Pretty awesome pic imho

Where is this? Chemistry flasks can be pricey. I will liberate them.

minoridiot: Are we blaming unions or african americans for the demise of Detroit today?

Damn! Where's that laboratory? I would totally raidvisit that place.

If there are no jobs, industry, tourism or anything of value in Detroit, then WHY do they have NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL teams there? Why haven't the teams moved yet? That shiat doesn't come cheap ...

jes sayin

archichris: JackieRabbit: Oh good lord. Detroit has been a dying, decaying, crime-ridden, industrial shiathole most of my life. Now it is almost dead. This is what happens when a city puts all its eggs in one basket.

Pensions killed Detroit. Public and private Pensions. It really was the Unions fault.

No. It wasn't. It was the auto industry itself. They haven't been able to effectively compete with the Japanese for over three decades now. They've even off-shored a lot of manufacturing and assembly and they still cannot compete. The auto industry started building its own casket back in the 1970s, when they decided that crappy, gas guzzling cars that would fall apart in just a few years was acceptable.

Ah, Destroyt. Looking each new day a little more like Pripyat

Started reading expecting a "bad to worse" article with pictures showing "bad" and then "worse." The first pair did it, the remainder was just same old abandoned buildings stuff that crops up so frequently...

Bruxellensis:

I'm a Michigan resident and a fan of Detroit sports (except the Lions). It takes longer to drive from my house to Detroit than it does from Detroit to D.C. Point being that most fans don't live in Detroit.

Where the heck do you live, Isle Royale? I used to do the Detroit to D.C. drive every month and it took 10 hours with one short break for lunch. Seriously though, you're either in Ironwood, the tip of the Keweenaw, or one heck of a slow driver.

Neruos: Crime and Violence killed Detroit. Period.

But it was a result of white flight which was a result/cause of poverty which was a result of the loss of jobs which was a result of-

fickenchucker: Phinn: fickenchucker: Unions aren't perfect morally or economically defensible, although they never would have gotten a foothold if management actually managed for the the big picture. Like in science, there was/is a reaction to an action. Unions grew from corporate avarice corrupt union leaders colluding with corrupt politicians, but I repeat myself.

Better.



Not true. Corporate policies, as well as union demands, are ever-changing pendulums that inevitably swing too far unless restricted by an opposing force.

Many unions go too far. Many businesses go too far. Each case should be judged individually.

/Former Teamster who voted for Walker.

This "pendulum" metaphor is nonsense. It's folklore. It's a psychological defense mechanism that people like you use to explain phenomena that you don't understand, or don't want to understand. It has no basis in reality.

The hard reality is that unions are, by nature, a form of aggressive violence (directed against non-members, forcibly prohibiting them from competing). Unions are indirect method of robbing both potential competitors of the chance to improve their lives (people you lovingly called "scabs," who are frequently terrorized or beaten for daring to work in ways that are contrary to your preferences). They also rob the consumer of the chance to buy an alternative good from a more preferable vendor, usually at a better price.

Like all forms of forcibly-prohibited competition, the end result of unionism (or protectionism, or any of its 10,000 variants) is an overall economic decline. Repeat daily for 50 years and the result is Detroit.

A state-enforced barrier to entry is great for the guy, like you, who unjustly benefits by having his income inflated as a result of the forcible exclusion of competitors from the market, but it's a huge economic loss to everyone else, especially the consumer.

So, I'm not surprised that a beneficiary of corrupt violence like yourself extols the virtues of corrupt violence, but don't expect the people you robbed to smile and applaud you for it. You're not fooling anyone but yourself. The hideous results of this way of thinking are on display for everyone to see.

The execs did the same thing to Detroit and the car companies that they're doing to banks and healthcare now.

Enjoy mocking Detroit while you can because it's coming to your town too.

The average compensation package for an American auto worker is about $40/hr (that includes everything, health care, pension, vacation wages, etc). The average compensation for a German auto worker is about $70/hr. The German auto companies build high quality cars that are desired by people all over the world, and those same companies are profitable. The German auto workers are ALL unionized. They get more vacation than do American auto workers, and the Germans have (GASP!) COMMIE UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE.

The average compensation for a German worker is $70, of which $35 goes to taxes. Germany also has found a better solution than allowing unions to sabotage the car companies, thus making management a series of layers designed to work around that problem, thus paralyzing the (larger) American car companies from making decisions.

I don't agree that it was pensions. I think it's unions. Union rules make American workers useless and interrupt work flow, union strikes forced the auto makers to adopt other practices to stay solvent, union politics requires layers of middle management, and union attitudes make for inefficient, resentful workers. This in turn makes the company adapt.

