[malamute]

Originally Posted by tcbh

We do not make anything her. we are a 70% consumer nation. We started on cocaine and now we are on a street corner hitting crack.

We cannot be a consumer-only nation for long.

There's a reason China and Mexico wanted to take manufacturing from us, it is only a manufacturing industry that builds immense wealth for a nation.

We're quickly becoming a nation of store clerks selling foreign produced products to Americans on unemployment checks.

[Lion11]

Michigan will turn it around, hopefully sooner than later. We have such a pretty state, once the economy changes, people will wish they never left.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by malamute

We cannot be a consumer-only nation for long.

There's a reason China and Mexico wanted to take manufacturing from us, it is only a manufacturing industry that builds immense wealth for a nation.

We're quickly becoming a nation of store clerks selling foreign produced products to Americans on unemployment checks.

Yeah, that.

It's scary. If we're not making something to sell to the world, we're in trouble. With the push to ethanol, I'm afraid we'll cut into the only thing we still export; food.

Something has to give here.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by Lion11

Michigan will turn it around, hopefully sooner than later. We have such a pretty state, once the economy changes, people will wish they never left.

That will be later. The timing is right for the baby boomers to retire and start heading south about the time the national economy starts to turn around. As they put their houses up for sale and take their retirement checks and leave, we'll go into a second (or is that third) recession where health care and service industries are hit.

It's not looking good for Michigan.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by gr8pyrz

I know this argument well and although I see both sides, the fact remains that without living wages (ie union wages) the whole SE area of MI would be a wasteland. Who would buy those vehicles? Who would buy to keep the businesses going?

I agree some changes need to be made, but 14$/hr doesn't cut it to keep a mortgage, pay higher gas prices and look to have some sort of economic future. So are those jobs just stepping stones? To what then? Can we utilize an overabundance of engineers, lawyers and accountants? Aren't we facing that right now as it is?

Can the economy here drop to accomodate those lower wages? Where is the point of no return where we recognize that it benefits us all if living wages are a high priority for our fellow Americans?

Well, it's working on being a wasteland so where'd those high wages get us? If we'd never had those high wages, mortgage prices never would have risen to what they were and people wouldn't be upside down on mortgages now that jobs are drying up, people leaving the state and housing values falling. What good did those wages do except for the few who were smart enough to save what they made?

The only reason we're doing ok is that we never adopted the lifestyle to go with my wages. While I'll be into my 401K by the end of this year, at least I have it and I can surivive quite a few years on it. Many of my neighbors aren't so lucky.