Showing posts with label DETROIT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DETROIT. Show all posts

FW: A letter to Coke a Cola

Date: 
From:
Subject: Fw: A letter to Coke a Cola
To:




President Ronald Reagan called Russia "the evil empire."  The question is, who has done the most damage to our American Republic?  Russia?  Or the evil, wicked, and criminal politicians of We the People in America?

 
 
The below is one of the best messages and replies I have seen sent to me by Richard Head.  It REALLY tells it like it REALLY is!  No more coke products for me.  All of you fellow Patriots will love it................E.
 

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Were you offended by the Coca Cola Super Bowl ad as much as I was? You’re not alone. I think every real American who saw this abomination must have been offended by these invaders to our American culture. 
 
Lengthy read, but there's a lot of "telling it like it is". Read it top down for sequence. 
  
 

    
This Lady really nails it!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
I watched some of the commercials that were played during the Super Bowl.  I always enjoy the ones from Anheuser Busch.  They showed the “Welcome Home” celebration in Winter Park, Florida, for returning soldiers.  And who doesn’t love those Clydesdales?   I didn’t like the one from Coca Cola.  All those young women singing “America The Beautiful” dressed in ethnic garb and singing in a foreign language really pissed me off.  Americans sing in English to honor America ; not Farsi or Urdu.,
 
I left a comment for Coke on YouTube under the video of that commercial.  I got a reply from them today, which you can read below, and then you can read my answer to them.  Maybe this time they’ll understand. 
 
I received this [back] from Coke:
 
Thank you for your email and your loyalty to Coca-Cola over the years,   We greatly value your business and appreciate hearing from you.

“It’s Beautiful” was created to celebrate Coke moments among all Americans who together enjoy ice cold, refreshing Coke.  For centuries America has opened its arms to people of many countries who have helped to build this great nation.  “It’s Beautiful” provides a snapshot of the real lives of Americans representing diverse ethnicities, religions, races and families, all found in the United States .  All those featured in the ad are Americans and “ America The Beautiful” was sung by bilingual American young women.

We believe “It’s Beautiful” is a great example of the magic that makes our country so special, and a powerful message that spreads optimism, promotes inclusion and celebrates humanity – values that are core to Coca-Cola.

You can find out more about our ad by going to Journey.  I really appreciate your feedback and hope this will keep you as a valued customer of ours.  We appreciate your interest in our Company.

 
Timothy
Industry and Consumer Affairs
The Coca-Cola Company

Please use the record number below should you have additional questions.
 
My Reply:
 
Where do you live, Timothy?  Since you’re with Coca Cola, it is likely Buckhead or one of Atlanta ’s other exclusive, executive, country club neighborhoods.  I lived in one for over two decades, in Hudson, Ohio ..  I know what they’re like.   My youngest son lives in one near Atlanta, too, as he is a successful broker with E-Trade, in Alpharetta.  Those neighborhoods are not what most of this country is like, however.  Maybe you haven’t traveled much, or lived in many different states as I have.
 
America’s not so beautiful anymore, and it is full of immigrants that have no intention of assimilating into our society or becoming truly American.  They brought their own culture, keep their own culture, and never learn anything about ours, except to use it to their advantage.  They don’t even like Americans.  They make no effort to learn our language.  Ever been to Detroit?  I’ll bet you never tried to enter the closed Muslim festival that takes place near Ann Arbor, because you’d probably be assaulted before you got a block away.  We Americans are not so proud of that kind of behavior, and they aren’t there to celebrate being American. 
 
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,How about Collinsville,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Ohio?  That’s a part of Cleveland, and the Collinsville police once yelled at me to “get the hell out of this black neighborhood, lady, or we will be calling the meat wagon!” because I had gotten lost there.  Police there were barricaded behind locked doors, and one could not see a police officer, but were required, in the lobby of the station, to pick up a phone to talk to one.   A white woman in that black neighborhood was in great danger, they explained.  The slums of Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, and especially Chicago, or any other major city are littered with filth and disease and the hatred of blacks toward whites.  It’s the same in the L.A. barrio, my friend, and they aren’t singing Kumbaya, either.  A recent mayor of L. A. declared he intended to take California back as Mexican territory.  Do you consider that a Kumbaya moment?  An “ America, The Beautiful” kind of moment?  They call themselves “Reconquista”, and they are there to do just that.  They murder and steal from Americans who live near the Mexican border in Arizona, but our government says Arizonans can’t protect themselves from the marauders.,,,,,,,,
 
Is the America where you find massive amounts of illegal drugs and thick lines of cocaine on glass -top coffee tables to be considered beautiful?  That’s what illegal aliens brought to our once beautiful America .  Is that meth lab in the house down the street beautiful?  Is the heroin epidemic now seizing the weak in America your idea of “ America, The Beautiful”?  Singing it to us in foreign languages is repugnant to us, and it makes us resentful.  Being sung by a young woman who is forced by her family to wear the clothing demanded by the oppression of her religion is also repulsive. 
 
