Detroit and the USA

[Donald Aquilano]

An Article on just how bad a condition Detroit is in......

(Frosty Wooldridge (born 1947) is a US journalist, writer, environmentalist, traveler)

By Frosty Wooldridge

For 15 years, from the mid 1970's to 1990, I worked in Detroit, Michigan. I watched it descend into the abyss of crime, debauchery, gun play, drugs, school truancy, car-jacking, gangs, and human depravity. I watched entire city blocks burned out. I watched graffiti explode on buildings, cars, trucks, buses, and school yards. Trash everywhere!

Detroiters walked through it, tossed more into it, and ignored it. Tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands today exist on federal welfare, free housing, and food stamps!

With Aid to Dependent Children, minority women birthed eight to 10, and in one case, one woman birthed 24 children as reported by the Detroit Free Press, all on American taxpayer dollars.

A new child meant a new car payment, new TV, and whatever mom wanted. I saw Lyndon Baines Johnson's "Great Society" flourish in Detroit. If you give money for doing nothing, you will get more hands out taking money for doing nothing.

Mayor Coleman Young, perhaps the most corrupt mayor in America, outside of Richard Daley in Chicago, rode Detroit down to its knees. He set the benchmark for cronyism, incompetence, and arrogance. As a black man, he said, "I am the MFIC." The IC meant "in charge".

You can figure out the rest. Detroit became a majority black city with 67 percent African-Americans.

As a United Van Lines truck driver for my summer job from teaching math and science, I loaded hundreds of American families into my van for a new life in another city or state.

Detroit plummeted from 1.8 million citizens to 912,000 today. At the same time, legal and illegal immigrants converged on the city, so much so, that Muslims number over 300,000. Mexicans number 400,000 throughout Michigan, but most work in Detroit. As the whites moved out, the Muslims moved in.

As the crimes became more violent, the whites fled. Finally, unlawful Mexicans moved in at a torrid pace. Detroit suffers so much shoplifting that grocery stores no longer operate in many inner city locations. You could cut the racial tension in the air with a knife!

Detroit may be one of our best examples of multiculturalism: pure dislike, and total separation from America.

Today, you hear Muslim calls to worship over the city like a new American Baghdad with hundreds of Islamic mosques in Michigan, paid for by Saudi Arabiaoil money. High school flunk out rates reached 76 percent last June, according to NBC's Brian Williams. Classrooms resemble more foreign countries than America. English? Few speak it! The city features a 50 percent illiteracy rate and growing.

Unemployment hit 28.9 percent in 2009 as the auto industry vacated the city. In this week's Time Magazine October 4, 2009, "The Tragedy of Detroit: How a great city fell, and how it can rise again," I choked on the writer's description of what happened. "If Detroit had been ravaged by a hurricane, and submerged by a ravenous flood, we'd know a lot more about it," said Daniel Okrent. "If drought, and carelessness had spread brush fires across the city, we'd see it on the evening news every night.

Earthquake, tornadoes, you name it, if natural disaster had devastated the city that was once the living proof of American prosperity, the rest of the country might take notice.

But Detroit, once our fourth largest city, now 11th, and slipping rapidly, has had no such luck. Its disaster has long been a slow unwinding that seemed to remove it from the rest of the country. Even the death rattle that in the past year emanated from its signature industry brought more attention to the auto executives than to the people of the city, who had for so long been victimized by their dreadful decision making."

As Coleman Young's corruption brought the city to its knees, no amount of federal dollars could save the incredible payoffs, kick backs, and illegality permeating his administration. I witnessed the city's death from the seat of my 18-wheeler tractor trailer because I moved people out of every sector of decaying Detroit . "By any quantifiable standard, the city is on life support. Detroit 's treasury is $300 million short of the funds needed to provide the barest municipal services," Okrent said. "The school system, which six years ago was compelled by the teachers' union to reject a philanthropist's offer of $200 million to build 15 small, independent charter high schools, is in receivership. The murder rate is soaring, and 7 out of 10 remain unsolved. Three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans , unemployment in that city hit a peak of 11%. In Detroit , the unemployment rate is 28.9%.

