I was born & raised in a beautiful booming Detroit. I feel for the folks who are there doing the best they know how. I cried like a baby when I went back to downtown & looked around.
Pj Lewis You cried downtown? Seriously? When were you there? I have lived in or near downtown for fifty years. I saw it up close at its worse. The 48 square mile city core is booming. I just bought a condo in Brush Park. Ten years ago it was an abandoned wasteland. Today? 5000 housing units are being built within three miles of my front door. There are three 20+ office towers being built, three newer stadiums, Michigan Central Station is being renovated and Ford Motor is moving in, old Southwest Hospital is being rebuilt and Bosch is moving in. The River Walk is reclaiming a long dormant water front. Dequindre Cut is transforming the Near East Side and Eastern Market is booming. Cork Town is booming and The Woodward Corridor has 18 construction projects underway as I type this. I don’t know where you were downtown but I don’t see it. There are still some crappy areas near downtown. Is that where you were?
And the future? GM have the mindset that the only vehicles customers want are SUV's and trucks at $60,000 a clip leaving the field wide open to Honda and Toyota in the supply of four door sedans. Autonomous vehicles? Good luck with that!
here in the uk toyota is all we buy.there are other brands but tbh there junk break down and not as well built. my first car when i was young was a shit Peugeot french car that was pure junk broke down all the time needed something. my next one was vw group cars .great car never any bother drove and drove and drove with no problems.never gave much bother and always started lol.tbh coming to a end i got bored of driving it so next one is a toyota . great big car with no problems what so ever but tbh i do kina miss the vw group tdi cars compared with the toyota common rail system
It's the only vehicles they can sell and be profitable. See the profit margin on fuel efficient vehicles is lower and with the high union wages (50/hour including benefits), the Detroit 3 can't succeed selling those. But companies like Honda can sell all kinds of vehicles so when gas prices go high, they aren't upended.
It's insane that Camrys and Accords etc were selling so well 30 years ago, gaining exponentially, and GM/Ford?Chrysler did nothing except make some thin competition in the class rather than storming the class. Big American egos scoffing at the middle/lower class, thinking that Camaros/Mustangs etc are the showcase. You still don't get it today.
Arrogance is part of it probably but camrys and accords have lower profit margins. The Detroit 3 can't afford to make those as easily with their expensive union wages and benefits. So even if they were complacent, they had an economic incentive to not make fuel efficient vehicles even when gas prices went up in the 2000's.
Nearly 30 years ago GM built an electric vehicle called the EV1... it was absolutely fantastic... 200 were built before GM decided electric cars needed to be killed so all 200 were crushed... except 1, which is in a museum.... GM killed itself....
The same has happened in the UK jobs started being lost in the seventies n eighties when factories, coal mines and steel works closed. In Stoke on Trent where I live there are a lot of homeless people poor wages and Stoke is the "money dust capital" of the UK
Gordon Lumbert I think that you have stated a rarely noted and very important fact. I am a white, middle class Detroiter. There was a significant black middle class in Detroit in the 60s and 70s. When they left for Southfield etc.. the city lost an invaluable asset. Only now, years later, are they returning. I live in Brush Park. My next door neighbor is an African American accountant at Quicken Loans. His wife is a nurse at Henry Ford Hospital. They are representative of the neighborhood. They are involved in a bunch of committees and improvement teams. I am thrilled to see that happening.
@@sixmile2360 yeah we gotta keep a eye on quicken loans make sure they don't quickly leave us. Dan Gilbert is from Detroit and has been doing us pretty good. More people need to have a helping hand rather than there hand out.
The reason there was white flight was the unions were so successful in helping to rip off the automobile industry that the just took the money and ran.
Detroit is an example of a city that didn't adapt quickly enough and faced the consequences. They're also so focused on making it building cars, that they blind themselves from trying other routes that don't have as fierce competition.
The fall of Detroit happened the day they foolishly told the Great Every 100 Year Genius Dr. W.E. Deming to go EFF off! And so Dr. Deming did, right over to Japan where they adopted his lessons, becoming the largest and best auto makers in the world. He even predicted the fall of Detroit because his laws are as certain as gravity. Pay attention or pay cash America!
A very simple solution to this problem: Make cars that people want at the price people can afford. Is that too much to ask? It that too much to do as a car maker?
Yes your thinking is sound. I drive a car just to get around and not make a wealth or fashion statement. Good MPG and workmanship are a must. Remember years ago the cheap "YUGO' imports - an example of how to do just about everything wrong. US wages have to rise to make anything happen.
