[magellan]

Originally Posted by Br1234

Oh yeah:

Noble Metal plant closing in South Haven - News - MSNBC.com (broken link)

Yeah, 200 jobs cut and how many jobs are being added in the numerous entries at RapidGrowth? Which I posted to show FERRETI because he said the only jobs hiring were dishwashers. You guys crack me up.

[Cato the Elder]

Originally Posted by magellan

Yeah, 200 jobs cut and how many jobs are being added in the numerous entries at RapidGrowth? Which I posted to show FERRETI because he said the only jobs hiring were dishwashers. You guys crack me up.

The best part is they probably don't even live in MI! I guess it takes some self-convincing that you made the right decision to move when you're roasting in the desert fighting illegals for blue-collar jobs that were supposed to be falling from the heavens.

[baystater]

Originally Posted by rectal

Michigan is having a tough time changing to a new economy and the new realities of global trade. And, I'm afraid, thing will get worse before they get better. Change, especially involuntary change, can be very painful, but the end result will be a stronger state with stronger people. A bush or tree that is pruned grows to be much stronger and more vigorous, and the same is true of our beloved state.

I'm sure this doesn't mean much to folks who just lost their job or can't sell their house...their pain and problems are NOW. The economic hurt is felt by everyone in MI to a greater or lesser degree, and I feel badly for those who are really taking it on the chin.
But despite all the problems and personal tragedies of this, it would be a grave mistake to believe that the whole state is going down the tubes. Unemployment is high, but it's been much higher in my lifetime. Falling home prices are also an opportunity for someone looking to buy, and houses ARE being purchased all over the state. We're just in a "buyers market" right now instead the "sellers market" of some years ago. This is a natural, cyclic condition and has played out many times in MI and elsewhere.

Michigan will rediscover its strengths and invent new ones, but a lot of nice folks will suffer along the way. That's a pity, but that's life.
And, thank God, it's a beautiful place.
Photos are from The Leland Report - Leeland County Michigan by Keith Burn ham. His site is a daily look, with commentary, at a small town on the Lake Michigan shore. Check it out.

Agreed. I have stated in the past, and will state again that there will be an influx of eastcoasters and westcoasters that will come to MI. because of the prohibitive expense of the of living there. Will it be tomorrow. No. But soon enough.
Btw. Those pictures are money. The state need to sell the state to the eastcoaster and westcoaster with those types of pictures and of course a colorful narrative.

[magellan]

Sorry BR1234, my only point in posting that RapidGrowth link was to show FERRETI that there are companies that are hiring. Nothing more, nothing less. If you are just looking for negative news, like WOODTV does, you will find it anywhere and everywhere.

It also bugs me that WOODTV carried that story about the South Haven company as if it were in Grand Rapids. South Haven is farther away than Lansing, and is not even in the "metro" GR area.

And with a customer platform lineup like this, it's no wonder they're going under:

http://www.nobleintl.com/docs/Customer%20Platforms.pdf

[Indentured Servant]

I think that the first thing that people should do is to check their political biases at the door and take an honest look at what is happening in America. Michigan is only having a problem because AMERICA is having a problem. Unfortunately the state of Michigan does not have its own currency and Monetary instrument the equivalent of the Federal Reserve to simply print more money or extend credit via cheap interest rates when it wants to stimulate economic growth. Moreover, the state does not have the ability to control the metrics used to calculate the consumer price index (CPI) to make the GDP of the state appear healthier than it actually is.

Michigan’s economy has traditionally been a leading indicator of the direction of the national economy. There is no “one state recession”. We are in a national recession right now but people do not know it because the government is using statistics that are observably bogus. The US has likely been in recession for the last 2 years, but the fact that inflation is being understated hides this fact and hence manipulated consumer sentiment to be more optimistic than it actually should be. Things are going to also get a lot worse before they get better and when things get better they will not return to peak highs as the standard of living of Middle America will be in decline for the foreseeable future.

Free market capitalism will from hence forth provide diminishing returns for Middle Americans, the equal and opposite consequence of the increasing returns it offers for people in China, India, Brazil and other nations. The truth is that you were never taught the truth of how America made it to the top. World Wars I and II decimated all the major economies of the world except the US. That created a monopolistic global position for America. Countries needed our loans, resources, goods and services and the like, which created such strong economic demand that it created unsustainable prosperity for this nation. Everyone who has taken econ 101 knows the wealth to be gained from a captive market monopoly…..and that is why anti trust laws exist in this nation.

