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Oh, and what this guy said:

Now, I start rooting for team ?Stop Posturing and Get A Deal Done?. They?re heavy underdogs to the ?Greedy Sumbitches? in the 2011 Lockout Bowl.
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Yea, he should have been pushing the Charger.

In regards to Superbowl and lock-out. Boomer Esiason (what kind of last name is that?) was on the radio, he said, from an event orginazational stand point, that Superbowl was the biggest shit show he's ever seen for a SB. He then said he felt there was some local politics involved in regards to the fire dept saying there were too many people in the stadium.

And in regard to lock out. He painted this picture. Less wealthy owners are having a tough time competing w/ wealthier owners. So they either want wealthier owners to give them some money or reduce salaries of players. Now I'm not the biggest sympathizer of millionaires squabiling w/ billionairs. But I think the players are right on this one. If you arnt rich enought to compete sell your team, get a partner, or be the shitty team. Only one team can win the Superbowl anywase. Although a fair cap isn't unreasonable either.
 
GW2500 said:
I liked the Crystler Eminem one. It was saying hey America remember us (Det). The city that was once the 4th largest, outsold London for records in the 1960's, created the auto industry/ middle class, have been neglected and shit on by the entire country for decades? Yea were still here and maybe just maybe you could support your fellow Americans. (Granted complacent auto execs of the 70's and 80's decided to make shity cars)
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The UAW and corrupt identity politics centric politicians ran Detroit into the ground. The city is a cautionary tale how a thriving modern metropolis, even with a rich history, architecture, music, and overall culture, can be destroyed in a decade or two. The Detroit of 1950 would be aghast and not believe the Detroit of 1970+ to be possible. It's like a micro version of the Byzantine Empire played out in a city state over 50 years.
 
I basically completely ignored the Super Bowl for the first time, it was a complete disgrace this year. UFC 126 was awesome by comparison, was basically buzzed from it until now
 
Sure I agree, but Auto execs who refused to increase quality when foreign companies were, also really screwed over the common folk of Detroit. And there were other factors like automation, destruction of public transportation (again from Auto execs), and finally racism. Detroit's is 85% black, New Orleans 70%, Atlanta 60%, NYC + Boston 25%, just to give comparison. It really never was Detroit Rock City, it was/is Mo'town. And in the context of America during the 70's and 80's that worked against you. Detroit's white neighboring suburbs refused to do regional planing and business w/ Detroit as much as possilbe. Many of the white people who left Detroit wanted to see it be reduced to a pile of rubble and they got there wish.

To give you an idea of the strenght of racism in this Northern City. When my parent were going to high school on the East Side (68 -72) they went to the half white half black high school. And what happened was each year the all black high school (which by early 80's they all became) and the all white high school met at my folks high school and had an all out brawl. My parents would hide in the school rooms (w/ people of both colors) while the folks out there kicked the shit out of eachother. My dad said the black dudes would eventually start kicking some ass until the white cops showed up. They then clubbed any black person they saw. Apparently the walk home from school those days was quite daunting, a lot of residuel brawls flarring up.

On a complete side note, my dad ended up going to local comuter college, moved to Boston and made a nice carreer for himself. And these days parents view places like Waltham High the death of hope for your child. And yet a lot of these older generations did just fine under worse conditions. Hmm oversensitive are we.
 
The contradiction of Detroit - it was a city built around manufacturing and selling a mode of transportation antithetical to cities - was never going to resolve itself well.

The Eminem ad demonstrates how Detroit is still trying to revive itself via the auto industry. It's just not going to happen.
 
What else do they have to pin their hopes on?

It'll be interesting to see if Detroit gets any lift from the Big Three now that they're seeing consistent quarterly profits.
 
Not when "consistent quarterly profits" = short term benefit of government bailouts and writing off pension schemes.

The liberal hope was to retool Detroit's economy for more sustainable transportation needs - building railcars for HSR and streetcars for urbanizing cities, for example - but for a variety of reasons, that doesn't seem to be materializing. First, there needs to be more demand for that kind of infrastructure, stemming from more such projects actually happening, and, second, there needs to be government support for retraining and refitting Detroit's workforce and facilities to make it happen. Shoring up the existing auto industry was a step in the opposite direction.
 
While I agree Detroit needs to diversify, shoring up the auto industry won't hurt the city. Fortunately their new mayor seems like the best one they've had in generations. Granted that ain't necessary saying much.
 
^ When there's only a limited pot of government funds and they're put to use trying to hold back a sinking ship for as long as possible instead of investing in the future, then yes, it does hurt the city to waste time and money on the auto industry.
 
czsz said:
Not when "consistent quarterly profits" = short term benefit of government bailouts and writing off pension schemes.
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That may be true for this very moment, but I don't see said profits stopping once those one-time events are off the books, as it's no secret that Ford and even GM (gasp!) are now producing--and more importantly, selling--cars that are honest-to-God competitive with anything else out there.
 
I disagree, I dont think the auto industry isn't a sinking ship. I think many Americans don't buy American bc they did build shit boxes for roughly 30 years. But truth be told they build quality cars. Fords been doing it for a while now. So I think that each year they are regainig trust from consumers. Also a lot of their recent financial troubles stem from the scumbags on wall st. I also think giving up on US car manufacturing is basically giving up on US manufacturing and I find that scary. Our economy is already too fluffy with all these service related jobs that can overvalue their worth.
 
I don't think a service based economy is a totally fallacy. Witness the example of Switzerland!
 
^ It's one thing for a tiny country like Switzerland to base its economy on financial services; it's another thing for the US to attempt to do so. Comparative advantage favors niches, and the US is too big to survive off one or two alone. Plus there are huge costs associated with moving all or most manufacturing off shore; the US is too far apart from other manufacturing centers geographically to make it an affordable option to import so many of these products.

With regard to the US auto industry: we'll see. But I'm sure these companies could have emerged from this mess on their own, though we would have seen some of them stumble and fall. In the meantime, the money could have been better spent diversifying Detroit's economy. You simply can't turn the clock back to 1950 there; not only is there never going to be as large a market for cars produced in the city (because of foreign competition, labor costs, etc) but it contradicts any efforts to put the country's transportation priorities on a sustainable footing.
 
I think Detroit is on the right (albeit slow) track. I really think their shrinking plan has potential, but it will take a good amount of time and funding for it to really work.
 
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God dammit, China... why can't the BRA's look like this?





Then again- it looks like every building has a park around him.

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