@@ripperwrestling6587 Yes - I remember being just out of the Army in 1972 asking a dealer for a car with a manual transmission and no air conditioning. The guy laughed at me and needless to say he never saw a my money. I had to settle for a used 1970 Mustang with automatic transmission and power steering but no A/C.
I feel I need to point out the thumbnail for this video shows Corvettes which are built in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Not Detroit. A nitpick yeah, but it made me chuckle.
also the clip of the People Mover has the automated recording announcing Millender Center as the next stop when the footage clearly shows the train leaving Cobo en route to Fort/Cass.
Well fast forward to now in 2022 and downtown is completely different. Just got back from Detroit a few weeks ago and was shocked at all of the downtown development going on and all of the people running around. Downtown is not quiet anymore and it is pretty nice now.
UAW bleed them dry, not enough money left to engineer quality products. Legacy costs of retirees will keep the big 3 making inferior products for years to come.
My father knew a Ford engineer who's job it was to reduce the quality of electrical switches so they would fail sometime shortly after the warranty expired. Now explain to me how that was the fault of the UAW.
I’m born and raised there. Sadly so many are wishing on a star and mentally stuck. They often times can’t do better because they’ve never seen better. The industrial times are done and over and unfortunately many places like detroit, are praying that it comes back because they feel it’s going to give what it once did and it’s not. It will be Decades before you see major turn around then. Too much crime, blight and uneducated in the state of Michigan but significantly in Detroit. Smh! They doomed that city YEARS ago!
Japan may have lost WW2, but won the Automobile war. Government got out of the way, workforce knew not to bleed the companies dry, the companies knew how to build better cars people would buy for cheaper. Also helps that Japan's society is more cohesive and stable compared to US's dysfunction, debt, and unrest.
Recently the problem has kind of been the opposite for the big three American car companies, they have been focused on building BIG SVUs and lots of Pick up truck that are expensive but generate more profit per vehicle when what is really needed is smaller less expensive cars that more people can afford. Also greedy CEOs that make hundreds of times more than the average worker and are pretty much only concerned with the stock prices to which their compensation is tied.
I was working as a temp in a company who are making GM car windows... union own. And let me tell you, they are so lazy. I was working on a 4 person line, meaning 4 people run this line but we were 8 people, 4 temps who was running the line and 4 union workers, them union workers were standing around all day... they called it seniority! In the end we got pumped out after 3 months because they said we didn't work fast enough. Bull s#$&. I hope all union in the car industry will shut down. Union are greedy and only for lazy people. People who are willing to work hard have no chance to drive there because they make them union workers look bad and lazy.
I know unions, some industries more so than others have turned into a cancer for business. It's also worth remembering that unions were formed out of necessity for dealing with unscrupulous employers. I'm certainly not a hard line unionist but I think we're better off with them than without them.
mrpaperbag paperbag I am sorry to call bullshit but... Bullshit. I have worked as a manager at GM for thirty years. If your story is true then it is a management problem or this happened in the insane 70s and 80s. Any supplier worth it’s salt has the opposite problem with labor as car companies continuously squeeze suppliers for reductions in costs. So. Either you worked for a really poorly run company or you are full of shit. Which one is it?
I wondered how it was possible to make a car and ship it from Mexico cheaper than in Detroit, but it makes sense if you needed twice as many people to make the same product in Detroit.
Part of GM problem was there attitude was you bought it now its your problem. My local ford dealer answer is if you have a problem is just buy a new one we wont fix your old one . With the junk there producing there isnt anthing I would spend my money on . The quality just isnt there .the high price lack of service no real value its not only the big 3 its all of auto industry. If Mercedes coudent make Chrysler work how is Fiat . Yore paying more for less . I dont see it getting any better any time soon.
Quality of general motors and Ford vehicles is terrible. They have been skating off their brand name for 30 years now. Japanese care far more about the quality of their product.
Some of those workers have been out of work so long, it's going to cost a fortune just to re-train 1/2 of them. Plus the enormous cost of retro fitting the old factories. And the simple fact is even if jobs do come back there won't be that many of them as they're not needed anymore.
Blame NAFTA, car makers went "South" or overseas as America's factories and jobs did also. I saw a Mexican Ford factory all happy about the prosperity it to the area. Jerks!
After WWII most of the world was blown apart. The big three and Detroit had the world to themselves. Took till the 60's to rebuild Europe and Japan. Then they started producing and perfected their products. Competition. 1970's rolled in and Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW ect were poised when fuel prices rose during the embargo. The rest is history...
Honda, Toyota, and VW just simply do it better. They capitalized on the energy crisis of the 1970's by building cars that were simply more practical, more fuel-efficient AND more reliable.
