unemployment rate in the city of Detroit rose to 28.9%

Captain Furball

The unemployment rate in the city of Detroit rose to 28.9% during July, the highest rate since modern record-keeping began in 1970.

_ZeeK_

and your point is??

brendansmith

Thats not good. Maybe Obama should try sorting it out rather than trying to be P diddy.

Captain Furball

_ZeeK_ wrote: »

and your point is??

Go to detroit?

Captain Furball

brendansmith wrote: »

Thats not good. Maybe Obama should try sorting it out rather than trying to be P diddy.

lol
I've seen a good few cities in the usa and let me tell you it looks like a third world country in parts.Really poor and run down.I hope they get out of this mess soon.

irish_bob

some of the blame must go to the unions who have left motor city a shadow of its former self

Manic Moran

Detroit is one of those cities you look at when you compare the murder rate in Iraq to an American city, and you realise that Detroit's is worse.

NTM

Overheal

Didnt the land values in Detroit drop to $1 in a lot of places?

Googled "Whats wrong with detroit":

yahoo answer wrote:

The problems with Detroit aren't in the value received / cost category. That isn't really a problem, if you got the money to buy what you like you'll buy it. What makes you think there's higher value in BMW? The problem is Detroit has been riding the big old boats like Caddy, and the pricey huge gas guzzling SUV's. That's the only way they could get a profit margin similar to what the imports are getting.

Now nobody wants an SUV, gas won't stay cheap & people have had that wake up call. The $11,003 deal is probably on one of the Suburbans, or the Caddy Escalade (what's with that thing anyway? never saw one offroad) that Detroit will be hard pressed to break even on these days.
In the small cars that they sell in S. America, Europe, China, etc, they do OK because they are made there at the prevailing wages, so they are on equal footing with their competitors. Here it's a different story.

In 1977 I ground some parts for what was Saginaw Steering Gear (now Delphi) I only got these parts because they were broke down on their machine. I was harrassed, nearly run over by one of their hi-lo drivers, and otherwise hindered in delivering these parts, by the same UAW autoworkers who were laughing about one of their friends having to get back on the line now that an outsource made his actions moot.

Give me a break, I grind these parts to a 0.0005" tolerance on diameter, I hold a maximum 16Ra surface finish, and keep three seperate diameters concentric within 0.001" and this pack of jackels only cares about "now they'll have to work"? I earned $12.50 / hr. for my skills, they got $25 / hr for their lack of skills, integrity, and knowledge. I didn't buy a GMC product for 20 years, though those hemmroids did mess up that same station for 4 years before the jerk running it was finally put out the door. It hasn't got better, only worse.

Get insurance for your workers in the state of MI. To get a decent policy it's in the neighborhood of $1000 / monthly, that's a pretty big sum for small business', but if you want decent help you have to pay it, though if an employee gets an offer from the big three he's out the door in half a heart beat.
The union has passed the days of their usefulness, they are as greedy as the finanacial companies have shown themselves to be. If they actually did half the work of the machinists, etc, that they depend on for their parts I might have a different opinion. As it is I've seen them at work and it's been just a matter of time untill this happened. The big three pay their union employees very well, then they ask all the suppliers to shave 5% annually off the cost of their parts. The end result? Manufacturing jobs being replaced by high volume lights out manufacturing with robotics, machinists leaving Michigan in droves, costs to small business' going through the roof, and 10% plus unemployment in MI. It'd be higher but so many have left, and they don't count those whose benefits have run out as "unemployed" I always thought that if you were looking for a job because you didn't have one you were unemployed. I don't know what they are called now, maybe welfare recipients.

Come visit the Detroit area yourself & see what it's like. If you don't figure it out yourself in a short while, there are many here who can tell you what the cause is. They aren't leaving for better vendor pricing, it's the union. Toyota pays half or less of what the big three pay their workers and the employees don't want a union, they want ot keep their jobs. Hard to do at union scale. The unions are why small manufacturers struggle to cut back 5% annually, they don't give vendors contracts like the unions get. Do I sound happy? Didn't think so.

imokyrok

A management that insists on building gaz guzzling behemoths might have something to do with the downturn in the US car industry?

