Michigeddon!! (Detroit, Holland, Greenville: relocate, foreclosure, insurance)

[Wabbit]

Like ScottMi65, I must live in a parallel universe from some of you posters because not one of my friends is out of work, looking to move out of Michigan or fearful that it will soon become the....FIRST....THIRD....WORLD....STATE!!!
I'm interested to know (from you doomsday forcasters) exactly how many people you actually know (in Michigan) who are out of work.
Numbers please.

And yes, I realize I probably just gave Michael Moore his next movie's title.

[mich2fla]

I know one friend that wants to move out of Michigan. She visited many places in the south and it didn't have that Michigan feel. She's been talking about it the past few years though.

Me on the other hand...little over a year ago, my job was on the line. Since this spring, things has gotten a lot better at work and I am safe for now. I was checking out places from Michigan to Florida. We knew it would be hard to move out because my family has a place on Lake Mac in Holland and her family has a place in Pentwater. We simply love being on Lake Michigan and there's is no other place like it!

[Cato the Elder]

Wabbit, I'm afraid it's like the Wizard of Oz - a whole bunch of Sturm und Drang but when you look behind the curtain, it's Armageddon mostly in the minds of a few malcontents who lost their $70/hour custodial engineering job. Then you have the percentage of the less venomous population feeling the economy crunch who then join in the Titanic/Chicken Little chorus because of these malcontents, when they would normally tough it out. And before one of these malcontents insinuates that I'm blind and think everything is peachy, I KNOW THAT THE ECONOMY HAS SEEN BETTER TIMES. I will not throw out the baby with the bathwater and kick a state while it's down, however, while saying what a good, lifelong Michigander I am (while writing from the deserts of Las Vegas or Tucson, lol). If you have to leave the state because you have a better opportunity, great. Leave the state and enjoy your life, but don't take jabs and insult those who stay b/c it's THEIR best opportunity.

[bryan61]

In 2001 the Machine shop I worked in closed down. There were alot of factors contributing to our inability to compete. 145 people who I know personally lost their jobs. Engineers, programmers, machine operators, inspectors, set up men office workers. This hit my small town pretty hard as proud men making a decent living turned to BK and walmart. People moved, divorces, a co worker even commited suicide. Some of us rebounded as I didnt have a family at the time I was able to take advantage of NAFTA and retrain, others got lucky and landed jobs in another machine shop that pays less but does have decent benefits. They were able to move their retirements and didnt make out so bad.

The damndest thing is that ownership and some management went 3 towns over and started another shop with some of our old contracts and some workers ended up there. $5 an hour less no benefits, no union.

Its always been bad here in the UP so if we have to pile lumber at the sawmill or stock shelves at walmart its no biggie

[joedekock]

My job carries me all over the West side of the state to service many different business.

Some of the more regular places I visit, I know have downsized and there are many, many jobs that have been cut with in their business over the last six years.

Personally, I do not know anyone who has lost their job that is close to me. I have heard stories from friends who have had relatives, or other friends of theirs lose their jobs. There are at least a dozen small medium sized business my company used to service that have closed up shop or gone bankrupt in the last six years.

I do have one relative that works at JCI in Holland and has for 23 years. She was making $17 an hour three years ago, and they went through the whole plant and laid off 300 workers and cut the pay of everyone else. Her pay got cut to $13 and hour and she has not had a raise since.

I am in my twenty's and graduated from college during this bad economy five years ago. I was able to get a job, but all my friends from high school and college could not find work in Michigan so they left. My wife graduated with her teaching degree three years ago, and she still does not have a teaching position. She has had to settle working in the public schools as an hourly aid at $10.55 an hour.

[Wabbit]

Thanks for sharing guys,
I really appreciate the civil tone you've all set. Especially with circumstances
as trying as Bryan61's.
Sadly, your story is the cold, hard truth for a lot of towns in Michigan who's
factories have relocated or gone overseas. Greenville for instance.
It would be very difficult not become consumed with bitterness or anger and
it sounds like you did what was necessary to keep moving forward. Good for
you, and thanks for sharing your story. All of you, thanks!

[ErikU19]

It's evident by the unemployment rate, the failing housing market, and the overwhelming 'for lease' signs strung throughout the Metro-Detroit area. You don't have to have friends exiting the state or out of work to see the truth of our econmic situation painted everywhere you look.

