Political News and Commentary with the Right Perspective. NAVIGATION
  • Front Page
  • News
  • Multimedia
  • Tags
  • RSS Feed


  • Advertise on RightMichigan.com


    NEWS TIPS!

    Get the RightMighigan.com toolbar!


    RightMichigan.com

    Buzz

    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

    Local Democrats' hostility to business bearing bitter fruit


    By Nick, Section News
    Posted on Thu Jan 29, 2009 at 06:50:38 AM EST
    Tags: GM, Ford, Kildee, Detroit, Democrats (all tags)

    What I'm about to tell you is so surprising you're not going to want to believe it.  In fact, here, why don't we sit down.

    I know you're a proud Michigander.  I am too.  I've been here my whole life and when I've had opportunities to leave, to take a job in the political Mecca of modern society, Washington, D.C., I've always turned those offers and opportunities down.  This is home and we love it.

    Turns out, though, and don't shoot the messenger, but not everyone feels the way you and I do about the Great Lakes State and the city with which we're synonymous.  The Ivory Tower reports this morning on the release of an October survey highlighting and lowlighting cities from across the country and their appeal to Americans looking for a new life in a new town.  

    No surprise that Denver is ranked the top city in America (by this measure) with a full 43 percent of respondents indicating they'd like to live there.  Look at their football team... I'm surprised the number is that low (Super Bowl bound next year, by the way).  

    Folks were pretty clear about two things.  They liked cities out west and down south, but the Midwest and Michigan in particular?  Not so much.  Our own Detroit, Michigan was the lowest rated city in the survey with only 8 percent of the participants labeling it a city in which they'd like to live.  On the flipside, a survey-high 90 percent of participants labeled it a city where they would definitely NOT like to live.

    Read on...

    It's worth noting that back in October when the survey was taken, we didn't have double-digit unemployment and the national economy was already well into this gripping recession.  Still, Michigan stood out in the most rotten of ways, the most unappealing big city in America.  

    That's a result of many factors, from a city administration making national headlines and regular appearances on Court TV (or TruTV or whatever they're calling it now) to rampant and widespread layoffs to a tax and regulatory structure that has driven record numbers of businesses and families out of Michigan for the better part of a decade.

    We can run all of the Pure Michigan ads we want, but Detroit's image doesn't seem to be rebounding.  It's getting worse, and if today's other headlines are any indication neither a turnaround in perception or reality is anywhere even close to the horizon.

    With the Big 3 making national news every day for their nearly incessant panhandling in Congress, and now only days after General Motors announced 2,000 more layoffs we get word that Ford Motor Company is going to ax another 1,200 employees themselves, a full 20 percent of their finance unit.

    Those aren't factory and manufacturing jobs.  Those are white collar finance jobs.  What the Granholm-Cherry administration likes to call the "jobs of tomorrow."  

    For twelve-hundred families they're now officially the "jobs of yesterday."  

    Matters are only made worse, then, by folks like Michigan Democratic Congressman Dale Kildee who is in the papers lambasting GM for not  EXPANDING.  The Flint Journal reports:

    U.S. Rep. Dale E. Kildee today blasted General Motors for its sudden decision to cancel construction contracts at a planned engine plant here.

    "I am extremely disappointed with the vague manner in which General Motors has kept the people of Flint informed with respect to production of the Volt and Cruze engine here in Flint," Kildee, D-Flint, said in a prepared statement...

    A story like this is a two-fer on the downer scale.  It's difficult enough that a major employer scratched plans to create new Michigan jobs but the problem is only compounded when a politician runs to the paper to criticize private industry for making tough employment decisions.

    There's no partnership there.  There's no understanding.  There's no sympathy or assistance.  When a job maker in another state reads Kildee's nonsense he learns one thing... Michigan's political leaders are tone deaf when it comes to the current economy and what it takes to run a successful business.

    The Congressman might as well post a "JOBS NOT WELCOME" sign on each of the state's borders.  

    And when only 8 percent of the population would even consider coming to your biggest city in the first place we can't exactly afford to be turning anyone away.

    < The Origin of "The Acceptence of Abortion" | Thursday in the Sphere: January 29 >


    Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit


    Display: Sort:
    Volt Engine (none / 0) (#1)
    by WadeHM on Thu Jan 29, 2009 at 11:52:16 AM EST
    The biggest issue I have with the Volt engine possibly or probably not being built for awhile or not at all in Flint, is that the State of Michigan gave GM money and tax breaks specifically for building the Volt engine in Flint. Where is that money that went to build the plant and the motor?

    For once I agree with Kildee. GM lied and jobs died.

    Display: Sort:

    Login

    Make a new account

    Username:
    Password:
    Tweet along with RightMichigan by
    following us on Twitter HERE!

    Related Links

    related_links: This box seems to be broken. Please email the site admin and tell them the time and date (and your timezone) so it can be fixed.

    create account | faq | search