ive been reading this message board but i dont understand why people say gm would go bankrupt and all of that jazz. They closed the plant to save some money and invest it. They were the most profitable company that year, there was no reason they HAD to close it. right?
share They want to make more money. And I understand that. It's the right of any company to make as much money as possible, but at what price? At what price does Roger Smith need an extra thirty million dollar raise if the result is the destruction of a city with lost jobs, poverty, a higher murder rate, rats, etc. I think there comes a time when enough is enough and saving a city is more important the buying your third Ferrari.
As long as corporations keep giving money to politicans and give them a reason to keep it going... companies will ride out the current system. Look this even happened under Clinton. It's been happening for years. Why hasn't it stopped? I don't know what excuse Clinton would have but I think the power of Bush has been the bible. I think people in the opinion of many, he such a "man of faith", that they put their trust him and don't question the war, the jobs he looses, anything. Religion is very popular where there is poverty and a lack of eduction; two things we've seen skyrocket in the past four years. As you can guess, I can't stand organized religion and this is just a taste of my hatred. lol.
Do you think a company like Nike that sells shoes for $100 can't afford to pay an American factory worker $8/hr. Sure they could! They'd rather pay some fourteen year old girl in Indonesia, thirty cents an hour! As long as Nike keeps making cool commercials and having big-star basketball players supports their company, we'll keep thinking about those entertaining commercials and less about the fourteen year old girl getting worked to a pulp in a sweat shop. BUT that is this country, America, and how we see things. We are a country built on imagine. We are a country that was built on Kennedy's cool looks in the 60's. Our music is less about music and more about sex appeal. Our films are more about explosions, and less about a decent story line. We are a country built on George Bush with his cowboy hat and pick-up truck, all the while wanting to believe that he's some hardworking farmer that can appeal to the "common man" and not wanting to see the free ride he got through college and the ten million dollar ranch he grew up on. It's all about looks. It's why Nike and GM get away with everything, because nobody wants to look at what the painting means, they just want to stare at the pretty colors.
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http://www.ckad79.com
Flint residents could have (and should have) diversified their economy.
shareThat's riduclous. With Buick City, Chevrolet, Fisher Body, Flint Assembly, Flint Metal Fab, Coldwater, Service Parts Operations (SPO) etc. There were more plants than rats from 1908-1989. There was no reason to "diversify." But you're right, it would have been nice.
What other business ventures? Anything in manufacturing would have gone belly up or moved (Helmac lint rollers). What, maybe build an amusement park? Autoworld. Tried and failed. It was a one-horseless carriage town. Pardon the pun. I was born and raised there.
Seattle should have been like Flint. They were tied directly to lumber, then Boeing, just like Flint was, but only to GM. In the 70's I think there was a billboard in Seattle that said "will the last one please turn out the lights" because Boeing was laying off everyone in sight.
But they got lucky because in the 1970's a small coffee company opened a store there... Starbucks. It took a LONG time for this company to really have an impact, but boy did they ever. And hmmm. They give benefits to their workers! No need for a sit down strike there.
And a son-of-a-rich lawyer was missing his parents (or something) and moved his little software company from New Mexico back to his hometown... Bill Gates and Microsoft.
So w/o those two, and a host of others, Seattle would have been Flint. It woulda been great to have a Microsoft in Flint, (actually they had TUCOWS.com formed there, which I helped launch, so that ain't all bad).
Michael Moore saw the decline coming, and got out in 1986, only to be thrust back when the "left coast" couldn't handle him.