When you have unions mucking up labor, most people are going to either (a) not work in the auto industry or (b) take on a lackadaisical outlook toward quality and other factors. The main job is to not have a strike shut down the plants.

When I want to see a before/after gallery, I want to see photos of the same areas taken from the same perspective. Is there a photographer alive who gets this concept? Hold the previous picture up and stand in the same farking spot. It's not difficult. Not even National Geographic seems capable of this. It's amazing. Stand where the previous photo was taken and snap the god damned picture.

Fissile: The Muthaship: oldfarthenry: The Asian guy crashed his car on the way here - for no other reason than his incompetent driving skills!

Next?

It wasn't the Asian guy's fault. His just couldn't see the Cholo doing 40mph in the fast lane.

==============

If God had wanted Asians to drive cars, he would have given them eyes that open.

/My Asian friends love that joke

I lol'd

Is the conference room in the last picture abandoned? There is a lot of money sitting on that table; there is a Polycom conference phone and what looks like a Video Teleconferencing microphone...

Oh good lord. Detroit has been a dying, decaying, crime-ridden, industrial shiathole most of my life. Now it is almost dead. This is what happens when a city puts all its eggs in one basket.

I thought the urban farms were kinda neat. Would love to buy a few plots and run a sustainable tilapia farm/acquaculture farm.

1$ plots, yes please!

All of those pictures makes me think that Detroit would make great reference pics for a STALKER/RAGE clone.

This is what happens when the 47% take over a city.



Mitt Romney for president.

mugwump867: Bruxellensis:

I'm a Michigan resident and a fan of Detroit sports (except the Lions). It takes longer to drive from my house to Detroit than it does from Detroit to D.C. Point being that most fans don't live in Detroit.

Where the heck do you live, Isle Royale? I used to do the Detroit to D.C. drive every month and it took 10 hours with one short break for lunch. Seriously though, you're either in Ironwood, the tip of the Keweenaw, or one heck of a slow driver.

Keweenaw. And I drive farking fast, but we don't have freeways up here (minus a short N/S stretch of I-75).

It is farther to drive from Houghton to Detroit, Michigan than it is from Detroit to Washington, DC. It takes several fewer hours to travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin or Minneapolis, Minnesota from Houghton than it does to travel to Detroit.

mugwump867: Bruxellensis:

I'm a Michigan resident and a fan of Detroit sports (except the Lions). It takes longer to drive from my house to Detroit than it does from Detroit to D.C. Point being that most fans don't live in Detroit.

Where the heck do you live, Isle Royale? I used to do the Detroit to D.C. drive every month and it took 10 hours with one short break for lunch. Seriously though, you're either in Ironwood, the tip of the Keweenaw, or one heck of a slow driver.

Or Windsor... Ever try to cross that bridge in rush hour? Sheesh!

Langdon Alger: yet somehow they manage to keep 4 pro sport teams with enough fans to sustain revenue.

Tax breaks and new stadiums for the owners. Detriot can afford that no problem.

Two words: Coleman Young.

Fark that useless fark and may he roast forever in the deepest bowels of Hell.

Unions are ALWAYS BAD! That's why I always fly on Union-Free Delta and never on unionized Southwest. Did you know that Southwest is 87% unionized, making it the most unionized airline in America.

That's why Southwest is the worst. If they were less unionized like Delta, then they would be as awesome as Delta.

sodomizer: Union rules make American workers useless and interrupt work flow...

When all you have is a hammer. Germany has unions. UAW workers made roughly the same inflation-adjusted wage I did as a summer student in the 1970's until the recent dual tier agreement halved it for new hires. Data is a biatch.

sodomizer: The average compensation package for an American auto worker is about $40/hr (that includes everything, health care, pension, vacation wages, etc). The average compensation for a German auto worker is about $70/hr. The German auto companies build high quality cars that are desired by people all over the world, and those same companies are profitable. The German auto workers are ALL unionized. They get more vacation than do American auto workers, and the Germans have (GASP!) COMMIE UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE.

The average compensation for a German worker is $70, of which $35 goes to taxes. Germany also has found a better solution than allowing unions to sabotage the car companies, thus making management a series of layers designed to work around that problem, thus paralyzing the (larger) American car companies from making decisions.

I don't agree that it was pensions. I think it's unions. Union rules make American workers useless and interrupt work flow, union strikes forced the auto makers to adopt other practices to stay solvent, union politics requires layers of middle management, and union attitudes make for inefficient, resentful workers. This in turn makes the company adapt.

When you have unions mucking up labor, most people are going to either (a) not work in the auto industry or (b) take on a lackadaisical outlook toward quality and other factors. The main job is to not have a strike shut down the plants.

BS

If Unions are that troublesome it should be easy to distinguish their presence.