Do you have children?  Are they allowed to wear a symbol of our country on their clothing?  America ’s schools don’t allow American flags anywhere anymore.  Where are your children going to learn of a “beautiful” America?  It won’t be at their school.   They are being taught how wonderful Islam is, and to celebrate Cinco de Mayo when their brother may be shot at by an Afghan terrorist or an alien illegally crossing our border to bring harm to our country in the form of theft, drugs, prostitution, or terrorism.   Watch the news; you’ll see how often there’s a squabble over such things, and how angry it is making real Americans.  You know, those folks that say the Pledge of Allegiance and mean it.  Probably like your mom and dad.  Those that came here to flee oppression and build an America they were also willing to die to defend.  Not the ones who want to “fundamentally change America ”. 
 
How about Watts, or South Central Los Angeles?   Boston,, or New York, or Patterson, New Jersey?  Do you ever have a desire to participate in or watch the Boston marathon again?  You think the Tsarnaov brothers are a part of beautiful America?,,
 
Beautiful?  No, it isn’t.  Not anymore.  Huge numbers of Muslims that threaten the white residents of Wylie, Texas by moving into a new neighborhood and holding closed, secret meetings in the park, intimidating white children, and frightening the elderly don’t make this a beautiful America .  
 
Illegal people from all over the world enter America through wide open borders and suffer no consequences.  Lovely people like MS 13 and other gangs, and terrorists from the Middle East .  Mexican, Central and South Americans serve as donkeys, as beasts of burden, bringing thousands of tons of illegal drugs into America, and you want to celebrate their heritage?  Why?  And you want me to celebrate their heritage with you?  Have you all lost your collective minds?
 
At least ten thousand people were brought into the New York City area as prostitutes to serve the football fans that came to see the Super Bowl.  Many of them were children.  The FBI has been busy rounding them up.  Some are only 13 years old.  Is that your America,, of which you sing in a foreign voice?  Human trafficking in this country is rampant; do you suppose a kid was given an ice-cold Coke to enjoy after some sweaty, grunting Denver or Seattle fan finished his sex act with her?  I hope it makes you shudder and puke.  Those kids were mostly brought into our country from a foreign land.  Is that what you want them to know of America, and sing it in their language?  What about the adult women who were victimized in that group of ten thousand?   Know this - they do not come willingly.  They do not perform those acts willingly.  And they sure as hell don’t do it to be in the land of Coca Cola ...   They hate us because we allow it to happen.  I hate to tell you what they would do to you with a bottle of Coke, and that I know of because I am an R. N. who witnessed such things in an emergency room.  That’s not “ America, The Beautiful”.,,
 
Well, Timothy, change for the better under liberals is just not going to happen, and the backlash I’m giving you is only a polite synopsis of the feelings millions of us have about those immigrants who speak different languages and come from cultures that we do not embrace, nor do we want our children or grandchildren exposed to them or their culture except from afar.  We do not want our grandchildren celebrating Cinco de Mayo and being told that they cannot display the American flag on their own home or a T-shirt.  It makes us angry, and where we once practiced tolerance and helped those who wish to assimilate, we now shun and cower in fright, or watch violent clashes between cultures on the nightly news.  And we arm ourselves against the invasion. 
 
If Coca Cola is going to be politically correct and sing Kumbaya while hoping that we who are outside that closed executive neighborhood of yours enjoy a cold refreshing Coke and smile at your distinctly anti-American silly song, you’re badly mistaken.  You’re going to watch your sales plummet.  You’re going to watch others show real patriotism, like Anheuser Busch, and applaud the way they show appreciation to our soldiers who are killing the relatives of those Muslims in Detroit and Patterson who would spit on you, or worse, if you went to their neighborhoods.  And I’ll be at those Independence Day parades, applauding our troops and those who know the real America the way it is supposed to be and was before liberals took over and convoluted and ignored our laws, spat on our Constitution, and ruined our America . 
 