That's worth spelling out: twenty-eight point nine percent." At the end of Okrent's report, and he will write a dozen more about Detroit, he said, "That's because the story of Detroit is not simply one of a great city's collapse, it's also about the erosion of the industries that helped build the country we know today. The ultimate fate of Detroit will reveal much about the character of America in the 21st century. If what was once the most prosperous manufacturing city in the nation has been brought to its knees, what does that say about our recent past? And if it can't find a way to get up, what does that say about our future?"

As you read in my book review of Chris Steiner's book, "$20 Per Gallon", the auto industry won't come back. Immigration will keep pouring more, and more uneducated third world immigrants from the Middle East into Detroit , thus creating a beachhead for Islamic hegemony in America. If 50 percent illiteracy continues, we will see more homegrown terrorists spawned out of the Muslim ghettos of Detroit . Illiteracy plus Islam equals walking human bombs.

You have already seen it in Madrid, Spain; London, England, and Paris, France with train bombings, subway bombings and riots. As their numbers grow, so will their power to enact their barbaric Sharia Law that negates republican forms of government, first amendment rights, and subjugates women to the lowest rungs on the human ladder. We will see more honor killings by upset husbands, fathers, and brothers that demand subjugation by their daughters, sisters and wives. Muslims prefer beheadings of women to scare the hell out of any other members of their sect from straying. Multiculturalism: what a perfect method to kill our language, culture, country, and way of life.

I PRAY EVERYONE THAT READS THIS REALIZES THAT IF WE DON'T STAND UP, AND SCREAM AT WASHINGTON, AND OUR STATE, CITY, AND LOCAL LEADERS THIS IS WHAT AWAITS THE REST OF AMERICA. IF YOU FOLLOW THE NEWS AT ALL YOU KNOW THIS HAS HAPPENED IN ENGLAND, FRANCE AND SPAIN.

IF YOU THINK THIS IS JUST A BUNCH OF HOOEY AND YOU FEEL NO DUTY TO FIGHT FOR THIS COUNTRY, THEN I'M SORRY, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT WILL TAKE FOR YOU TO STAND AND FIGHT.

[500,000]

...

[inernetster]

Our current democratic administration is trying to undo all the woes including to Detroit that the last republican administration allowed and caused to happen.
I would like all of us to have 2 wings and fly

[fab]

Very sad. Try searching for Thomas Sowell and Walter E Williams at YouTube, and you should here clear explanations to the causes and solutions to such problems.

[DomainsInc]

hmm, i don't know. the article seems a bit racist. Growing up close to detriot all my life its always been viewed as a shithole. Lots of my dads friends left in the late 60s and never looked back.

[Donald Aquilano]

Our current democratic administration is trying to undo all the woes including to Detroit that the last republican administration allowed and caused to happen.
I would like all of us to have 2 wings and fly

If you had read the article you would know that Detroit's problems have been going on for a lot longer then the past administration.

[Gerry]

I am amazed at the OP's outrage over money being spent, taxes, etc when at the same time whining about all the ills of Detroit, illiteracy rates, etc.

Do you see the conflicted messages you are sending?

Don't spend, dammit! and in the next breath you're saying Someone has to pay for this stuff (ie. education).

What happened in Detroit is NOT a surprise to many people who have lived in and lived through a single industry economy.

I have personally seen this, witnessed this, and lived this in West Virginia with the Coal Mines/Railroad and now in North Carolina with the Textile/Furniture Industry.

The problem with Detroit was, DETROIT!

Do you have any idea what the avg wage was on the auto assembly line? Do you have any idea how much one of the factory janitors makes per hour?

About 20 years ago, the UMW (united mine workers) essentially priced themselves out of the coal industry. This is no joke - it was cheaper to dig the coal in Eastern Russian block countries, take it by rail to port, load it up on ships, send it all the way over the Atlantic to the US; it was cheaper per ton of coal to do all of that than it was to dig in the mountains of West Virginia and send it 300 miles by rail to Hampton Roads, Virginia.

I have now witnessed towns become ghost towns literally overnight as tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of textile and furniture making jobs have gone to Asia and Malaysia. I can no longer think of any fabric textile manufacturer left in the US. Furniture? Well, thank God for Bob Timberlake. When Lexington Furniture announced closure of their plants and were moving to asia, Bob Timberlake told Lexington Furniture that they would have to remove his name from their line as he would not support putting his name on a foreign made product. Lexington Furniture relented and kept the Bob Timberlake line here.

