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View Full Version : They're Shutting Detroit Down...



Barry Eller
04-03-2009, 01:23 PM
A Country Music Video about the Automobile Industry...

Hopefully this is won't be our entire Country and life as we know it.

http://www.thefoxnation.com/entertainment/2009/04/03/world-premier-video-country-music-star-john-rich

Tony
04-03-2009, 04:45 PM
This was sung live at a Red Wings game about a month ago.
It was intended to be more about Detroit than the auto industry, according to an interview with the singer.

As an aside, I got an e-mail with a picture of those informational sign boards you see on a highway overpass, the ones that usually tell about traffic slowdowns and such. But this one said;

"Welcome to Detroit. We're so badass even our mayor is in jail."

:beer:

MOP
04-03-2009, 04:48 PM
It is a shame but we have not seen the last of it, if we go world monetary I think things will go really nuts. The thinking about a world monetary system has been in the back of many high powered people for many years, quite a few years back there was an article in News week about the Phoenix being the new currency!

Carl C
04-03-2009, 04:59 PM
"Welcome to Detroit. We're so badass even our mayor is in jail."

:beer:


Now he's in Texas. :)

roadtrip se
04-03-2009, 05:08 PM
It is a shame but we have not seen the last of it, if we go world monetary I think things will go really nuts. The thinking about a world monetary system has been in the back of many high powered people for many years, quite a few years back there was an article in News week about the Phoenix being the new currency!

does this have to do with Detroit MOP? It doesn't? Exactly.

As for the song, I like modern country, but this song just sucks. Smells like a cash grab and it plays on all of the old class warfare BS. Trust me, everybody in Detroit is getting hit, not just the little guy.

gcarter
04-03-2009, 11:07 PM
I saw an artical this morning about how many folks are leaving Michigan weekly, in spite of everything that's being done to encourage them to stay.
The sad part of such a situation is the best and brightest are the first to go and you're left with the unemployable.

OTOH, if the exodus continues, there'll be plenty of work for everyone left.

Carl needs enough folks to keep selling DVD's to so he can pursue his passion, or his hobby, or his habit, or whatever else you call it.

rustnrot
04-03-2009, 11:41 PM
George, just what is Michigan doing to encourage folks to stay?

I left MI in 1975 and never looked back...

gcarter
04-04-2009, 06:20 AM
George, just what is Michigan doing to encourage folks to stay?

I left MI in 1975 and never looked back...

It didn't specifically say, just that they were trying.
I would imagine some PSA's.

Carl C
04-04-2009, 06:37 AM
Carl needs enough folks to keep selling DVD's to so he can pursue his passion, or his hobby, or his habit, or whatever else you call it.

George, resale stores, pawn shops and, yes, flea markets thrive when the economy is rough. People come to me to stretch a buck. I'm doing very well, thus the 2007 HP425EFI sitting in my garage. Also, people from all walks of life are seeking employment elsewhere and this state will be better off after there has been a thinning of the population. People came here in droves when the manufacturing jobs were plentiful and now many must seek employment elsewhere. Michigan will be OK; We have one "Great" asset. Yup, the Great Lakes.

BigGrizzly
04-04-2009, 09:11 AM
I think you guys should listened to Rich when he describe ed why he wrote the song, it was very interesting. I have herd him on several occasions do this. I actually think he has it wired. Which reminds me I need to get back in the garage.

roadtrip se
04-04-2009, 09:45 AM
and I have heard the interviews with him about it. Guy's a dork in my opinion. A patronizing one at that.

George, I think what you read was about our college grads. I saw a similar article about this. Of course they are leaving, there isn't any work to be had right now for freshly minted grads at 12+% unemployment.

Anybody want to buy a real nice house in the woods? Carl, since your staying, how about it? Plenty of room for the puppies to roam, room for the Donzi, critters, beautiful home, you know the drill...

Ghost
04-04-2009, 01:22 PM
does this have to do with Detroit MOP? It doesn't? Exactly.

As for the song, I like modern country, but this song just sucks. Smells like a cash grab and it plays on all of the old class warfare BS. Trust me, everybody in Detroit is getting hit, not just the little guy.

To the extent that I understand the song correctly, I think it is addressing the difference between the true ruling elite, protected by the political power of their oligarchy, and the rest of us. In Detroit, as you say, everybody is getting hit. But I think this is what the singer intends to say. (Based both on listening to the song, and on listening to the interviews.)

I don't think he's drawing the classic, worn-out line between the classes where you suggest, almost by definition. This is not about the line between the blue collar worker and management. It is about the power gulf between less than .1% of elite management with their political cronies, and the much larger group including both the blue collar worker and 99.9 % of management. A power gulf that exists because the politicians have channels to huge pipes of money from their cronies in that oligarchy. So, when you say "everybody in Detroit is getting hit", I think he would agree.

Except for a tiny, tiny sliver. There are some execs, even in that business, who have taken huge dollars out of the industry, and what does anyone else in the industry have to show for it? This tiny sliver is part of that oligarchy. A lot more of the financial industry is in it. And the political donations line up with that I think. And, surprise, when the chips are down, the politicians know where their bread is most buttered, and even though the politicians have no business handing out my money and your money to friends, their choices in doing so make clear who their most important friends are.

This is why (despite the fact that I can't stand to be in the same zip code as a lot of modern country) lyrically, I thought this was a good song. Even though the song sounds pro-auto-bailout, and you know my stance on the counter-productivity of that, the hypocrisy the song calls out (open checkbook for banks and relative stinginess toward Detroit) is a hypocrisy I think stinks. And, FWIW, relative to the music of a lot of modern country, I thought it was actually pretty good. Maybe I just think country songs need to be sad songs.

Though I will admit, there are a couple lines in there where I think this guy's analysis falls short, or he doesn't communicate well. The "calloused hands" part sounds more like what you say about the class warfare, I agree. But I think his sympathy is with everyone who is hurting, and his ire is toward the oligarchy that sold them out and helped them sell themselves out. Further, the pension being cut in half "not being his fault" overlooks that maybe the pension was twice what it should have been all along. The jolt of a correction is very painful, when people don't know their real budgets.

But in the big picture, folks on Wall St lined their pockets leveraging this country 20-30 times on bad collateral. They paid Washington off to look the other way, and the folks in Washington took that cash. And they're heaping the costs of their crimes back onto us, and they're doing just fine themselves. And despite the UAW's sins and management's sins alike, Detroit is a town that produces something of value. And in terms of payoffs and currying favor from DC, Detroit is a piker compared to Wall St. And I think this big picture is where the song really has it right, regardless of both your complaints and mine, which I think are failings of understanding but not ill-intent.

Regards,

Mike