I’m through supporting companies that support our enemies.  Bye-bye, Coke.  It used to be America ’s drink.  Now your company is America ’s poison. 
 
Barbara Gilbert
 
Wife of a retired American military officer
Mother of  2 American military veterans
Grandmother of  3, or maybe 4 future military veterans, because they will be taught to serve a real America, for Americans.  All our grandchildren will be taught who the real friends of America really are, as we enjoy an ice cold cola from Grandma’s pretty red SodaStream machine from Israel ..   (At least they’ll know who their real friends are.)
 
Coca Cola Super Bowl Commercial…


Fwd: FW: A Few Thoughts

















Fwd: Dazed & Confused

Dazed and Confused













Fwd: FW: FW: <<< Some New Bumper Stickers >>>

New Obama bumper stickers 

I really love that one!














Fwd: FW: perception​....

Today I swung my front door wide open and placed my Remington 30.06 right in the doorway.  I left 6 shells beside it, then left it alone and went about my business.

While I was gone, the mailman delivered my mail, the neighbor boy across the street mowed the yard, a girl walked her dog down the  street, and quite a few cars stopped at the stop sign near the front of our house.

After about an hour, I checked on the gun. It was still sitting there, right where I had left it.  It hadn't moved itself outside.  It certainly hadn't killed anyone, even with the numerous opportunities it had been presented to do so.

In fact, it hadn't even loaded itself.

Well you can imagine my surprise, with all the media hype about how dangerous guns  are and how they kill people.

Either the media is wrong or I'm in possession of the laziest gun in the world.


Well, I'm off to check on my spoons.  I hear they're making people fat.


The United States is 3rd in Murders throughout the World.

But if you take out Chicago , Detroit , Washington DC and New Orleans , the United States is 4th from the bottom for Murders.

These 4 Cities also have the toughest Gun Control Laws in the United States .  ALL 4 are controlled by Democrats.

It would be absurd to draw any conclusions from this data - right?

Fw: Fw[2]: Muslim Women

Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2012 7:11 AM
Subject: Fw: Fw[2]: Muslim Women

to see devastation drive thru
Detroit some time.   J
 



Date: 11/10/12 04:20 AM
Subject: Fw: Muslim Women

 
   
 
 

 
Muslim women....
Interesting Read ...
 

20 years from now, I will be in Heaven --bye !! This was written by a woman born in Egypt as a Muslim.
Make sure you read the paragraph
(in red) towards the end.
 
Joys of Muslim Women
By Nonie Darwish

In the Muslim faith a Muslim man can marry a child as young as 1 year old and have sexual intimacy with this child. Consummating the marriage by 9.

The dowry is given to the family in exchange for the woman (who becomes his slave) and for the purchase of the private parts of the woman, to use her as a toy.

Even though a woman is abused she can not obtain a divorce. To prove rape, the woman must have (4) male witnesses.

Often after a woman has been raped, she is returned to her family and the family must return the dowry. The family has the right to execute her (an honor killing) to restore the honor of the family. Husbands can beat their wives 'at will' and he does not have to say why he has beaten her.

The husband is permitted to have (4 wives) and a temporary wife for an hour (prostitute) at his discretion.

The Shariah Muslim law controls the private as well as the public life of the woman.
In the West World ( America and Britain ) Muslim men are starting to demand Shariah Law so the wife can not obtain a divorce and he can have full and complete control of her. It is amazing and alarming how many of our sisters and daughters attending American Universities and British Universities are now marrying Muslim men and submitting themselves and their children unsuspectingly to the Shariah law.

By passing this on, enlightened American and British women may avoid becoming a slave under Shariah Law.

Ripping the West in Two.

Author and lecturer Nonie Darwish says the goal of radical Islamists is to impose Shariah law on the world, ripping Western law and liberty in two.

She recently authored the book, Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law. Darwish was born in Cairo and spent her childhood in Egypt and Gaza before immigrating to America in 1978, when she was eight years old. Her father died while leading covert attacks on Israel . He was a high-ranking Egyptian military officer stationed with his family in Gaza .

