Detroit

So the debate over saving Detroit seems to be nearing a middle.

Both Mitt Romney and I grew up around Detroit, so can claim great authority when we opine on the state of American car manufacturing. The difference is that Mitt gets his opinions published in the NYT. Which doesn't really seem fair...but I digress.

His editorial pretty much says it all. The standard narrative runs something like: the Big Three have been running an unsustainable business model for decades now, hamstrung by their unions and seemingly hapless in the face of superior foreign designs. Of course they're failing, reduced to begging us to "buy American," in that we should prefer saving their jobs to purchasing the best available product.

The rub is that even though I find that narrative hard to disagree with, the implosion of the American auto industry would (will) plunge Michigan, already far from the shining economic center of the nation, into a financial wasteland of such remoteness it is hard to imagine how it will ever emerge. Think back to the portrait of the city of Flint in "Roger & Me." Flint is still like that, only more so. I shudder to imagine that malaise spreading across the entire state.

Bailing them out, again, won't save the companies for long. It will, however, stave off the day when Michigan plunges into financial collapse.

**UPDATE**

The AP reports that the bailout deal is on the verge of death, as "negotiations" are reduced to acrimonious finger pointing.

Here, another AP report does a better job of making my point from yesterday- if you think Michigan is in bad financial shape now, wait till the car companies fail and local municipalities lose 30% of their tax base. Numbers do so much to bolster an argument...