As more countries recovered from the aftermath of WW I and II the US monopoly was eroded via competition. However, the growth of China and India and their combined third of the global population of humanity have really sunk the US worker. Think of it this way. The US is like K-mart in the retail sector. Once mighty discount retailer K-mart really had no competition in that discount market. It had a monopoly and the company was booming. Then came Target which started taking market share from K-mart then Wal-Mart exploded onto the seen and K-mart eventually diminished due to market competition. The same is true of the US auto Industry before a host of other nations started building cars too. China and India and the growth of their economies and production do to the US economically what Target, Wal-Mart, Toyota and Honda did to Kmart and the US auto industry!

There are many more undeveloped nations and peoples who will enter the global competition for production, consumption and resources and as they enter the market they erode the standard of living of the American worker who price themselves out of the market with high wages and benefits. The only way that the American worker can compete is if they reduce their rates of pay to compete with third world pay…..lest they lose their jobs altogether to third world nations….courtesy of American corporations seeking to find the path of least resistance to corporate profits, which is cheap labor and environmental cost.


I have a lot more that I could say…..but I think that people need to stop focusing on Michigan as the source or epicenter of this problem and start looking globally.

[TaxBait]

Originally Posted by Indentured Servant

I think ...

... much like I do. I knew I'd appreciate your post from the screen name alone. My only nit would be with "American worker who price themselves out of the market". I think the blame hardly falls on the worker alone. There are a multitude of forces that won't allow the American worker to be competitive even if they wanted to.

[Indentured Servant]

Originally Posted by TaxBait

... much like I do. I knew I'd appreciate your post from the screen name alone. My only nit would be with "American worker who price themselves out of the market". I think the blame hardly falls on the worker alone. There are a multitude of forces that won't allow the American worker to be competitive even if they wanted to.

Agreed....I should have worded that differntly. I was attempting to communicate that high wages are a competitive disadvantage.

[tecpatl]

The scandal is how unaware some (many) people are to the changing world and, thus, how unprepared they are to meet it.

A metal plant closes...terrible news for South Haven and for the employees, and a symptom of the old world going away. And it won't come back. Guys who put nuts & bolts together on an assembly line for a living are all in danger of losing their jobs, and that situation, as sad and terrible as it is, is only going to get worse. It's the old world, like it or not. The auto companies and the UAW are both scrambling to make themselves relevant and successful in the new world, and I very much hope it works. It will be an uphill battle.

New jobs happen, new industries happen. Who thought Google would be...well. GOOGLE, 10 years ago?
Not too long ago a woman who lives near me in Leelanau County was operating a business out of her home with a couple employees. She had some bright ideas and worked hard to make them happen. She just bought a huge (for our area) office building from an oil exploration company to accomodate the huge growth of her business...a NEW world business. And one that's hiring as fast as they can find qualified people.
Leelanau Enterprise » Oneupweb moves to plush building overloooking Bay

[tecpatl]

Originally Posted by baystater

Agreed. I have stated in the past, and will state again that there will be an influx of eastcoasters and westcoasters that will come to MI. because of the prohibitive expense of the of living there. Will it be tomorrow. No. But soon enough.
Btw. Those pictures are money. The state need to sell the state to the eastcoaster and westcoaster with those types of pictures and of course a colorful narrative.

You're right, the pictures ARE money....and finally the State of Michigan is getting back into the tourism business. Before Gov. Engler slashed the funding, Michigan had a pretty good promotion budget and tourism from surrounding states was growing. He cut it.....and our neighbor states kept right on spending, and winning.

Despite the tight MI budget, there has been a decent increase in funds devoted to telling the story of this beautiful state in the last couple years.

If it continues, we'll see a dramatic improvement and much more of the hundreds of million of tourism dollars spent in the Midwest. It's estimated that the state sees a return of one to two hundred percent of money invested in tourism. Ultimately, Michigan turns a profit on this expense and eveyone is a winner.

We have a lot to sell in MI...but people have to know it's here. Too much of the US thinks of MI as decrepit rust belt factory towns and not much else.
I hear this all the time when I'm traveling.

[100%Michigan]

Everyone thanks for the comments, please countinue to share your oppinion.

I must agree the pictures of the lake are money, and would attract more people if it was found more comman along the lakes ( Maybe it is found more comman, I just havent seen the waters looking very blue much. ) I wish Michigan had large cities on the blue lakes like the pictures above. I also must say ... do you think Michigan was built on the motor industry, and if Michigan economy is bad because of the USA position at the moment... then what do Michigan needs to do to get more stablize?