You know......if I was 25 years younger ( I'm 56 ) I could see sticking it out and at some point in the 10-15 year future reaping the benefits of living and working in what I think is a viable.....creative.....culturally rich city... ....Detroit. But....I made the right decision 10 times over to get the hell out of Dodge.... I mean Detroit.....when I was laid off 2 years ago at age 54. http://www.cnbc.com/id/42135402?slide=1 The place may come roaring back.....I think it will because of the people.... ....but not in my working lifetime.
The article has a link to "best places" to relocate. Here they are: Pittsburgh, PA Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY Omaha, NE/Council Bluffs, IA Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Austin-Round Rock, TX Des Monies-West Des Moines, IA Madison, WI Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN Denver-Aurora, CO Indianapolis-Carmel, IN Notice that Indy is in both the worst and best places lists. Which tells me all I need to know about this stuff. BTW MCG why didn't you relocate to a top ten place? After all this ******** is apparently important to you.
This is where I live: Fishers Named #1 place for families to live by The Learning Channel April, 12, 2011 FISHERS, IN -The Learning Channel (TLC) named Fishers this week as the #1 place for families to live. The Discovery Communications channel said on their website: "Rated the best affordable suburb in the United States by 'Bloomberg BusinessWeek,' Fishers, Ind., is an up-and-coming bedroom community serving the Indianapolis area. With great schools, a low crime rate and the convenience of being located at the crossroads of America, Fishers is our pick for the city most likely to steal your heartaway. It isn't a metropolis, but Fishers' population has increased more than 63 percent over the last decade, and it's still growing. With affordable housing, low unemployment and positive job growth, Fishers has charisma to spare."
I'm familiar with about half of those cities but an expert on Dayton, Ohio. I'm sure most of the stories are similar though. It starts with suburban sprawl as bedroom communities spring up further and further from the city core. This in turn attracts retail to the suburbs to service the new clientele close to home. The homes left behind in the city limits are filled with poor people and welfare cases. They cannot keep up the properties so the decay sets in. Big industry looks at this decay along with their high production and labor costs and move out. That sets the city into a high speed decline. The downtown areas become crime ridden and are basically open air "jails" of sorts. Dayton lost NCR, Inland, Frigidaire, Delco, Mead and God knows what else in a twenty year period. If WPAFB ever shut down it will become a complete ghost town.
Having a place that can provide a decent living when you have been laid off from the imploded auto industry was paramount to my decision Gipper. That's not ******** not that I could expect you to understand that since you are a lawyer and obviously oblivious and unaffected by Detroit's troubles. I think Indy is on the best place to relocate list because of opportunities that may be there in the future......if you have the time to wait. George.....NCR used to be omnipresent in Dayton. That place has really taken the hits as you say.
NCR used to occupy 28 factory buildings plus a world HQ campus. All gone and so are the 30,000 employees who worked there. My father was one of them and the day he lost his factory job of 28 years at NCR is the day he started dying.
I feel your father's pain George. For me it was 26 years in the same industry.....23 of them with the last company that laid me off. It was a change of life.....and a career move that is still a gut wrenching feeling that I fight all the time. The only thing that does give me some solace is that I have relocated back to the state I was raised in and my weekends are usually pretty damned fun. I don't spend many Saturday's wishing for better weather and warmer climates so that is a real plus. But.....I am paid significantly less to work as hard if not harder than my other job and I had to sell my house of 18 years at no profit whatsoever....and I am now a renter when I owned a home for 28 years. These events have taken a toll but I'm getting by and as I say.....the weather is good and Gainesville is a fairly short drive on a fall Saturday. By the way....I used to make sales calls on NCR back in the early 80s.....making the 4 hour drive down from Detroit to do so. Picked up the NCR distribution account for SE Michigan.