When he died, he was considered a "shahid," a martyr for jihad. His posthumous status earned Nonie and her family an elevated position in Muslim society.
But Darwish developed a skeptical eye at an early age. She questioned her own Muslim culture and upbringing.. She converted to Christianity after hearing a Christian preacher on television.
In her latest book, Darwish warns about creeping shariah law - what it is, what it means, and how it is manifested in Islamic countries.

For the West, she says radical Islamists are working to impose sharia on the world. If that happens, Western civilization will be destroyed. Westerners generally assume all religions encourage a respect for the dignity of each individual. Islamic law (Sharia) teaches that non-Muslims should be subjugated or killed in this world.

Peace and prosperity for one's children is not as important as assuring that Islamic law rules everywhere in the Middle East and eventually in the world.

While Westerners tend to think that all religions encourage some form of the golden rule, Shariah teaches two systems of ethics - one for Muslims and another for non-Muslims. Building on tribal practices of the seventh century, Shariah encourages the side of humanity that wants to take from and subjugate others.

While Westerners tend to think in terms of religious people developing a personal understanding of and relationship with God, Shariah advocates executing people who ask difficult questions that could be interpreted as criticism.

It's hard to imagine, that in this day and age, Islamic scholars agree that those who criticize Islam or choose to stop being Muslim should be executed. Sadly, while talk of an Islamic reformation is common and even assumed by many in the West, such murmurings in the Middle East are silenced through intimidation...

While Westerners are accustomed to an increase in religious tolerance over time, Darwish explains how petro dollars are being used to grow an extremely intolerant form of political Islam in her native Egypt and elsewhere.

(In twenty years there will be enough Muslim voters in the U.S. And Britain To elect the President by themselves! Rest assured they will do so... You can look at how they have taken over several towns in the USA .. Dearborn Mich. .. Is one... And there are others....)
( Britain has several cities now totally controlled by Muslims)

I think everyone in the U.S. And Great Britain Should be required to read this, but with the ACLU, there is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on!
It is too bad that so many are disillusioned with life and Christianity to accept Muslims as peaceful.. Some may be but they have an army that is willing to shed blood in the name of Islam.. The peaceful support the warriors with their finances and own kind of patriotism to their religion. While America and Britain are getting rid of Christianity from all public sites and erasing God from the lives of children the Muslims are planning a great jihad on America ... (and Britain ) ...

This is your chance to make a difference...!
Pass it on to your email list or at least those you think will listen..

Some of those I'm sending it to WILL NOT!
Put your head back under the covers so you can't see the boogie man!

Fw: Fwd: Interesting and Revealing Statistic

Subject: Fwd: Interesting and Revealing Statistic


    The United States is ranked 3rd, from the Top, in Murders -

throughout the World.

    But, if you remove just 4 cities from the statistics:
    . Chicago
    . Detroit
    . Washington, DC
    . New Orleans

    The United States is then ranked 4th, from the bottom, in the entire
world - for Murders.
   
    These 4 cities also have the toughest Gun Control Laws in the United
States and are run by Democrats.
   
    Imagine that !

Fw: Fwd: Detroit: Socialism's Theme Park

Subject: Detroit: Socialism's Theme Park
 
 
Hang on!  Chicago and Illinois are not far behind.
 
