[Phoneemer]

Originally posted by DanS
No offense intended, but that view seems naive to me. The rank-and-file were probably just fine with the situation until they showed up to work, but the gates were shut. It's human nature to take whatever you can get in the absence of any real push-back. I don't deny they were "just fine with the situation"; what I meant by "better position" was that the rank-and-file's level of education and degree of exposure to crucial facts was so limited that from their perspective it's not surprising they felt "entitled" to their jobs. They understandably relied on the assumption that their representatives would take care of everything, so they could instead focus their attention to family/recreation type whatnot.

Union leadership, on the other hand, had enough education, consulting experts, and direct contact with company management to actually see the writing on the wall, and still did nothing. Because they had a much better vantage point from which to foresee the problem and devise mitigation strategies, they bore far more responsibility than the rank-and-file cogs, if not 100% responsibility.

[peemovvie]

phantoms
lol the girls team was not good. cool rink though.

[P9CCd35R]

I live in Detroit.. in an historical district known as "Indian Village".

This city is an interesting place to say the least, where the rich are rich, and the poor live right outside their doorstep. The Grosse Pointe communities aren't even five miles from some of the most decayed and abandoned American urbania. Another 'Rich man/Lazarus' scenario.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grosse_Pointe
http://www.historicindianvillage.org/

[Stoottnoiciek]

Originally posted by LordShiva
My Hometown



I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old man
Id sit on his lap in that big old buick and steer as we drove through town
Hed tousle my hair and say son take a good look around
This is your hometown, this is your hometown
This is your hometown, this is your hometown

In `65 tension was running high at my high school
There was a lot of fights between the black and white
There was nothing you could do
Two cars at a light on a saturday night in the back seat there was a gun
Words were passed in a shotgun blast
Troubled times had come to my hometown
My hometown, my hometown, my hometown

Now main streets whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there aint nobody wants to come down here no more
Theyre closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they aint coming back to
Your hometown, your hometown, your hometown, your hometown

Last night me and kate we laid in bed talking about getting out
Packing up our bags maybe heading south
Im thirty-five we got a boy of our own now
Last night I sat him up behind the wheel and said son take a good
Look around
This is your hometown

- Bruce Springsteen Speaking of depressing-ass music videos pertaining to the industrial decline, this came to mind (or at least starting 3:57, showing what a rusted-out ****hole Ballmer is now):

[isogeople]

With good reason

[Druspills]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K62DdoFoNeg

[Moupponge]

stop the illegals. It's supply and demand. Workers here are hurt by illegals (wages depressed with more competition). Employers are helped (wages depressed).

[TerAlelmlor]

my best friend is from Youngstown.

[PVaQlNaP]

But thats the train. Or bus.

[viagra_generic]

So our solution to the problems of the rust belt are to let them write depressing songs?

[Ubgvuncd]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly


Whatchu talkin' about, Willis?

Illegals would actually have helped Youngstown and much of the rest of the Rust Belt; a cheaper labor pool might have allowed Big Steel to keep competing in a global market. That helps out the owners of the steel mills.

And before getting illegals in, better to just crack the unions.

[leadmoffer]

Youngstown was released in '95. This was just before the new economy rage though, and it hadn't dawned to people yet Germany and Japan had become problem childs.

[MpbY5dkR]

Originally posted by Colon™
Youngstown was released in '95. OK, so that one was written 15 years ago about events happening 30 years ago.

[Arximedus]

Revolution!

[AlekseyZubkov]

It seems Michigan has been hit hard by this recession. Unemployment is up to 10% state wide and due to falling orders in the auto business one town has seen unemployment go from 3% to 15%. It's bad in the rust belt right now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7378492.stm