This was a forbearer of things to come with the auto industry. The good ol' boys way of doing business continued unabated and without any thought of the future thanks to the United Auto Workers. When a janitor sweeping the floor makes $22 an hour and an assembly line person makes $46 per hour and they can not produce a product worthy enough and reliable enough for people to want to buy it, let alone affordable enough to buy it.

So nobody in Detroit saw this coming? bullshit.

They were essentially a one horse town and when that horse ran away, no one had a way to get out...no real skills, no education, no other training. To blame immigrants or Muslims for the ills of Detroit is nothing more than throwing a dart and hoping it lands on something other than the real ones to blame for this problem - the auto industry itself, the banks, the Unions, and the people who ran Detroit and the State of Michigan.

So now you want it all fixed up and made pretty again but don't want to pay for it and want to blame Muslims, the blacks, and mexicans for ****ing up a sweet deal making a shit load of money making something that no one wanted to buy.

Any attempt to regulate further emissions and safety issues was strongly opposed and lobbied against.

Again, it was the government interfering.

And now, FINALLY, you want the government to interfere with what Detroit has now become, clean it up, and return it do its glory days.

You know...its astonishing how you curse them when they are here and then you curse them when they are not here.

Welcome to the Tea Party mentality and the new Republic...

[HomerJ]

might wanna peep this video. i saw it some time ago, but just went to youtube and typed "detroit" and it was the #1 result now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hhJ_49leBw

[fab]

Do you see the conflicted messages you are sending?

Don't spend, dammit! and in the next breath you're saying Someone has to pay for this stuff (ie. education).

Where do you see that in the op.

[Raider]

Our current democratic administration is trying to undo all the woes including to Detroit that the last republican administration allowed and caused to happen.
I would like all of us to have 2 wings and fly

What "woes" are those?

Aside from your blame Bush rhetoric, just how is this administration trying to improve the city of Detroit? or cities like St. Louis that have very crime rates?

---------- Post added at 11:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:14 PM ----------

Where do you see that in the op.

You should know by now that Doc makes it up as he goes... When he has nothing to debate his opponent with, he creates it.

[H2FC]

I am amazed at the OP's outrage over money being spent, taxes, etc when at the same time whining about all the ills of Detroit, illiteracy rates, etc.

Do you see the conflicted messages you are sending?

Don't spend, dammit! and in the next breath you're saying Someone has to pay for this stuff (ie. education).

What happened in Detroit is NOT a surprise to many people who have lived in and lived through a single industry economy.

I have personally seen this, witnessed this, and lived this in West Virginia with the Coal Mines/Railroad and now in North Carolina with the Textile/Furniture Industry.

The problem with Detroit was, DETROIT!

Do you have any idea what the avg wage was on the auto assembly line? Do you have any idea how much one of the factory janitors makes per hour?

About 20 years ago, the UMW (united mine workers) essentially priced themselves out of the coal industry. This is no joke - it was cheaper to dig the coal in Eastern Russian block countries, take it by rail to port, load it up on ships, send it all the way over the Atlantic to the US; it was cheaper per ton of coal to do all of that than it was to dig in the mountains of West Virginia and send it 300 miles by rail to Hampton Roads, Virginia.

I have now witnessed towns become ghost towns literally overnight as tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of textile and furniture making jobs have gone to Asia and Malaysia. I can no longer think of any fabric textile manufacturer left in the US. Furniture? Well, thank God for Bob Timberlake. When Lexington Furniture announced closure of their plants and were moving to asia, Bob Timberlake told Lexington Furniture that they would have to remove his name from their line as he would not support putting his name on a foreign made product. Lexington Furniture relented and kept the Bob Timberlake line here.

This was a forbearer of things to come with the auto industry. The good ol' boys way of doing business continued unabated and without any thought of the future thanks to the United Auto Workers. When a janitor sweeping the floor makes $22 an hour and an assembly line person makes $46 per hour and they can not produce a product worthy enough and reliable enough for people to want to buy it, let alone affordable enough to buy it.

So nobody in Detroit saw this coming? bullshit.