Investors.com - Powered by Investors Business Daily
Government Motors Is Alive And Detroit Is Dead         07/19/2013
Bankruptcy: The fundamental transformation of Detroit is complete, as socialism's theme park succumbs to government run amok, a reminder that government isn't the solution to our problems but their cause.
The wisdom of President Reagan's words have been lost under an administration that believes government is the entity from which all blessings flow. So has Margaret Thatcher's observation that the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.
Last Oct. 13, President Obama boasted in a weekly address about the bailed-out auto industry that, "We refused to throw in the towel and do nothing. We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt. I bet on American workers and American ingenuity, and three years later that bet is paying off in a big way."
Less than a year later, the American auto industry is indeed surviving, bolstered largely by Ford that refused government assistance and foreign transplants located in right-to-work states. Even General Motors has been forced to pay the free market some lip service, lest its customers go elsewhere, even as it accepts Chevy Volt subsidies.
Detroit, however, is dead, and unions and government killed it. Michigan recently became a right-to-work state, but it was too late to save a city that had become beholden to unions. As the United Auto Workers helped destroy the auto industry in and around Detroit, it's no accident that Mercedes-Benz decided to build its flagship SUV in a shiny new facility in Vance, Ala.
Labor overhead was an albatross around Detroit's neck. Until recently, total pay and benefits for a full-time worker at the Big Three averaged $140,000 a year vs. $80,000 for their foreign competitors. Add an estimated $2,000-plus per car for retiree health care and pensions for the Big Three, and you wonder not why Detroit failed, but why it didn't fail sooner.
Detroit's response to a declining business climate was more taxes, fewer city services and bloated pensions for workers in the only growth area — government.
The city's $11 billion in unsecured debt includes $6 billion in health and other retirement benefits and $3 billion in retiree pensions for its 20,000 city pensioners, members of the public sector unions that helped bring Detroit to its knees.
In the face of government incompetence, it was the people of Detroit who went on strike. Detroit lost a quarter-million residents between 2000 and 2010. A population that in the 1950s teemed with 1.8 million is struggling to stay above 700,000. Much of the middle-class and scores of businesses also have fled, taking their tax dollars with them.
Detroit is the rotten fruit of uncontested progressive socialism. In 1960, Detroit had the highest per capita income in the U.S.; today, it's the poorest of our large cities. An estimated 78,000 of the city's homes are unoccupied, and in 2011 half the occupiers of its 305,000 properties did not pay any tax. Some 40% of the street lights do not work.
Detroit has 264,209 households, and 91,204 — or 34.5% — get food stamps. Only 54.3% of Detroit residents participate in the labor force. This is how America is beginning to look. If we continue down President Obama's path, America will become Detroit, only with a press to print money.
Indeed, the scary part is that Detroit is what Obama wants to fundamentally transform America into: a place where wealth is redistributed, not created, and where government picks winners and losers in an economy in which we all ultimately lose.
Speaking at Ohio State University in May, he told graduates not to listen to "voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems."
Detroit didn't. We should.

Fwd: GM Sales Myth


Subject: Fwd: GM Sales Myth
 
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Sat, Nov 3, 2012 at 8:51 PM
Subject: GM Sales Myth
To:

 
 

GM Sales: Bloomberg report.
79% of GM’s sales last month was government purchased. During 2012, remember how Obama keeps telling us how he saved GM, and how our economy is getting better, it seems the car company he bought is being saved by Govt employees using our tax money to buy new cars. GM’s sales figures for last month were the best since 2008 , up 16% for the month of June.
YIPPEE!
Well, wait just a minute. It seems that those rosy sales figures are due primarily to a 79% increase in fleet sales to the U.S. government in June.

That’s right. Our tax dollars are being used to pump up GM’s sales figures ahead of next month’s quarterly report so that our Dear Leader can point to "Government Motors" as a huge success. The incestuous relationship between GM, the UAW and the Regime has never been more glaringly apparent.

GM is unsustainable without government subsidies and will ultimately go bust again, taking billions of taxpayer dollars down with it . We bailed out General Motors to the tune of $50 billion. $30 billion of this is effectively a loss, mostly sunk into fattening the United Auto Workers Union—plus fierce fierce Obama supporters—while the actual bondholders were shown the elevator shaft.
Meanwhile, as News Busters reports, “We the Taxpayers are still stuck holding 500+ million shares of GM stock. Which we need to sell at $53 per share. Which debuted post-bankruptcy at $33 per share.. And which is currently trading at just over $20 per. Meaning we’ll lose about $15 billion.” But it gets better. Despite the overwhelming negatives, the tiny bright spot of positive June sales numbers is being heralded by Obama and the leftist press as proof the auto bailout was a “success.”

Obama is now campaigning on the “success” of – the government buying cars from…the government’s car company...with our money.
American vision says That’s like you setting up a lemonade stand for your kids. You buy them the lemons, sugar, cups and pitchers – and then buy most of the lemonade yourself.
The pressure is on Government Motors to appear financially strong as this may be the last earnings report before November elections and sets the stage for how “successful” GM is. One of GM’s past tricks to help fudge earnings numbers has been to stuff truck inventory channels. Old habits die hard at GM.
According to a Bloomberg report, “GM said inventory of its full-size pickups, which will be refreshed next year, climbed to 238,194 at the end of June, a 135 days’ supply, up from 116 days at the end of May.” 135 days’ supply is huge, the accepted norm is a 60 day supply.
The trick here is that GM records revenue (probably at list prices for costing and sales number) when vehicles go into dealerships to be floor planned.
We are being fed a numbers game.

