too broke to bury their dead

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

If you remove the word "deserves" and replace it with something along the lines of "the city is feeling the impact of these decisions now", what exactly do you disagree with?

It's not like this just happened to Detroit - it wasn't happenstance or bad luck or whatever. The overwhelming majority of this happened by design, which sucks for the people at the bottom rung, because they are paying for the bad decisions of those at the top, but Detroit (both in the sense of the city, and as representative of American auto manufacturers) made some pretty poor decisions in hindsight. Indeed, disastrous decisions - and I'm not sure this is Monday morning quarterbacking, because the rationale given at the time was specious at best, and wishcasting at worst.

Yes, it's the word "deserve" that I find offensive. However, I have to remind myself of the source. This is the same guy who has posted on this board that the homeless should just be allowed to die because they didn't do more to help themselves. I have a compassion for humanity in general and don't think that anybody "deserves" something that they weren't directly responsible for. A serial killer may "deserve" life imprisonment. Someone who works their whole lives at an honest living after working hard to educate themselves doesn't "deserve" financial devastation. I will not argue that Michigan put all it's eggs in one basket but for a very long time, that basket supported millions of people in many states across many industries in this country. The health care system nationwide is on the verge of a crash not dissimilar to the auto industry and people are fighting a proactive tooth and nail. The banking system crashed and it was saved. Money talks, that's the bottom line.

It would be a wonderful world if we could all grow up with silver spoons in our mouths. Kevin doesn't seem to understand that in a capitalistic society, all class levels and job levels have to be present. We can't all be CEOs. We can't all be so wealthy that money will never be a problem. We can get Master's degrees and pour money into a retirement fund, save funds, be responsible and still end up without a job, on the verge of losing your home because you were born and raised, and chose to stay, in a particular geographic area.

Michigan is not alone in putting all of it's eggs in one basket. Many states utilize the resources that they have available. I don't disagree that the UAW was greedy, but, in their greed, they supported hundreds of thousands of other people in other industries: restaurants, theaters, boats, sporting goods, etc. If our society was able to completely eliminate the need for oil, where would Texas be? Why is there such resistance to moving to alternative fuel sources? Because people in that industry fight it.

For many of the people who live and work in the Detroit metro area, it most certainly is happenstance and bad luck. Many are, in fact, victims of circumstances over which they had no control and no warning. People who would happily relocate but can't because they can't sell their houses and if they walk away from their current home, their credit report will be so destroyed that they can't find a new place to live. Kevin tends to be closed minded to the fact that there are not as many jobs as there are people, let alone jobs that allow you to live a comfortable lifestyle. However, we still need people working those jobs. We are dependent on the waitresses, nurses aids, child care workers, etc. Where would any of us be without them?