[Great Lake Boy]

Originally Posted by CrazyMomDaze

Give me a F'in break!
You knew exactly what company I was talking about!

The investment part... I never spoke of them & I never said if he had them or not. Investing in your company (in stocks) was something you did if you were proud to work there, and he was, at one time! If you are promised a pension you should get what you have worked for, and nothing less! As for SSI you deserve that also, especially if you work hard your whole life and have to retire on a medical. If you pay in to it, it should be yours, NO questions asked!

You seem like a VERY BITTER PERSON when it comes to people not sharing you views.

I see you didn't make any mention that not all of your beloved "Made In America" cars are not ALL made here!

Would love to hear your views on getting MI back on it's feet (well, not really).

Well I am sure the D Town Big 3 would rather not use foreign made parts but unfortunately Japan is under valuing the Yen and the current administration in DC could give a flying rat's a$$. Much like China does with its currency. The Big 3 are doing better than some of the other US manufacturing sectors. Clothing being one that is pretty much all gone out of country except for a select few. The US has lost 42% of its textile jobs with more going every day. So its not just cars but cars are the biggest impact on Michigan. Every day more and more jobs leave the US for cheap foreign labor markets. Got news for people, not all people are cut out for professional jobs. The loss of manufacturing jobs will have an impact far beyond what we save by buying the cheap products.

Hmmm getting the manufacturing belt back on its feet uh? Hmmm yes I have some thoughts on that but since you really don't want to hear them I wont tell you!

Hmmm I am curious how Fords just ripped your daddy off. Did they rip all Fords workers off or just this one incident. The law and UAW agreed it was ok for Fords to rip off the pension entitlement? Seems if Fords was ripping off people there would be a huge back lash over it. Did I miss this huge scandal?

Am I bitter. Hell yeah I am bitter. This country is allowing all our wealth go over seas and replacing those jobs with service sector jobs while Americans sit around with the finger up their nose allowing it. Yep the US is creating jobs but working for Burger King and Walmart aren't quite the jobs people want to work at for 40 years. I wonder if Burger Kings retirement plan pays 950 a month like Fords does. Millionaires are at a all time high under the Bush administration, currently 9 million millionaires in the US. Yet at the same time poverty is up almost 8 million under the Bush administration. So yep I am bitter that you all about buying more foreign crap cause Fords is the Anti Christ. Unfortunately as people continue to get poorer in the US it only makes it even harder for us Americans to buy American. Were all going down the slippery slope of cheap imported crap and landing in a pool of cheap imported crap.

Far as it being just a little s at the end of Ford. Two whole posts it was Fords too. If my daddy worked for Fords for 40 years I would know it was Ford not Fords. Fords are what people drive. My whole family worked for General Motors not Generals Motors and except for one family member who worked for REO not REOs.

[southernlady5464]

Clothing being one that is pretty much all gone out of country except for a select few. The US has lost 42% of its textile jobs with more going every day.

Yes, and the textile industry was almost completely in the south. It may have had it's roots in the north but by the end of the Civil War, it was almost all in the south. When textiles moved overseas it almost drove the south to it's knees again but the south recovered. Why, because it diversified. The sun belt is enjoying record growth.

MI needs to rely less on one industry and diversify as well. It also needs to become a right to work state and get the unions off it's back. Liz

[Driller1]

Just for the record, a million is not what it used to be.

[Great Lake Boy]

Yep textile was almost all in the south. Well isn't the south just the greatest thing since sliced bread, heh! That doesn't get you bunched up those jobs left? Wow amazing. What jobs did those people take when the textile industry left? I mean some people just aren't college material hence why industry "was" so important to the economy. Oh yeah they got jobs at BK. Rock on with those.

Well I will stay in the north if there is not one single job left here let me tell ya!

Originally Posted by Driller1

Just for the record, a million is not what it used to be.

This is true but it is still nothing to sneeze at. Any millionaires here???? A Million sounds pretty damn good to me!!!!

[southernlady5464]

What jobs did those people take when the textile industry left? I mean some people just aren't college material hence why industry "was" so important to the economy. Oh yeah they got jobs at BK.

I guess these all look like BK jobs????
GADC

Btw, this is just ONE city in SC, which happens to be the home to Michelin North America, the founding home to Fluor Daniel and several other MAJOR corporations.

No, the south isn't the BEST thing since sliced bread but it IS growing. So is the southwest.

MI HAS to diversify. MI HAS to get away from just ONE industry and the industries that depend on that one industry. And MI really needs to get away from letting unions control what happens there.

MI is a beautiful state and has a LOT to offer but if you can NOT afford to live there and don't have enough income coming in, then moving becomes necessary.

Dependence on JUST one industry is deadly. Liz

[Great Lake Boy]

Oh sorry I see that those jobs are in no way threatened by cheap foreign labor. I see quite few that could be gone tomorrow if they company decides to pack up leave. For a minute I thought the south was in jeopardy but by viewing that list I can see you are secure! Least 8 of those could pack up at any time and be heading across the big pond.

