepers on a previous thread pointed me to this site which photos these buildings:

The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit

[Philo-Junius]

If the current product line from Detroit represents the best of U.S. manufacturing capability, then we should just hang it up and apply for an apprenticeship in the E.U.

Studebaker failed; GM and Chrysler can fail. Neither are irreplaceable components of the defence industry; certainly neither represents state of the art manufacturing technology. In fact the counterargument is that allowing them to fail would free up the resources the dead-hand alliance of incompetent management, the UAW and the Democratic Party have imprisoned within GM and Chrysler and allow them actually to become productive elsewhere.

There’s nothing special about GM or Chrysler except their self-importance and sense of entitlement.