Manic Moran

In fairness, the gas-guzzling bohemoths were a huge (the majority) part of the profits in the US car market. They just had too much overhead to make that profit count.

NTM

jank

But they cant buy small cars, ...that makes them european!;)

JohnMc1

irish_bob wrote: »

some of the blame must go to the unions who have left motor city a shadow of its former self

Agreed. Unions are to blame for alot of problems. The Auto workers Union is insane with their demands and now and new car out of GM is going to astronomical which will drive potential buyers away, which means they will have to lay off or they'll just go back to Congress hat in hand begging for more money

Overheal

Unions are just as culpable to greed/corruption as their emplyers, frankly. The Auto Industry is a great example of when the lunatics take over the asylum.

dubois90

so much for the paris of the west.

*that was the plan for detroit to be like the paris of usa*

it seems like a basket case.

JohnMc1

Overheal wrote: »

Unions are just as culpable to greed/corruption as their emplyers, frankly. The Auto Industry is a great example of when the lunatics take over the asylum.

Absolutely. Thats why the car companies will be back looking for more money sooner or later.

Overheal

Or Michigan could just do away with their mandatory union law.

JohnMc1

Overheal wrote: »

Or Michigan could just do away with their mandatory union law.

Sadly there would be a huge uproar in the liberal community.

Overheal

Just as well. SC has no such Union law as I understand it, and Manufacturing is ramping up nicely here around CHS airport.

SteveS

Union salaries in the auto industry are comparable to auto plants that don't have unions, so I don't think it is entirely fair to blame Detroit's woes on the unions. Detroit has been in rough shape since the late 1960's. If I had to assign blame, I'd say that years of corrupt and incompetent city leadership was a key factor.

Overheal

SteveS wrote: »

Union salaries in the auto industry are comparable to auto plants that don't have unions, so I don't think it is entirely fair to blame Detroit's woes on the unions. Detroit has been in rough shape since the late 1960's. If I had to assign blame, I'd say that years of corrupt and incompetent city leadership was a key factor.

Are you looking at pay or pay and benefits? Are you looking at lost production value due to union strikes? And for fairness and balance are you looking at working conditions between unions and non? Granted, Detroit is hardly the only city in America to have to deal with Unions. So you may be right in saying its as much to blame on corruption and backhand deals in the city itself.

SteveS

I was just looking at pay (which includes benefits). I can't find the original article, but I believe it was from this site. I am not suggesting that the Unions don't share any of the blame, but they have made some serious concessions over the past few years.

The other problem with Detroit is that their economy relied too much on the auto industry and hadn't really diversified. Detroit has also suffered because they don't really have any tourism at all. I have lived in Michigan for most of my life and I can count on two hands the times I have gone to Detroit. I was 18 before I had ever even visited the city. Seriously, when you plan a vacation, is Detroit one of your destinations?

Overheal

Helllll no: detroit is a giant ghetto. or so im lead to believe

Ulsteryank

That sucks....oh well, the whole situation does. Detroit and St. Louis are the last major U.S cities without a smoking ban. I never understood how Kid Rock is from there, but then he says he's a cowboy?

RonMexico

It is almost as bad as Limerick.

MagicMarker

I blame Eminem.

the_dark_side

Detroit relied on their motor industry the Ireland relied on construction. I was talking with a friend from Illinois who tells me that he has never seen as many white people begging on the street in his home town

SteveS

Ulsteryank wrote: »

That sucks....oh well, the whole situation does. Detroit and St. Louis are the last major U.S cities without a smoking ban. I never understood how Kid Rock is from there, but then he says he's a cowboy?

The Michigan Legislature has been working on a smoking ban for a while. There is a decent chance that it will pass this year.

Thinkingaboutit

Overheal wrote: »

Didnt the land values in Detroit drop to $1 in a lot of places?

Googled "Whats wrong with detroit":

Mayors like Kwane Kilpatrick also have a lot to blame. Motor City suffered from the decline of an industry, its politicians ensured that there few enough new industries to replace what was lost. A lot of it is now open space with much of the ruinscape falling victim to the wrecker's ball. It's centre has a fair bit of good early twentieth century architecture. If it does not want to become a modern Pompeii, that could be put to use.