MoTown will do with less – Much less

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder last month appointed “bankruptcy attorney and turnaround specialist” Kevin Orr to run Detroit for the next 18 months.

Detroit is the largest city ever placed under state control.

Detroit joins Benton Harbor, Flint, Pontiac, Ecorse and Allen Park as Michigan cities with state-appointed emergency managers. “Public school districts in Muskegon Heights, Highland Park and Detroit also have managers.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/25/kevyn-orr-detroit-city-council_n_2950633.html

PBS recently ran a less-than-I-expected story on Detroit and the city’s problems. One segment at an automobile show highlighted why Detroit has a debt of $14 billion, but no one in the program recognized the cause, or if anyone did know, no one had the courage to mention it.

In the segment, a bar owner and his wife talked with a GM Volt representative and then a Chinese-owned BYD rep, both showing electric cars. The man was surprised at the Volt’s $40,000 sticker price and even more surprised when learning the BYD car cost half as much, but had the same options, according to the BYD spokeswoman.

The man returned to the Volt spokesman and asked when GM would have a car that would compete with the China-built car. He asked why the China-built car carried a price half the Volt’s sticker.

No one gave the answer, so here it is:

The car manufactured in China was not made by members of the United Auto Workers union.

Detroit has lost more than half its population of 30 years ago. By those who talked in the PBS program, only one thing can bring Detroit back to its wonder years – the same thing that made Detroit the car capital of the world and which brought MoTown to the dregs in which it now lives … the UAW.

The people are breathing old air.