Bringing Back Michigan, Baby

The campaign caravan has moved on and the national press is about to forget Michigan again until some new disaster in the Upper Midwest impresses itself on the national consciousness. Before we go though I'd just like to echo the words of commentator and former University of Detroit basketball coach and Athletic Director, Dick Vitale when he said; "'S'bout bringing back Michigan, baby!"

In the recent Republican Primary you had the two leading GOP contenders of the week, Mitt "say anything" Romney, and John "hundred years War" McCain, treating Michigan to their contrasting visions of the future for the state.

McCain gave them his "straight talk" about bringing green jobs to Michigan, since "the old jobs are gone, and they ain't coming back." Romney opposed McCain's "defeatist talk" with a scheme of his own: massive government intervention to right the auto industry; a hazy twenty billion dollar plan marrying some sort of government bailout with talk of good old American entrepreneurial drive. While the specifics of the plan were rather nebulous, Romney's larger point won the day and the primary: the point being that we, the American people, cannot let Michigan fail.

The Devil of course is in the details.

Romney's right, the government is going to have to intervene in Michigan, but as the political class is fond of saying these days, it's going to have to be "smart" intervention. Meanwhile McCain is also right, the future is in green collar jobs.

One two-part idea America might try is this. To begin with, the Federal Government would assume the health care and legacy retirement costs of US auto workers from GM, Ford and Chrysler. This would help the Big 3 get back on their feet and stabilize job loss in the upper Mid West. In other words, your basic corporate bailout--I'm sure Mitt would approve.

However at the same time that the government is bailing out the big auto companies, it would also underwrite the creation of a new, Public Automobile company based in Detroit-- or Dearborn, or Flint. This Publicly owned, and what the hell, worker managed, company would utilize closed and abandoned GM and Ford plants. It would be dedicated to building stripped down, low cost, hybrid vehicles at eight to ten thousand dollars a pop. These new vehicles would be like a green version of the original Model-T.

The great thing about "The Green T" is it could be built to environmental standards, not corporate ones. The "Green T" might be able to get 100 miles to the gallon as do some prototype hybrid vehicles now being tested at the University of California, Davis. Whatever the case we know one thing; these cars would sell, sell well enough to help underwrite the costs of the government's legacy buyouts, pay good wages and make back the initial Public investment. We also know that since the company will be worker managed, the Public commission overseeing the company will be able to make a deal with the UAW to let the workers adjust their own pay rates and working conditions.

Taken together these two proposals would not only address the collapse of manufacturing in Michigan and the Mid West as a whole, but also climate change and the taboo against public ownership of industry. Further, it would point the way for Detroit to once again achieve profitability. The future, after all, is Green.

Now I know it might take McCain and Romney a minute to digest these twin proposals, so while they're digesting, let's talk amongst ourselves for a moment.

The big problem with this plan is not that it wouldn't work. The big problem with this plan is that it violates the taboo on public ownership of industry and anything smacking of government intervention in the market--even while the market is slowly collapsing, under the weight of its own greed and malfeasance, right before our eyes.

This final issue; the relationship of the public sphere and the private sphere is actually the key socio-economic issue of the historical moment. It should be a central issue in the coming election but the Republicans sure ain't gonna raise it, and with corporate Democrats Clinton and Obama currently leading the Democratic field, we know the Democrats won't either.

As we can see, bringing back Michigan won't be easy. It can be done, but only over the dead bodies of the two major political parties, the ruling corporate oligarchy and their gatekeepers in the media.

But personally, I feel like one could profitably spend a lifetime just making good on Mitt Romney's broken promises. And that's a good enough reason for bringing back Michigan to me.

Comments

[WIpatriot]

What, can't Michigan wake up and go knock on Lee Iacocca's door and ask him what they should do?

[MrsHaskell]

What a great idea! From your mouth to God's ear. I hope you're distributing this widely.

[NancyBordier]

This is a great idea.

There are various public/private structures that could bring such an innovative, sustainable and job-creating enterprise to life.

Public sources of capital can and should be made available to get it started.

As David Cay Johnston points out in his new book, Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expenses (and Stick You with the Bill), large corporations like Wal-Mart have found myriad ways to get public funds to capitalize and operate their businesses. He even goes so far as to label their ability to get their hooks into public monies "corporate socialism".