Fw: Afghan Quarterback

The Afghan Quarterback

The coach had put together the perfect team for the Detroit Lions. The only thing that was missing was a good quarterback. He had scouted all the colleges and even the Canadian and European Leagues, but he couldn't find a ringer who could ensure a Super Bowl win.

Then one night while watching CNN he saw a war-zone scene in Afghanistan.  In one corner of the background, he spotted a young Afghan soldier with a truly incredible arm. He threw a hand-grenade straight into a 15th story window 100 yards away.

KABOOM!

He threw another hand-grenade 75 yards away, right into a chimney.

KA-BLOOEY!

Then he threw another at a passing car  going 90 mph.

BULLS-EYE!

"I've got to get this guy!" coach said to himself. "He has the perfect arm!"

So, he brings him to the States and teaches him the great game of football. And the Lions go on to win the Super Bowl.

The young Afghan is hailed as the great  hero of football, and when the coach asks him what he wants, all the young man wants is to call his mother.

"Mom," he says into the phone, "I just won the Super Bowl!"

"I don't want to talk to you," the old woman says. "You are not my son!"

"I don't think you understand, Mother," the young man pleads. "I've won the greatest sporting event in the world. I'm here among thousands of my adoring  fans."

"No! Let me tell you!" his mother retorts. "At this very moment, there are gunshots all around us. The neighborhood is a pile of rubble. Your two brothers were beaten within an inch of their lives last week, and I have to keep your sister in the house so she doesn't get raped!" The old lady pauses, and then tearfully says,

"I will never forgive you for making us move to Detroit!"

Fw: Fwd: Every wonder why Detroit is all screwed up?

This not only applies to Detroit but the whole of the U.S.A.
Idiots like this and the demos wanting their votes have brought this country to ruin.
Subject: Fwd: Every wonder why Detroit is all screwed up?
 


 

 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrFvAiQDuEo&feature=related

FWD: Burger King in Detroit

Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2011 7:59 PM
Subject: Burger King in Detroit



 

Burger King in Detroit   Proof that the Detroit school system works! 

   We wonder how Obama got elected? Enough said.  

Fwd: Ford Plant

From



.

Subject: Fwd: Ford Plant




Ford Plant
CANNOT HAPPEN IN THE UNITED STATES UNTIL AUTO MANUFACTURERS GET RID OF THE UAW UNION .
  EFFICIENT?  This will knock your socks off!!   Ford Plant
This is fascinating. If you watch, listen to the very last couple of sentences. 
This is a short video of a new Ford plant in Brazil . One look at this and you will be able to understand why there will probably never be another assembly plant built in the USA .
It will also point out why more assembly plants will go offshore.
You won't doubt that Ford, GM, and Chrysler are destined to go under, after watching this video. 
They will survive, but their assembly operations in the U.S. likely won't, whether we provide a bailout or not (listen closely at the end for the reason why).
  Watch the video, then pass it on!

FW: More On Detroit's Collapse- Unthinkable


Subject: More On Detroit's Collapse- Unthinkable

Many years ago I made several trips to Detroit, over a period of several months.. The C & O's Northern Regional Offices were in the GM Building.

Detroit was prosperous, a relatively clean town. You could get off the train and walk anywhere you wanted in town. It was the epitome of the working man's dream... good jobs for you, your sons, daughters and grandchildren.., virtually into perpetuity.

To learn what has happened to this once thriving city is a shame.... most of it is due to mismanagement, failure to realistically look at common sense issues and the perpetuation of "something-for-nothing mentality.

DETROIT’S COLLAPSE
To understand what is going to happen to America 's health care delivery system, we must first understand what has happened to Detroit . Detroit is dying. Yes, I know that there are lots of books on "The Death of. .. ." That word sells books. But Detroit really is dying. It is the first metropolis in the United States to be facing extinction. We have never seen anything like this in American history. It is happening under our noses, but the media refuse to discuss it. To do so would be politically incorrect.

Two factors tell us that Detroit is dying. The first is the departure of 900,000 people – over half the city's population – since 1950. It peaked at 1.8 million in 1950. It is down to about 900,000 today._
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit#Demographics) In 1994, the median sales price of a house in Detroit was about $41,000. The housing bubble pushed it up to about $98,000 in 2003. In March 2009, the price was $13,600. Today, the price is $7,000. Check the price chart.
(http://garynorth.com/public/6259.cfm)

There has never been a collapse of residential real estate values of this magnitude in peacetime history, anywhere. Detroit is dying. We are unfamiliar with anything like this. The media are silent. The powers that be are not interested in reporting on this, because readers might ask the obvious question: "How did this happen?" Obvious questions tend to lead to obvious answers. Detroit has been killed by flight out of the city.

