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well, in the 70's, Detroit was taken over politically by militant black liberals. The black city leaders decided they wanted to bus kids from one school district to another. No sane white person in the 70's is going to let their kid be shipped all over town for somebody else's social engineering experiment, so the whites began to move out of Detroit Public Schools, and into suburban public schools. This was the tipping point for Detroit.
From that point on, Detroit was straight-ticket-Democrat. High taxes, residency requirements for city employees, the aforementioned busing -- all of which exacerbated Detroit's decline into a city that is hostile towards well-off whites.
Now, decades later, the expensive, unionized public sector workers with bloated pensions are the proximate cause. Detroit's left-wing council elected by its left-wing population has refused to address the problem, they now have racked up $4.9 billion in unfunded liabilities.
The city is falling apart because a group of black race-warriors drove out all the middle class white people from Detroit, plain and simple.
It wasn't "black city leaders decided they wanted to bus kids from one school district to another." It was federally court ordered desegregation:
Wow, lots here with little to no knowledge of what went down in Detroit. Let's look at three key factors to why Detroit is where it is.
1. '67 race riots lead to white flight - taking a large percentage of the tax base to the suburbs
2. Population decline of 1 million people since the 50's - it's not just that the city has too little money, but they have too large of an infrastructure with people too spread out.
3. Decline of auto industry - Detroit did not have the foresight to diversify their local economy.
The politics and corruption has played a more minor role in the decline of the city as compared to the above three. As for number 3, the UAW is not the sole bearer of blame... UAW workers were not the ones designing and green lighting car models that were not selling. The auto execs were too slow to react to the rising oil prices of the 70's, giving foreign car manufacturers an in for their small cars. The reliability issues (again, not UAW's fault) that plagued several domestic brands/models further weakened their market share.
The city declined because of the decline of the American automobile industry and the geographical shift in manufacturing. It's that simple. It has nothing to do with unspecified "liberal policies."
One can easily ask why the poorest states in the country are predominantly conservative? Liberal Massachusetts and Connecticut are America's richest state.
The ten poorest states are Alabama, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, Louisiana, Utah, New, Mexico, West Virginia, Arkansas and
Mississippi -- according to this spreadsheet (xls). Is this because of conservative policies?
I agree to a point. Detroit's problems are caused by the decline of the American auto industry. Blame GM, Ford, and Chrysler, or the American govt for not promoting protectionism. BUT the people running Detroit had the chance to diversify their economy and failed.
Its the decline in taxpayer base to support from concentration in one industry. That takes a long time and good leadership to change. Anti-business leadership as seen by industry isn't going to help that recovery. Its no different than the lesson Greece has learn that you can over milk the cow to point its gives no more milk then borrow until you can't borrow any more.In meantime people who can leave to better pastures and leaving behind same people who told you to milk the cow dry as leaders.
Wow, lots here with little to no knowledge of what went down in Detroit. Let's look at three key factors to why Detroit is where it is.
1. '67 race riots lead to white flight - taking a large percentage of the tax base to the suburbs
2. Population decline of 1 million people since the 50's - it's not just that the city has too little money, but they have too large of an infrastructure with people too spread out.
3. Decline of auto industry - Detroit did not have the foresight to diversify their local economy.
The politics and corruption has played a more minor role in the decline of the city as compared to the above three. As for number 3, the UAW is not the sole bearer of blame... UAW workers were not the ones designing and green lighting car models that were not selling. The auto execs were too slow to react to the rising oil prices of the 70's, giving foreign car manufacturers an in for their small cars. The reliability issues (again, not UAW's fault) that plagued several domestic brands/models further weakened their market share.
Lol so why do you think 1 million people just up and left?
Lol so why do you think 1 million people just up and left?
because of #'s 1 and 3... white flight following the race riots as well as the decline of the auto industry leaving an economy that could not support that many people.
because of #'s 1 and 3... white flight following the race riots as well as the decline of the auto industry leaving an economy that could not support that many people.
So Whites weren't interested in living in a city where Blacks went on a violent rampage and this is denounced as White flight. BTW you do realize a lot of Blacks left the city too?
Didn't the auto industry move to the suburbs? I had an internship at an ad agency in Troy back in undergrad. If memory serves me correctly we never set foot in the city to make presentation to our client. A big 3 automaker.
So Whites weren't interested in living in a city where Blacks went on a violent rampage and this is denounced as White flight. BTW you do realize a lot of Blacks left the city too?
Of course I realize blacks left, but the majority of those leaving were middle and upper class whites. I'm not trying to denounce it as white flight... like most of America in the 60's, race relations were highly polarized. There is blame that can be lumped on both sides. My grandparents left the city in the early 70's when the police dept stopped promoting white officers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdwardA
Didn't the auto industry move to the suburbs? I had an internship at an ad agency in Troy back in undergrad. If memory serves me correctly we never set foot in the city to make presentation to our client. A big 3 automaker.
After suburban flight, Detroit was dominated by blue collar workers who worked manufacturing jobs (for the big 3 and aftermarket parts manufacturers) in the city. As the auto industry struggled and manufacturing/assembly plants started closing within the city, people had to find work which often led to them leaving for other parts of the state and country. You seem to be underestimating how many Detroit residents in the 70/80/90's had jobs tied to the auto industry.
They consistently voted for democrats, and the ones who didn't vote supported the vote.
Enjoy!
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