They were essentially a one horse town and when that horse ran away, no one had a way to get out...no real skills, no education, no other training. To blame immigrants or Muslims for the ills of Detroit is nothing more than throwing a dart and hoping it lands on something other than the real ones to blame for this problem - the auto industry itself, the banks, the Unions, and the people who ran Detroit and the State of Michigan.

So now you want it all fixed up and made pretty again but don't want to pay for it and want to blame Muslims, the blacks, and mexicans for ****ing up a sweet deal making a shit load of money making something that no one wanted to buy.

Any attempt to regulate further emissions and safety issues was strongly opposed and lobbied against.

Again, it was the government interfering.

And now, FINALLY, you want the government to interfere with what Detroit has now become, clean it up, and return it do its glory days.

You know...its astonishing how you curse them when they are here and then you curse them when they are not here.

Welcome to the Tea Party mentality and the new Republic...

I fully agree with you Doc! The Obama opposition wants to keep their cake and eat it too and thats why they will lose the next election just like they lost the last one. The big majority of common voters have caught on to the self serving lies and BS the far-right politics is all about.

[Gerry]

Where do you see that in the op.

Its really rather simple.

Since when does the OP support any of the current administration's policies?

Am I the only one getting tired of reading don't interfere with our lives in one paragraph and then demanding get in here and fix this mess in the next?

Non of these problems is going to be fixed by waving a magic wand.

One of the most startling revelations when the Big 3 automakers were in DC in early 09' looking for a hand out (again - about the third round or so) is GM being told they have to come back with a plan on restructuring and avoiding bankruptcy.

GM announced the immediate closure of over 1100 dealerships that were under performing. My question was, why the hell were they not shut down to begin with! From late summer 08 until the late fall of 09, GM along with the other auto makers were in DC almost on a Monthly basis looking for a hand out. Everything was fine, even with those underperformers, as long as the cash cow was still doling out money. Forget the fact that these underperforming dealerships (and even makes and models not selling) were still going with the hand out.

But suddenly, when the threat of the money machine being turned off, GM can magically find more than 1100 dealerships to close, one auto make (Pontiac) to eliminate, and several models and brands to cease production.

See, GM had the magic wand all along. They could have and should have done something long before going to DC and long before our tax dollars were saving their asses.

Here's the reality of the situation - those jobs lost did not go oversees. Those jobs lost were NOT needed in the first place. This is quite different than other manufacturing sectors who literally do loose jobs to oversees production of the same product. The Detroit jobs on the production lines of failed makes and models and brands simply disappeared because they were not needed. The jobs did not go anywhere.

The 1100 dealerships that were closed because they were not meeting GM's own benchmarks - those jobs did not go anywhere. You can't say they went overseas or to another state. Those dealerships were closed after about the 4th or 5th handout from us, the U.S. taxpayers. Suddenly, someone in government had the gall the ask where this money was going and wanted an accounting for how it was being spent. Suddenly, the simple concept of "accountability" and "responsibility" of where our money was going and how it was being spent was mandated to people and industries that had never even dreamed a day would come that they should be questioned or interfered with! Suddenly, socialism was being preached and fear mongering of a government takeover was being spread. Damn You! How dare you question us! Who do you think you are?

Yes, suddenly the government was interfering with big business because they wanted some form of accountability of the tax payer's money.

For over 100 years, the auto industry answered to no one.


So, why does the OP not want the government to interfere with our daily lives but is deploring the government to interfere (get involved) with saving Detroit or saving Arizona or saving our country from Muslims, blacks, illiteracy rates, crimes, corruption, etc?

The logical answer is to get GM and the other auto makers to wave that magic wand again and fix what they have destroyed and corrupted.

But to many, its going to be the government's fault of creating the problem and the government's responsibility to fix it.


Like they say, to some people it does not matter what you take on because, according to them, You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.

[fab]

So, why does the OP not want the government to interfere with our daily lives but is deploring the government to interfere (get involved) with saving Detroit or saving Arizona or saving our country from Muslims, blacks, illiteracy rates, crimes, corruption, etc?

Based upon the article posted, the interference in Detroit is negative.

With Aid to Dependent Children, minority women birthed eight to 10, and in one case, one woman birthed 24 children as reported by the Detroit Free Press, all on American taxpayer dollars.

