Posted on 12/25/2008 6:39:29 PM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Spot on!
Terrific article.
Don’t forget Bob Seger...
“Thanks,” unions, collectivists, egalitarians for destroying a dynamic competitive system.
We don’t get to choose our own incomes, benefits or even occupations, - CONSUMERS ULTIMATELY DO THAT.
This is a Lesson they refuse to acknowledge and continue to resist, like little kids (or, like immoral thugs - take your pick).
These whiny Marxist union “organizers” will destroy all our economic freedom. They think buyers are their slaves, and that “capitalists” (people who save & invest) are demons.
What a bunch of morons.
I need a drink after reading that.
And the Magnum PI dude
Read some auto manufacturing history and you’ll see how time and place came together in Detroit. Start with Ford’s Rouge River plant.
Absent communist labor unions, rat pols and the federal government’s destruction of the black family, Detroit could still be a place to live and work.
...would be vacant!
Ignorance is bliss. Keep smiling!
Don’t know much about Detroit, but where I live (northern MI) it sucks wind - big time.
The commie governor refuses to return tax money I overpaid. So, tell me, where do I go to petition the government for redress.
I’ll answer my own question - there ain’t no place to go. Time for Silas Marner...
Let me post something completely irrelevant -
When I graduated high school in 1965, I had my choice - general labor at Nordberg, punch press operator at AO Smith or assembler at Milwaukee Valve Company.
I took the last position because that company paid a 25¢ premium p/hr for third shift. Made lots of bucks until Uncle Sam called.
I guess the point is that you could make big bucks with a high school education back then, and I don’t know if that choice is still available.
Tool & die is critical. Without that, we’re all proletarian simpletons grubbing for worms with sticks.
Thanks grellis. Detroit has bottomed out. Of course, there’s always folks around Michigan willing to dig the hole a little deeper each time that happens...
This happened on a flight ready to depart for Detroit .
Jack was sitting when a guy took the seat beside him. The guy was an emotional wreck, pale, hands shaking, moaning in fear. “What’s the matter?” Jack asked.
“I’ve been transferred to Detroit , there’s crazy people there. They have a lot of shootings, gangs, race riots, drugs, poor public schools, and the highest crime rate.”
Jack replied, “I’ve lived in Detroit all my life. It’s not as bad as the media says. Find a nice home, go to work, mind your own business and enroll your kids in a nice private school. It’s as safe a place as anywhere in the world.”
The guy finally relaxed and said, “Thank you. I’ve been worried to death, but if you live there and say it’s OK, I’ll take your word for it. By the way, what do you do for a living?”
“Me?” said Jack. “I’m a tail gunner on a Budweiser truck.”
If they spent a little more time in the cars they produce - rather than in private jets, they'd realize how uncomfortable American cars are...
Can you name any other city that the Dems have run for decades that’s in better shape? There’s a pattern ... they all have the sadim touch.
The Boeing Company.
Close. TWO Jewish guys (Paul Stanley from Washington Heights, Gene Simmons from Williamsburg) an Italian/Irish guy (Peter Criss from Williamsburg, albeit the northern end) and a German/Irish/American Indian from Bedford Park in da Bronx (Paul "Ace" Frehley).
BTW: Ace Frehley grew up in Bedford Park with Blackie Lawless from WASP, the latter of whom was in a notorious street gang at the time.
Spot On..
er..Except for their real names, though
Had the pleasure of meeting Ace at a bar in NYC a few years back. Nice man, although you can tell that he has lived the "rock star life."
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