Now that we have seen that these predatory corporations are undermining our economic health by destroying livelihoods right and left, it is time for government to step in and help launch socially-responsible enterprises like the one you suggest.

They not only create sustainable jobs and environmentally-friendly products but enhance our national security by reducing U.S. dependence on foreign sources of fossil fuels like oil.

I commend you for bringing this idea into public view and encourage you to keep advocating it until such an enterprise is actually up and running. Michigan is a great place to start!

[taikan]

You say that "we, the American people, cannot let Michigan fail." Even assuming that it would be "Michigan," rather than the car companies, that might fail, you offer no justification for your statement. What is wrong with putting GM, Ford and Chrysler in a position where each of them is forced to manufacture cars that can compete with the higher mileage, higher quality cars manufactured by Honda, Toyota, etc. at plants in states other than Michigan (such as Tennessee and California) or else face the prospect of bankruptcy?
If building the "green Model T" is such a good idea and might save the automobile industry in Michigan, there is nothing stopping Ford, GM and/or Chrysler from building it. As for their "legacy" costs for healthcare and retirement, they can get rid of the healthcare portion of that by working to get the federal government to adopt a plan of universal health care. If the members of management allow their Republican political ideology to prevent them from asking the government to implement such a plan, the car companies deserve to die.

[frankp37]

The auto industry is one of those businesses where everyone thinks they know the solution. I suppose this is because we all drive cars right. It's actually one of the most complex if not the most complex business. Consider there's more computer chips in a car than in a computer. The costs involved are greater than any other item other than maybe real estate which is designed to last ten times longer. Of course, a car travels 100k miles. A car needs to not only accelerate quickly, but stop even faster and any flaws even at 120k miles will be blamed on the manufacturer. Beyond that you have all these polution controls which contradict the basic purpose of the business. When you move a ton and a half so far so fast it takes so much energy. There is no such thing as a green car. If all this isn't enough cars need to out-hollywood Hollywood. They are your dreams and aspirations. Not coincidentally, some of the biggest directors started out making car commercials, like Ridley Scott. The marketing that goes into the business really is bigger than Hollywood. If the business isn't difficult enough the executives have the legacy issues. At one point GM had 600,000 employees. All of these people made basically 100k a year and have 50k a year pensions. There is no company inthe world that has lost so many employees and kept going. The idea that you can just hand this to the government is silly. The government doesn't have that much money. (Any such bail out would also involve several other companies and several million retirees.) I don't even work in the auto business but I'm just giving you basic info that comes from growing up near Detroit and having an idea of how things work. If you worked in the industry you wouldn't even think of these big issues but instead whatever small area you work in. These companies are so vast and employ so many people the management issues are larger and greater than probably any other industry.

[kasa5400]

Romney's larger point won the day and the primary

Not necessarily. Since the Dem. primary was pointless (thanks to Levin and other Clinton supporters who pushed it back to January) a LOT of people voted in the Republican primary - and voted in such a way as screw with the Republicans candidates. At least 50% of my village did exactly that.

Those who switched over to mess with the Republicans thought is would be very funny to have them end up with a 3 way mess - Iowa to the loony tunes evangelical, NH to the 'bomb them all' warmonger and give MI to the slimey couldn't-tell-truth-if-it-bit-him corporate type.

(And we are in the area where the economy has solely been tourism for 20 years.)

[olda]

I cannot comment on the Detroit area but other areas of MI are seeing some new investment coming in small start ups. A good amount of real estate has changed hands -btw its a bargain look at Flint-Grand Rapids -Muskegon -Flint is the cheapest. We will see more auto related job losses some towns are shrinking-and maybe need to.Most of these towns do have a lot of potential.Beatiful land full of forest,lakes and streams as well as citys with great old buildings ripe for rehab,50K or less a fixer turn of century house great woodwork and floors. At this point the state and city's need to come up with their own plans the federal gov. likely wont offer much but a bit of seed money at best.The wheel needs to be reinvented the auto biz has seen its day here.

[rektruax]

North of Saginaw is quite beautiful...