[jeeg]

I've been downsized and laid off 3 times since 1999. However it goes with the territory. We are now MUCH better off then we were, even moved to a more historically depressed area 2 years ago (da U.P.) and have never been happier (or more secure).
We are the only people we know who sometimes talk about leaving Michigan but it's not due to the economy, just our desire to live amongst greater wilderness and real mountains

[Cato the Elder]

Originally Posted by ErikU19

It's evident by the unemployment rate, the failing housing market, and the overwhelming 'for lease' signs strung throughout the Metro-Detroit area. You don't have to have friends exiting the state or out of work to see the truth of our econmic situation painted everywhere you look.

Again, I think Wabbit is looking for immediate friends and family or statistics - none of this "friend of a friend lost his job" or "I saw 20 lease signs!" If you drove through Silicon Vally 5 years ago, and even today when it's nowhere near "overboomed" as it was during the height of the dot.com days, you would think that CA was the poorest state in the union based on the logic of some people here.

[Cliffie]

Originally Posted by Wabbit

Like ScottMi65, I must live in a parallel universe from some of you posters because not one of my friends is out of work, looking to move out of Michigan or fearful that it will soon become the....FIRST....THIRD....WORLD....STATE!!!
I'm interested to know (from you doomsday forcasters) exactly how many people you actually know (in Michigan) who are out of work.
Numbers please.

And yes, I realize I probably just gave Michael Moore his next movie's title.

At one point I had so many friends out of work that we started a discussion on a message board I belong to called "The Club Jobless.'" Let's see...John was downsized and was out of work for almost 2 years, finally paying $8,000 for total retraining so he could get a new job...in Indiana. He has been commuting for over a year now. They only survived because his wife started her own business 2 days before he was laid off. Another John, who owns a manufacturing shop downtownn and used to make money hand over fist, is now so hard up that he's crowded into a tiny little place next door to me -- 2 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, 2 families. Sherwood was downsized and he changed fields. Phil can no longer find construction work and is slaving away at a $9/hr job. Katie was fired and she changed fields. Teresa was laid off, along with her entire branch. Beth was downsized along with 777 co-workers. That's not a typo. Mary was laid off and offered the chance to go back to work there part-time, w/o benefits. She changed fields. She went to work with her husband who had also been laid off from somewhere else, at a lousy backbreaking job without benefits. Mary (another one) has her own business but is really struggling. David was downsized and couldn't find a job any closer than AZ, so he left and took a good friend of mine with him. Gene and Christine abandoned their home to the bank and left the state looking for jobs. Jay and Jane did the same thing but managed to sell their place at the brink of foreclosure. Bob was out of work for well over a year. Another Bob's entire workplace closed, leaving at least 35 people out of work. Joe has raced from one position to another as branches of the company he works for have gone under for the third time. Mark was out of work for a whole year, surviving on his wife's teeny paycheck and their retirement account to keep from losing the house until he finally found something in the wrong field that makes him miserable and pays less than half of what he's used to. Chip sold his place and left the state to find a job. I was laid off, along with Lathias, Peter, Leverne, Vicki, Ted, Zuri, Audrey, Mark, and about 40 other people whose names I didn't learn (it was a pretty big facility) -- some were moved to other positions like me, but I got out while the getting was good. They are now talking about closing the whole place for good, which would leave a couple hundred more out of work -- this could happen by the end of the month. I lost 10 clients 2 jobs ago -- I normally had a caseload of 30 at that job -- due to their job/insurance losses. Rose just had her job taken away -- she'll be without a paycheck at the end of the month. She moved to that job because she felt it would give her more security than the one where I got laid off -- nice touch, eh? One of my co-workers was fired and has no means of support. A colleague in the school had her position eliminated out from under her and has been living hand to mouth ever since on side work. I would still be back in Hell Job, where the last employer sent me to work, if they hadn't opened up my dream job here JUST IN TIME. I spotted Lathias on Friday and flagged him down -- he's now a store manager trainee. No idea what he's been doing the past 6 mos for money, though.

I want to point out that I live in one of the wealthiest counties in the state.

Oh, and I'm not a doomcrier. I remain optimistic. But the transition is really sucking swampwater.