On the other hand, interfering with enforcing the law, crimes, corruption, and immigration policy, is protecting the law and the innocent.
Economic policy as presented by Milton Friedman and his followers, Thomas Sowell, Walter E Williams et. al., clearly proves that the less the government gets envolved in areas, which it shouldn't, i.e., everything except parties damaging one another, the better society will be. Society will be wealthier, better educated, less crime, etc. The evidence to support this is staggering.

[Gerry]

Economic policy as presented by Milton Friedman and his followers, Thomas Sowell, Walter E Williams et. al., clearly proves that the less the government gets envolved in areas, which it shouldn't, i.e., everything except parties damaging one another, the better society will be. Society will be wealthier, better educated, less crime, etc. The evidence to support this is staggering.

First, the point of one woman birthing 24 children, I believe this is false.

I believe it is the same story I posted recently about a 24 year old girl getting ready to give birth to her 10th child. The mother has never worked a single day in her life and has never contributed one cent to the programs she lives off of. The article was extremely controversial and inflamatory as it was a hot topic piece - whether or not to FORCE contraception or hysterectomy. So we'll leave that concept alone.

And I do not completely disagree with you ending comments. I am not for government getting involved in everything. But I am against those who want to blame the government for their ills or "woes" and then want the government to step in and fix the problems.

But, when the government does get involved and spends our taxpayer money (bailouts, healthcare, etc) then I believe the government has the right and duty to hold those receiving the funds or aid to a standard of accountability or responsibility. But, my belief in that one concept (having the right to hold one accountable and responsible) is what many are whining about...government interference. Let's change that word interference to involvement...people want the government's involvement when they need a hand out or bailout - but they do not want government to question what the money was spent on.

I love all those don't touch my medicare, don't touch my medicaid, don't touch my health insurance... yeah, give it to me but don't you dare touch it. What? Don't touch the programs you set up and established to cover our sorry asses?

What's next...don't touch my welfare? Don't touch my food subsidy? Don't touch my rent controlled housing?

Everyone wants those handouts but doesn't want the government to interfere or get involved by asking questions.


We have another thread going on about drug testing for those that do get government assistance.

What? Drug test those that get these free handouts? God forbid! That's interfering with someone's personal life.


I am all for testing them, I am all for the government getting involved or interfering, I am all for the government putting a stop to the abuse and fraud in all of these systems.

Why? Because I have spent a lifetime of working so I could support these same people and their lifestyles.

Even when someone gets unemployment checks...in order to get unemployment, you have to be available and able to work. If you hit that crack pipe before you came in the office, sorry...you are not available or fit to work.

This is where I draw the line on interference...why would those getting assistance be subjected to random testing? Does that not interfere with their rights? There you go with the ACLU and every other agency jumping on the media blitz campaigning how much of a interference it is to delve into someone's personal life...

...and then I worked for a hospital that wanted to test employees for everything, weight, BMI, smoker or not ...

...then sign them up for health insurance and those that failed in some regard as in smoking or obesity...

...those people would be required to attend weekly classes or courses and if in a year's time they were still below the benchmark...

their insurance rates would go up.


Now, they can get by with this by saying that I have a choice to work there or not therefore I agree to abide by their policies.


I say it is time (way past time) for the government to make everyone abide by their policies when it comes to accounting for taxpayer dollars. That includes big businesses and the individual getting assistance. There are policies in place requiring someone to be available to work and fit to work before getting unemployment and also requires that person to actively seek employment.

And we know that ain't the case.

[Infoproliferati]

Mismanagement is what ruined Detroit. This city began to bleed when unsound policies dictated the terms of economic, educational and social development. The way of doing things in Detroit ran unchecked for way too long. It is shocking that even policymakers watched this happen decade in and decade out. Could it be that they didn't care enough for their city?

The decline of Detroit is sobering and very depressing.

[fab]

Mismanagement is what ruined Detroit. This city began to bleed when unsound policies dictated the terms of economic, educational and social development. The way of doing things in Detroit ran unchecked for way too long. It is shocking that even policymakers watched this happen decade in and decade out. Could it be that they didn't care enough for their city?

The decline of Detroit is sobering and very depressing.

Are you from Detroit?

[Infoproliferati]

No. My cousins used to live there. I visited a few times.