I live in Michigan...have since 1982. We had a wonderful economy for many years and then it went to hell in a hand basket! Instead of tightening the belt of government spending, our fearless leader (Canadian, thank you very much) increased entitlements, gave huge tax breaks to large companies, drove up taxes and fees to small business & individuals, cut school spending and loosened welfare rules to allow perfectly capable, healthy people to sit on their asses.

The big three made the situation worse by sending so many jobs to Mexico and overseas while buying up interest in foreign car companies and getting the parts made cheaper. Instead of passing those savings onto American car buyers...

I live in Michigan...have since 1982. We had a wonderful economy for many years and then it went to hell in a hand basket! Instead of tightening the belt of government spending, our fearless leader (Canadian, thank you very much) increased entitlements, gave huge tax breaks to large companies, drove up taxes and fees to small business & individuals, cut school spending and loosened welfare rules to allow perfectly capable, healthy people to sit on their asses.

The big three made the situation worse by sending so many jobs to Mexico and overseas while buying up interest in foreign car companies and getting the parts made cheaper. Instead of passing those savings onto American car buyers they jack up the prices on poorly made or made to fail vehicles with pretty paint jobs and costly electronics. Then to make matters worse, they are engineered in such a way that your local mechanic can't fix them without specialized tools available only to your dealer.

They got greedy. The state government got sloppy. Detroit sucks the monetary life-blood from the rest of the state. The pulse of this state is weak and thready.

I've told my boys - get your education and then leave Michigan. I'd go if I could afford it.

More than 5 MILLION manufacturing jobs were lost in America before the Big 3 laid off one worker (2 or 3 years ago).

For most of those 5 million employees, they never found comparable jobs. They have been as underemployed as tech workers have been since Y2K ended.

But the government doesn't care if a worker makes $8 an hour or $50, so once you find any job, you no longer show up on government statistics.

Housing carried us for a long time. But now that the double whammy of manufacturing & housing (construction, real estate, mortgage brokers, derivitive/stock sellers, home improvement, etc) have hit us, it is pretty obvious-if you look-that those people were everyone elses best custome...

More than 5 MILLION manufacturing jobs were lost in America before the Big 3 laid off one worker (2 or 3 years ago).

For most of those 5 million employees, they never found comparable jobs. They have been as underemployed as tech workers have been since Y2K ended.

But the government doesn't care if a worker makes $8 an hour or $50, so once you find any job, you no longer show up on government statistics.

Housing carried us for a long time. But now that the double whammy of manufacturing & housing (construction, real estate, mortgage brokers, derivitive/stock sellers, home improvement, etc) have hit us, it is pretty obvious-if you look-that those people were everyone elses best customers.

Now, they have no jobs, no credit, no homes and we are in real trouble. Thanks all for stopping by.