The 2008 Clint Eastwood movie, Gran Torino, dealt with this problem. Eastwood plays an 80-something Korean War veteran who will not leave the neighborhood. His children keep bugging him to sell and move into a retirement home. He will not hear of it. He is alienated from them and from his immigrant neighbors: Hmong refugees from South Vietnam . The Hmong have trouble with the Blacks. Every group is essentially trapped in a neighborhood, with the gangs running the show.

There is no surge of buyers to take advantage of fabulously low prices in Detroit . Can you imagine buying a home for cash for $13,600 in 2009 – a house that had sold for $98,000 six years earlier – and losing half your money? It's incredible. The Wall Street Journal recently ran one of the most creative stories I have seen in years.

(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125390841258341665.html) .

The journalist told the story of the history of a 5-bedroom home in Detroit , from the land purchase to its recent sale. It was built by one of the most influential man you have never heard of, Clarence Avery. Avery was on the Ford Motor Company team that conceived of implementing an assembly line for Ford's factory. He copied the idea from a hog-slaughtering operation.

His home was a very nice home for the time. The journalist located his daughter, now age 91. She said that she always thought the home was the best home she ever lived in. As recently as 2005, the home sold for $250,000. It was purchased by a woman who was lent $200,000 to buy it. It was financed by a subprime loan. The asking price was $189,000. Where the other $61,000 went, the woman has no idea. She defaulted. The deteriorating house was bought by a Christian organization that is renovating it. The house sold for $10,000. This is simply inconceivable to anyone who is unfamiliar with Detroit since 2005.

Nothing like this has ever happened. How can we conceive of a lender lending $200,000 to a woman to buy a $250,000 home offered at $189,000? How can we conceive of a fall in price from $250,000 to $10,000? This is the sign of a dying city. This does not happen in a normal environment. Even with the mania created by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in conjunction with Alan Greenspan's Federal Reserve, nothing like this has happened anywhere else. If you had predicted anything like this in 2005, you would have been dismissed as a crackpot on crack. You would not have been taken seriously by anyone. Yet it has happened.

The city planners, the Federal government's subsidy defenders, and the welfare state aficionados are all discreetly silent about Detroit . The city funds its schools with property taxes. Property taxes have collapsed as sources of revenue. An honest property tax system will generate less than ten cents on the 2003 dollar. Last week, the school board announced the closing of one-quarter of Detroit 's schools. The city is out of money. The central agency of propaganda by the government is in the process of closing up shop. This is not "anti-business as usual." This is collapse!

The American public does not perceive what is happening in Detroit . When a city simply shuts down from the effects of government mismanagement, the media say nothing. Detroit has become the poster child of government regulation, welfare systems, and a population that has given up hope.

The media say nothing because they are caught in a dilemma. If they say that the local government's welfare programs are not really to blame, what does that leave? The unmentionable issue: 82% of the city is Black. So, that means blaming white employers, who discriminate, despite 40 years of Federal anti-discrimination laws. But the main non-employers today are the region's auto companies, and two of the three are partially owned by the U.S. government. One – GM – is mainly owned by the retirement fund of the United Auto Workers. So, the media are not about to blame the auto companies – not now. That leaves that other politically incorrect issue: the rate of illegitimacy, which is in the 80% range. That social phenomenon represents a moral collapse, but the participants were all educated by the tax-funded schools. Who ya gonna blame? The media pundits cannot decide, so they simply ignore the collapse. " Detroit ? Never heard
of it."

The lesson of Detroit is this: the "experts" do not see a collapse coming. They assume that next year will be like today, give or take 3%. They do not believe that anything as complex as a city can collapse. So, they believe that things will continue, as they always have. Taxes need not be cut. Spending need not be cut. Schools should be allowed to educate. Tax-funded welfare programs should be increased. When it comes to tax revenues, "there's always more where that came from." And then, overnight, the system collapses.

The assumptions were wrong. Real estate prices collapse, indicating an irreversible flight of capital from the city. The ability of the government to collect taxes collapses.

 
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