Main Street, Michigan Calling President Bush
Posted on 12. Dec, 2008 by Karen in Politics, Reflections
Today has been like a roller coaster here in Michigan as we watched the request for help for the Big 3 automakers shift from a big “no” from the Senate to a “maybe” from President Bush. My sister and I were up at 6am, both tuned into the morning news from our respective homes, both of us not wanting to get up and face the chill of a winter morning and the chill of what metro Detroit would be like without one or more of the Big 3.
The news was better after I got back from a lunch meeting but fear of what could happen is still in the air around here. Then I got a heads-up when someone sent me the email address for the White House. So I drafted an email plea to President Bush. Before you read it below, please think about making your support of help for the Big 3 know. Email comments@WhiteHouse.gov and put “Loan Package for American Automakers” in the subject line. If you weren’t sure why you should care, I hope my letter sheds some light:
President Bush:
I am writing you from metro Detroit to express my deep concern over the devastating ripple effect on the people in this region if one or more of the Big 3 automakers were to become insolvent. This email is to urge you to provide the automakers with a loan package to help them stay in business as they revise their operations to become more competitive in a global economy.
No one questions that the automakers could have focused on resolving their problems a lot sooner. But if any of them file for bankruptcy, the negative impact will be as bad as any natural disaster. Estimates are that more than 3 million people will be immediately affected. With the “trickle-down” effect, we could find out the hard way that this estimate is conservative.
And for those of us who live here, there’s no escape. Much like the people who were stuck in that stadium during Katrina, we’re stuck here in Michigan-facing disaster but unable to start over someplace new because we’re super-glued to homes we can’t sell and can’t walk away from. That’s if we don’t outright lose our homes because the loss of jobs means we can’t pay the mortgage.
Personally I believe that the insolvency of even one of the Big 3 could send Michigan into a depression. I grew up with parents who lived through the Great Depression and listened the stories of how they survived. I find myself thinking now that I wish I had taken notes. But who would ever have thought that, as a country, we’d be at this juncture again. Please provide the automakers with the help they need to stay afloat and keep the rest of us from sinking with them.
As one of “we the People” I’m counting on you.
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6 Responses to “Main Street, Michigan Calling President Bush”
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Rockin' Rod
13. Dec, 2008
Great letter, Karen, and I very much agree with the need to do this. Our economy is teetering and cannot afford the hit that would follow the failure of one or all of the Big Three.
What particularly bothers me is the Republican strategy to use this as a union busting platform. It’s possible to feel more than one way about unions, but their basic job is to provide working class people with a secure job that can enable them to join the middle class. The Republicans have not flaunted their class warfare when dealing with banks and other financial institutions, but where the unions are concerned, “It’s their fault.”
This mantra has grown more tired with time yet they continue to cling to it as they do to so many of their failed beliefs. I don’t mean to get all political on your site but the hypocrisy seems so blatant to me. The real danger is that this short sightedness can lead us into a worse situation than we are currently confronting, which is already plenty dangerous. The GOP realizes that they are so “in the wilderness” after this last election, and will be such a very long time coming back that they’re willing to gamble this way because they have nothing to lose. But they will continue to isolate themselves from a part of their base that would otherwise support them thru their anti-union beliefs.
I will follow your example and send an email to the current White House. One has to believe that with a financial meltdown, two unfinished wars and the stench of Katrina on his hands the president would be loathe to oversee the collapse of our last remaining manufacturing base…but maybe not.
Rod
Celeste
14. Dec, 2008
Tell me, how can people be living if their whole existence is dependent on an industry. This is not living.
It is time to erase and start over. I am sorry I do not share the same feelings as most people in Michigan especially the finite narrow minded auto people.
Everyone needs to re-evaluate and get back to the basics.
Rita@Goldivas
16. Dec, 2008
I agree with you, Rockin Rod. It seems like the Repubs are doing everything they can to push their discredited free-market agenda, and trash as much as they can, including unions, the environment, family planning, etc.
Celeste, I wonder if you’ve given any thought to the far-reaching effects this could have, it would affect more than one industry. And, you’re pretty cavalier about erasing & starting over. How many people do you think are in a position to do that?
Rockin' Rod
16. Dec, 2008
Thanks, Rita,
I can certainly understand Celeste’s point of view, but as a young man I witnessed the devastation visited on Pittsburgh by the shuttering of the steel mills…and the job losses were not simply in the steel industry itself. People who worked on the barge lines were effected and laid off as a result of reduced barge traffic; people who worked in the coke plants that supplied the steel mills were laid off as those plants closed; trucking firms went under; temp labor that was many people’s principle source of income evaporated; machine shops closed; whole neighborhoods were blighted and several hundred thousand jobs that never came back were lost forever and the city STILL hasn’t nearly recovered. It was a domino effect that rippled throughout main street and far beyond.
The projections for job losses as a result of plant closure’s for the Big Three are vastly greater than those for Pittsburgh and once that manufacturing capacity is lost it’s lost for all time, just like Pittsburgh and other cities’ steel manufacturing. Those plants can conceivably be used for clean technology/green technology manufacturing…or the can be shuttered for all time.
I completely agree with Celeste that the management shortsightedness is to blame, but the idea that these workers can retrain and relocate has not been born out in the Pittsburgh experience. Some moved to NC or Texas or manufacturing cities in the sunbelt, but most were too poor and dispirited to move and/or retrain.
I wasn’t around for the last depression but I am concerned that this one could be triggered by just such an enormous job loss.
We need to fire all the current top management at GM, Chrysler and even Ford and people those places with entrepreneurs, not bean counters. We need to replace all the current crop of “vanilla” designers as well and come up with cars that excite people once again….this won’t be done by the current leadership in Detroit.
Lastly, they should relocate their HQs to Chicago where you can attract the caliber of entrepreneurial management that is called for. This doesn’t have to be the end as Celeste recommends, but it can be a new beginning if properly envisioned and executed.
Rod
Rockin' Rod
16. Dec, 2008
And the loss of the Big Three would not be confined to Detroit and Michigan alone…be prepared to pauperize and devastate entire swaths of the mid-west.
Rod
Rita@Goldivas
16. Dec, 2008
Yes, that is all true. I think the majority of people who oppose the bailout assume it won’t work, and will only benefit the upper echelons. But it doesn’t have to work that way. Terms & conditions need to be very specific, and they need to be enforced.