So Detroit is now Bankrupt...

[the2real4mafol]

Marks said:

the2real4mafol said:

Marks said:

the2real4mafol said:

The other day, it was announced that Detroit was filing for bankruptcy, the largest American city, if not the largest city in the world to do so. I find it quite depressing really, that once a great city has been allowed to rot like this. I shouldn't be suprised though, as cars was it's heart, it's what made Detroit. Once manufacturing of cars left for Asia in the 80's and 90's, the city sort of died i guess but to think in all this time it hasn't really been re-invented yet. It has been allowed to wallow in the past. Just one of the great flaws of capitalism i guess, as profit was put first and so companies would rather exploit Asian workers rather than employ people in their home country. And to think this could of happened in many cities around the world if they weren't reinvented. The Eastern parts of London come to mind for me, that area became a dump in the 80's but does ok now because of the financial district and the investment from the 2012 olympics. 

But anyway, let's discuss this. 

1. Was this avoidable?

2. How can Detroit become prosperous again? if possible

3. Will we ever learn from the mistakes of Detroit? Where most of the city's economy was based off making cars and nothing else. 

It's the UAW's fault plain and simple for ruining the auto industry. When will people learn that union's have outlived their usefulenes and are now doing more harm than good? At the turn of the century they were useful for getting safe working conditions, overtime pay, etc. but now they just demand outrageous wages, all the time off you could want, and protect unproductive workers from being canned. 

Disband the UAW (U Aren't Working) and you will see jobs staying in America instead of going to Mexico. Or at the very least make Michigan a Right to Work state and let workers choose to leave the union but keep their job. I'm sure many workers will find conditions the same, and will enjoy not having part of their salary go to Union dues. 

Oh so whenever a industry fails, always gotta blame someone like the unions have you? You don't realise how useful trade unions are do you? Without them, we would still be working 16 hours a day for a few dollars a day. The work would be deadly due to a a lack of safety regulations. There would be child labour. The workplace would be filthy. The factories would be far more polluting. You could just go to a Chinese or Indian factory and you would see what your work would be like without the imput of trade unions all because the companies are just greedy. I'm sure they could get there products made in a developed country and still make money.

Without trade unions, i'm sure companies would go back to their exploitative ways. Without no one pushing for the worker to get the best deal, wages would remain flat despite inflation. They would get away without allowing people to have holidays off every now and then or have sick pay. The way i see it why should the lazy executive get millions and yet the hard working people who make the products, the workers get barely enough to live on? 

And another thing, if American car companies want to be popular again, they need to make fuel efficient cars now. 

Really, you think if unions disappeared today that all of a sudden people would be forced to work 16 hours a day with no overtime pay, no safety equipment, and in filthy environments? 

No, the free market (which includes the employee/labour market) would force companies to improve conditions or else have their workers quit and work for the competition. If the factory across the street has high tech safety equipment and offers better pay, you can either match it or see your staff flock out like bats out of hell. The free market works as well, if not better, than goverment in all instances. 

These companies would try to reduce costs as much as possible wherever they go to make more profit. That is their only goal in a free market, they aren't made to be accountable for their workers in pay and safety etc. 

But yes, i do think companies would try to force people to do 16 hours a day for pennies a day as they wouldn't be held by regulation and so could do what they want. This would happen unless ordinary people ran the businesses on a local level rather than the rich run it on a international level. This is because little care is put into anything on a larger scale of production.

Also, a billionaire from Australia did suggest paying workers very little money once ~http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/billionaire-gina-rinehart-sparks-controversy-2-a-day-pay-remark-article-1.1152735

We can persume this action wouldn't work but if the majority of companies pay so little than workers would have to put up with it (like in much of the developing world), if it weren't for trade unions pushing for their interests (which don't really exist in the developing world).

Personally, i don't trust a truly free market and i don't think it is possible either because of our flaws as people. How could the market be free if a certain company dominated that industry? I feel strong regulation is needed to make a "fairer market" rather than a free one. If free trade is supposed to make people richer why does it take so long to happen?