Then again.....it could always be worse: "Given the focus on spending cuts in Washington, one might think that America's unemployment problem was under control. But our jobs quandary is far from over, surpassing even the Great Depression in one respect: The gap between the number of people out of work (13.9 million) and the number of job openings (2.8 million) has never been so wide. Congress responded to these historically grim conditions in 2009 by extending unemployment benefits to an unprecedented 99 weeks. For many Americans, however, time is up, with no job in sight. "We're in extraordinary times that break all the rules with respect to recovery Dem lazy sonsabitches..........right boys??? :roll:
Point. Counterpoint. <t>Story Published: Mar 22, 2011 <br/> Copyright 2011 Charles J. Sykes, from my upcoming book, A Nation of Moochers , from St. Martin’s Press. <br/> <br/> ( Cross posted at Big Government.)<br/> <br/> My 401K is down 40%, my employer just cut the match; and it looks like I may have work until I'm 70 years old. I also pay for pensions to public employees who retired in their 50s. <br/> <br/> I don't have enough money to go on vacation this year, but I paid my share of the federal government's $2.6 million grant to teach Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly. <br/> <br/> I pay for bridges to nowhere. <br/> <br/> I drive a 1997 Honda Accord, but I had to pay for my neighbor’s $41,000 electric car. I also bailed out the United Auto Workers. <br/> <br/> I contribute to my children's 529 college savings plan, but since I don't qualify for financial aid I pay for other people's kids to go to school as well. I also pay for the sociology classes where I am sneered at for my lack of social conscience and denounced as the very essence of greed, racism and environmental insensitivity.<br/> <br/> I exercise regularly, watch my cholesterol, and pay for my own health insurance as well as co pays and deductibles. I also pay for Other People’s tonsillectomies, appendectomies and occasional rhinoplasties. I pay taxes for Medicare, Medicaid and for various medical programs for poor children and now I will get to subsidize the health care of several million more non-elderly, non-impoverished Americans.<br/> <br/> My small business just lost its line of credit, but I paid to bail out Citicorp, AIG, and Goldman Sachs, whose executives get bonuses bigger than my entire net worth. <br/> <br/> I pay my mortgage, but I also pay to bail out banks who made risky loans and yuppies, who have trouble paying $700,000 mortgages on their McMansions they bought with no-down payment, adjustable rate deals.<br/> <br/> I pay for groceries for my family, but also pay millionaire farmers not grow stuff like rice. I buy dinner for more than 41 million food stamp recipients (although, they now call it Food Shares.). I also pay for school lunches. And breakfasts, since other parents apparently can't be expected to feed their kids. I get to have red meat once a week, but I get to pay for urban hipsters to buy organic salmon at Whole Foods.<br/> <br/> I pay my electricity and gas bills, but I also pay for other people's air conditioning, cell phones, digital televisions, new windows, subsidized rent, and remodeling.<br/> <br/> I pay for my daughter's ballet lessons, but also pay for universities to develop computerized choreography programs that will help develop "interactive dance performances with real-time audience interactions." I probably won't be able to make the show, since I'll be working.<br/> <br/> I'm trying to save enough money in case I lose my job, but I pay for more than 70 different means-tested poverty programs.<br/> <br/> Because I work hard and am successful, I am in the 10% of Americans, who now pay more than 71 percent of the total federal income tax burden. The top 50 percent of earners pay 97.11 percent. In others words, the bottom half of American earners-- theoretically 50 percent of the electorate – pay less than 3 percent of federal income taxes. I pay for them.<br/> <br/> I pay property taxes, sales, excise taxes, taxes on my phone, my cable, my water; state income taxes, Social security and Medicare taxes. I also help pay the bills for the nearly half of households who no longer pay any federal income tax. I also pay the bills for the 60 to 70 percent of households who receive more from the government than they pay in.<br/> <br/> I expect no gratitude for any of this; it has been years since the term "provider" was a matter of societal respect and personal pride.<br/> <br/> I understand that the transfer of wealth from makers to takers is seen as morally purer than the efforts of those who created wealth in the first place. <br/> <br/> I know my role. <br/> I am the piggybank.</t>
The largest budget deficit among major economies - greater even than the UK and Japan and that is saying alot! It's pretty embarrassing when the IMF calls you out in public....even these guys realize we have material issues in restraining the ballooning fiscal deficit. This is not about a bunch of conservatives trying to make political headway, we must reduce federal spending.....period. It is unsustainable at these levels and risks fiscal armageddon.....we're gonna play politics with this thing all the way down the crapper. Well done Mr. President..... . http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...est-among-major-world-economies-imf-says.html
But what about the near trillion dollar stimulus package that was supposed to create jobs and reduce unemployment? And if you think of it, if there re 2.8 million job openings and 13.9 million unemployed why are there ANY job openings?