We got lots of headquarters here too. We have 3 huge national insurance companies, Dart container, Spartan Motors (doesn't make cars) the only place in the country that makes the Anthrax vaccine. Just ones I can think of off the top of my head as I couldn't find a list like the one you posted.

[southernlady5464]

I see that those jobs are in no way threatened by cheap foreign labor.

Not when you can get WELL educated CHEAPER American labor. It's almost 14% cheaper to live there than it is in Detroit.

Greenville has been actively seeking a variety of industry of all kinds since the late 60's. They have a Chamber that gets over 300 global business leaders in every year trying to bring in businesses to the upstate. Even if they only bring in 1 a year, that is quite a bit.

Oh, Hitachi is also in Greenville, so is Ahold Information Services (Netherlands), and Dunlop Maxfli Sports Corp. (United Kingdom).

In 2000, from the central European country of Slovenia, Greenville welcomed the country’s first North American manufacturing facility by raising the Slovenian flag on the grounds of the Greater Greenville Chamber of Commerce, signifying the 26th country and 256th international company to invest in the Upstate.

256 INTERNATIONAL countries...must be doing something right.

Yes, they could all go overseas tomorrow but I doubt all of them would.

Oh, and BMW is in Spartanburg just down the road about 10 miles. Spartanburg is also home to the world headquarters and research facility for Milliken & Company. With over 12,000 associates located at more than 60 facilities worldwide, Milliken is one of the largest privately held textile and chemical manufacturers in the world.

Those are just examples of two cities I happen to be familiar with. They were textile cities back in the 40's...and could have gone into the dust but didn't.

No, neither are the size of Detroit, but they DID diversify. They yanked up their boots by their bootstraps, didn't ask for handouts, got back up and did what needed to be done to make it.

And Detroit/MI is going to have to do the same thing. The economy is broken right now in MI. It needs fixing. And the old way of fixing it won't work. It needs new vision.

Exactly what it needs, I am not sure, but what it has now, is not what is working. Liz

[Great Lake Boy]

It might be 14% cheaper in the suburbs of Detroit. It is not 14% cheaper in Detroit! They'll give ya house if you'll move on in to Detroit!

Oh Don't worry we'll turn it around trust me on that. Everyone likes to blame Jenny for the mess were in but in reality our diversifying issues came from that pig Engler and the current Bush administration.

Well long as you think its peachy down there and the over all job loss across the US (not just Michigan although thats the worst and not just the auto industry but others as well) is peachy too, great! Guess I am just not as passive about our wealth going over seas. I think I would feel the same if I was in some other bustling state. US job loss sucks no matter what. When did American Made become a dirty phrase anyways?

I hung up on the call center for Circuit City in India when the first idiot from India got my address screwed up and was sending my $329 monitor to the wrong address, cause I had no idea what the broad was saying! CC called me after I got my monitor and asked for a short survey. I obliged and when asked what I thought of the transaction, I said I would prefer to talk to people in this country and would rather support jobs here in the US. Yes I know what a waste of my time trying to get that point across.

[athletesfoot]

I think the problem is that any company can go and make their products in just about any other country they want (exploiting their people). People are not likely to ever attempt to unionize in China or India or Taiwan and demand fair pay, an end to child labor, and safe working conditions. How many people were killed in the mine collapse in China? Then think about the mine in WV. The numbers were much different. That's mostly due to the unions who demanded safe conditions for the workers here in the US.

Unfortunately, it means that US labor also costs more than a few dollars a day, so the industries send a lot overseas and then import it back here to the US, where we don't have much choice other than buying it. I just saw an article on MSN the other day where the author went shopping and tried to avoid anything made in China for a week. It was pretty much impossible.

The moral of this story (and I've said it before), is that you can't rely on industries to support you unless our Federal Gov't stops all of the "fair trade agreements" - give me a break, who is buying from us?? Like others have said, if you do move somewhere else and take another industry job, at least invest in a private IRA, and take some of the educational opportunities if your company offers them. 10 years from now it could be you complaining that your pension is gone. I also posted in another thread (why can't mi turn it around?) that MI needs to focus on it's 4 biggest potential strengths to avoid falling into the trap of relying almost solely on industry again.

Good luck to all of you - I know my father really was treated poorly by Great Lakes Steel when they "filed bk", and the union dissolved and sold them out. Years of loyal work, pensions gone, etc. Luckily my father had a 401k, took the college classes they offered, went to dealer school when the casinos opened (before he was let go from GLS), and is doing fine now. Please make sure you take the same kind of steps to protect yourself.

[southernlady5464]

It might be 14% cheaper in the suburbs of Detroit. It is not 14% cheaper in Detroit! They'll give ya house if you'll move on in to Detroit!

When I did the COL comparison, I used Detroit, not a suburb. Using a suburb was not an option.

Everyone likes to blame Jenny for the mess were in but in reality our diversifying issues came from that pig Engler and the current Bush administration.

MI's troubles go MUCH further back than that. Diversifying should have begun back in the 60's/70's and Engler and President Bush had NOTHING to do with that time frame.

The first oil crisis was in 1974...that should have been a clue right then that things NEEDED to change. Liz