Here is a good example. AT&T Mobile and Verizon Wireless. Without searching online, guess which one is a union shop? Seriously, one mobile provider is totally union (IBEW) and the other is completely union-free.

neenerist: sodomizer: Once the unions took over.....

Detroit began its collapse after the Flint sit down strike of 1936?

One from the files. Washington Blvd., downtown Detroit, 1939.
You could doublepark if the driver stayed with the car. Few drove alone then.
And that car on the right is a Packard. That says a lot right there - no more Packards.

Maybe there's a heap o' skulls in the way?

Turning suburbs into farmland is the way forward, people.

I know everyone likes to dog on poor Detroit, but what happened there is going to happen everywhere. They are just the canary in the coal mine - the first to go due to a very high dependence on the automotive sector.

But thanks to companies like Bain (who make the greatest profits on offshoring) and the willingness of the American consumer to prefer to save a few pennies on imports - we can all expect a similar future. Detroit failed because they lost their wealth creating jobs and the people left. The same thing is happening nationwide - that is why we won't ever break 8% unemployment again. If it wasn't for massive borrowing to stimulate the economy, we would be well over 10% unemployment and more and more cities would look like Detroit. That trend would continue to expand as the remaining wealth is quickly used to buy more and more imports since domestic production is neglected. Eventually the dollar starts devaluing, making suburbia impossible to live in with $15 gasoline. Then things get all Katrina. But keep buying that Chinese junk you don't need (and will have to replace next year when it breaks).

minoridiot: Are we blaming unions or african americans for the demise of Detroit today?

Greed and arrogance, same as always.

Everyone making excuses for the obvious.

Unions gained enough power by the 1960s to have dominated the auto industry. At that point, the first stages of anti-competitive decline set in. A decade later, the industry was in freefall.

As a thriving metroplex, Detroit had other industries as well. These were doing OK and decline was arrested until the riots.

At that point, people didn't wait for the third strike -- they sold their homes for pennies on the dollar and headed elsewhere.

It's funny how we repeat these mistakes throughout history. I wonder what parts of California will look like Detroit in a decade or so.

stuhayes2010: [i.dailymail.co.uk image 850x663]

Where is this? Chemistry flasks can be pricey. I will liberate them.

my lab could use more equipment... some of that stuff looks pretty salvageable.

/my legit lab
//no seriously

TravelingFreakshow: Subdue their bellies: loveblondieo: The strip club looks the best out of all of them.

Deja Vu doesnt serve booze, but they can show bush, IIRC.

Thankfully Windsor is within swimming distance.

Windsor is a shiathole, not quite the level of Detroit shiathole but a shiathole nonetheless. I guess if you're just coming here for strippers though you're good.

/moved away from there

The Muthaship: I bet this one confused the Brits:

[i1240.photobucket.com image 400x584]

I bet you typed that with a stick because your fingers were too fat.

Let's all get stereotypical!

teknophile4385: [i.dailymail.co.uk image 850x653]

OH MY...THE DESOLATION...

/Looks like everyone simply went to lunch

It wouldn't surprise me if that was the Daily Fail's own conference room with the word 'Detroit' Photoshopped in the middle. They needed one more photo but couldn't be arsed to find one.

/Knows people who used to work for 'The Fail'

The question is if anyone has a plan to fix it or do we just sweep the whole thing under a rug until another election season has passed.

stuhayes2010: [i.dailymail.co.uk image 850x663]

Where is this? Chemistry flasks can be pricey. I will liberate them.

Not if I can get there first. Those Pyrex desiccators can go for $500 new, not to mention all the other glassware.

sodomizer: Once the unions took over.....

Detroit began its collapse after the Flint sit down strike of 1936?

Wow, it even looks like they downgraded the traffic light poles from metal to wood, that's bad. Or scrappers stole the original metal poles, in that case it's funny.

Chiselphane: That conference room counts as abandoned in the same way I abandon my living room when I have to go take a leak.

If the electricity is in, it's not abandoned.

They left out the best one:

I'm surprised the conference room phones are still there. Those things aren't cheap.

I'm mostly sad about the death of Motown. That music could definitely brighten your day.

Detroit Mayor
before:




after:

I blame bad race relations and unions. Once the unions took over, the auto industry began its decline. Once the race riots hit, the mass exodus from Detroit really began.

We should think really hard about adopting unions. Like Angela Merkel, I also think multiculturalism has failed. It's time to get some fresh thinking in here instead of these old tired ideas.

That conference room counts as abandoned in the same way I abandon my living room when I have to go take a leak.

OH MY...THE DESOLATION...

/Looks like everyone simply went to lunch

This again....

Detroit=shiat hole, we get it already....