Comments for The Big Ride

Comment on Flint, Michigan by sean

sean — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:40:27 +0000

@ Douglas – Both the unions and the corporations worked hand and hand to bring down Flint and the American automotive industry. their hands are both covered in the blood of communities like Flint. Most of the union guys made more like $30-$40 per hour by the early 80′s which is way to much for unskilled, non post secondary workers to make. During the 50′s and 60′s the workers had done quite well for themselves allowing them to belong to middle class America and enjoying a level of luxury not seen anywhere else in the world for unskilled laborers. It was in the 70′s that the unions started to get out of control, drunk on their own power and corrupted by it. The unions worked against high production quotas and set up a system so that hard work meant nothing, raises and promotions were based on sonority and those who were incompetent and lazy could not be fired. In the late 70′s, production in Japan and Germany where 3-4 times higher then in Michigan while GM, Chrysler and Ford paid 30% higher wages. It is a well known that organized crime is and was entrenched in the unions by this time, ensuring that tens of millions of dollars a yearwas squeezed out of the Detroit Automakers every year that didn’t even find its way to the workers. The Unions not only helped to bring down the demise of the workers but also ensured that the area would remain an economic wasteland. Once GM and Chrysler left, the reason Toyota, Honda or none of the other car companies moved into the area, nor any other industry for that matter, was because there isn’t a single buisness man in the world who would want to deal with the union BS that was present in Michigan during the late 80′s. By 1981-1983 before the mass exodus started, you had the unions threatening strikes on the car companies or the part subsidiaries just to flex their muscle. By this time, a guy who had worked at GM for 25 years putting bolts into frames was making between 50-60$ an hour with 6 weeks holidays, a full pension and full health insurance for his family. On the flip side, the Corporate greed was enough to make anyone sick and even while being gouged by the unions, GM’s CEOs and executives certainly damaged the company through greed, bad investing and poor planning. They certainly owed more to the communities that had enveloped around them then they demonstrated and how they failed to see that by destroying the blue color middle class they were destroying their primary consumers is beyond me. This issue like so many in life is one in which there are no good guys and no bad guys and it isn’t simply black and white like many like to paint it out to be.

Comment on Flint, Michigan by Michigan

Michigan — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:05:11 +0000

That said – In response to the comments that we could take similar photos in any city in America, I have to disagree. We have been in 21 states and two Canadian provinces in our trip so far and other than Newark, New Jersey I have not seen neighborhoods in as bad of a shape than the ones in Flint. I am sorry but that is a fact. A few blocks of redevelopment downtown and a nice neighborhood on the west side doesn’t erase the eye sores elsewhere in Flint.

I couldn’t agree with you more. The city government here in Flint doesn’t understand it, unfortunately.

Comment on One Year Later by jieieie

jieieie — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:01:26 +0000

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Comment on A Place for Our Stuff by The Trouble with Travels « The Big Ride

The Trouble with Travels « The Big Ride — Fri, 28 May 2010 04:06:39 +0000

[...] travel stories, going all Jack Kerouac or vagabonding but the reality is you need to pay to eat and pay to be someplace and pay to move from place to place, unless you walk or hitchhike–the former largely [...]

Comment on How to Get a Hotel Room for Under $40 per Night by Valera8

Valera8 — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:01:22 +0000

Great information, I will be linking back to you and going to look around at your other posts.

Comment on New York City by Zak Fisher

Zak Fisher — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 08:10:09 +0000

me and my sister are both allergic to Gluten and we were always on a gluten-free diet ever since we were teenagers so this is good information about Tuttoriso, thanks.

Comment on Flint, Michigan by Douglas

Douglas — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 02:56:08 +0000

Spoiled union workers??? Yeah, how dare they ask for a living wage! Seriously, I always marvel when people resent a union worker making $25 an hour but not executives and CEOs making millions a year.

Comment on Flint, Michigan by JD

JD — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 02:53:17 +0000

Matt & Michael. Your viewpoints are somewhat interesting, but very typical of people who do not understand Flint and do not understand what keeps an economy thriving. I lived in Flint the first 21 years of my life. Could have went to work for GM but didn’t want to be a zombie with no skills. I left while the going was good.

Simply put…the unions are the main reason for the loss of jobs. Years of mismanagement didn’t help either. From a business standpoint, GM needed to move away from the spoiled union workers (my friends and relatives included) and their contracts that made it impossible to compete with the Japanese. Why do you think that the now government owned GM has not moved jobs back to Flint? Sometimes you screw yourself. There are many people, myself included that have not asked for a raise in pay so as not to put yourself in a position of being over paid for your position.

We people from Flint love what that town was. It makes us very sad to see it go down hill. There are still a lot of nice places around Flint, but not the areas where a lot of us grew up within the actual city limits.

Wish you could have driven through back in the day.

Comment on Be a Traveler Not a Tourist by Rusin

Rusin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:04:55 +0000

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Comment on How to Get a Hotel Room for Under $40 per Night by BG

BG — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:29:40 +0000

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