You are an idiot. I know some lawyers who have left the state because of the economy. I know some who retired earlier than they'd planned. I have a friend who does bankruptcies. He tells me that he is surprised by the number of attorneys he's had to represent. I sure as hell aren't going to apologize for the years I spent in school, studying for the bar and learning my profession. Funny those I know that have struggled haven't wallowed in self pity, blamed the government, and ridiculed others who have been successful. They might be struggling but they're not losers.
Damn.....ain't it the truth....ain't it the truth. Gipper......you call me out for liking the "********" etc. I'm just pointing out that what I experienced was indeed ******** and I have a good reason for agreeing with the article that Detroit has been a less than desirable place to earn an income in the past 2-3 years and deserves it's spot at the top of such lists that I posted. That's not self-pity that's just acknowledging the reality of a city and an area that has hit the skids.
So effing typical...of those out of touch. Let's see......suppose the 2.8 million jobs get filled....which most assuredly they will....and soon....WTF do you really think.....lazy people aren't taking those jobs????? JFC!!!!! But anyway....so they get filled. That leaves 11 million Sh*t out of luck......officially and another 5-8 million not even officially on the books because they gave up and another 10 million woefully unemployed because they gave up trying to get a real job and took those wonderful minimum wage paying jobs that you have touted so much. Multiply by 3-4 persons in a family affected by those I list above and that's 30-40 million Americans still negatively affected by this economic implosion of our economy. The bottom line here is that millions of good Americans are still severely, negatively affected by the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and the GOP just doesn't give a Fu*K it seems to me. The unemployed/underemployed must be a bunch lazy no good Mfers....yeah....that's right....all their fault......it has nothing to do with the effing mess that George Bush turned over to Obama 2 years ago......right????
It's Bush's fault. Obama has devalued the dollar to confetti status but its Bush's fault. Can you just tell us where you are going to get the money to support 40 million Americans and illegals in the lifestyle that you would like them to be accustomed to? That's not callous; that's reality. You are living in a fantasy world. Fast and loose with what's left of other people's money.
Anyone remember this article from last year? http://wchbnewsdetroit.com/detroit/atrybula/local-workers-choosing-jobless-pay/ Seems these unemployed prefered to sit on their asses rather than go to work. Some apparently were hoping someone would come by and offer them a high paying sales job for an auto supplier. Apparently any f'in idiot can do that job.
Hmmm...."these" unemployed. Take a group of wall street bankers I'm sure you will find a few crooks among them.......or perhaps a few good honest men among them.....whichever way you choose to look at it. To me it seems like some people equate being unemployed to being scum......lazy.....good for nothing.....etc....etc.... Sure I'll bet there is always some people that are unemployed that might fit that bill. But the great majority are like George's father......people that have been a casualty of these very hard economic times and unprecedented unemployment. I'm just trying to make a point that there is real human pain in all of these numbers that is not deserved.
Let me tell you about my father. When NCR dumped him and 28,000 others for no reason other than to save a buck he was severely depressed for a period of time. He had gone straight from serving 3.5 years in WWII to NCR and he considered that place his second family. He took two sick days in 28 years. He pulled himself togther quickly and went out and got a job as a security guard. It was low pay and rather demeaning but a much better alternative to sitting on his ass in his opinion. He would have scrubbed toilets before he would have taken assistance.