I just retired from GM with 50 years. The answer to GM's problem is in it's past, but GM management is to young to know that. They have no imagination. GM has the engineering to produce a product that can outsell anything made today. The people that have the power to make it happen lack the imagination, and wouldn't consider it because it's not their idea. The Idea could be tested with one SUV assembly line, and people that want it to work. Finding the people is the easy part. The hard part is getting management that wants to do it.
James Holland James. What part of GM did you retire from? I just retired in January after 35+ years. Spent the last twelve years splitting my time as a Platform Engineer in Warren and at Pole Town. Started out on Clark Street. You don’t like the young engineers? I find them refreshing. I blame most of the problems at GM on my generation. Mainly piss poor management, short sighted focus on profit, terrible products, shady quality and an entrenched culture of bureaucracy that drove me crazy for years. It is better now. A lot better but I had enough. I consult now at Pratt and Miller in Wixom and teach a couple of classes at Wayne State in continuous improvement.
The American auto industry will never ever ever ever learn. How can you tell? Because like the lady said, in 2005 they started seeing and writing about the problems. Those problems started in 1970, which says the stupidity runs deep, and high paid executives and union bosses keep running from the alligator hoping it eats someone else next, and they’ll get out with their pensions and lifestyles intact. She thinks it’s a cycle, yet the city’s been going on only one direction since the HUD scandal of the early 60s.
The UAW expectations back in the 70's and 80's were so greedy and unrealistic, they contributed mightily to the demise of the Detroit automobile workforce.
FAKE facts...the Union bashing was a key corporate /shareholder agenda who bought themselves the GOP to help them bust the Unions...the booting of the middle class
Spot on. Corrupt unions and politicians killed Detroit and other Rust Belt cities. Now they've turned their attention to once beautiful cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Miami, Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Atlanta, etc. and turning them into urban s#it holes where the only people who live there are either filthy rich or dirt poor. Leftism always has and always will kill any semblance of a viable middle class.
@@knockknockbusted - That's how it works. If there are no investors to risk their *own* money to start and support a business, then there would be no place to the laborers to earn a decent living to support themselves and their families. 🤯
You mean corporate greed killed the company.. if man works 35 plus years hes entitled to retire with a pension .. Because I know for a fact that the CEO's of these companies make more than what they put out for pension. funds
When I was going up things in the 80s and 90s was diffrent. Like downtown Detroit Hudsens was closed in 1983 later Demolished by 1998. The Brewster Douglas home before it was left in ruins. Was a great place to live. Hidden drugs was out of sight. Corner party stores was easy to reach. Before Cass Technical High school closes in 2005 and demolish in 2011 is where I gotten my summer job in 1999. And in the Brewster homes in 1997. Before Old Hudsen was razed me and my family walk pass there going to Kresge department store. Further down was Radio shack. It was later changed into a dollar store when Radio shack closed in 1999. By the Cadilac Square building they have DDOT shutters (Where you catch the bus to your distination from 1974) it was moved to another location to make way for a park.
@@michaelweizer7794 Chevy Monte Carlo. My point is that during that period the price of cars skyrocketed largely due to dramatic wage increases. These dramatic price increases brought in Japanese cars.
1:53 First off, the People Mover runs on the same technology as the Vancouver Skytrain so it is not a monorail. Also, the train is leaving Cobo en route to the Fort/Cass Station, the audio of the announcement for Millender Center was taken from a different part of the loop. At least downtown looks a lot nicer now. Heck it's busy with people walking around during the pandemic.
Dick Johnston went into Club 'd Retirement, and put up that velvet rope right behind him. The Chevy Volt cost $76k per unit and the car will never make tax payers money. My favorite NYT headline features a picture of Obama admiring a Chevy Camaro saying "Detroit is back". The Camaro is made in Canada and Detroit is not back.
These are the four main reasons for Detroit's demise: 1. Blacks keeping their bitter attitudes from the unjust treatment of the Jim Crow south thus reinforcing the black stereotype from the local white population. 2. Electing a leftist black racist and corrupt mayor named Coleman Young from 1974 to 1994, which destroyed race relations and business opportunities in the city. 3. Relying on one industry for far too long while other cities, like Pittsburgh, diversified their economies for the 21st century. 4. Becoming a one party city that caused a lack of diversity of thought and ideas to solve the city's problems.
I live in Saltillo, the Detroit of, Mexico. This is where your so called American car and pickup makers went. Late at night miles long trains loaded with parts are assembled here by line workers making about US $12 to $15 dollars equivalent PER DAY. This is where your Republican oligarcs outsourced thos Detroit jobs. They will be returning to the USA right after Evanka Trump closes her garment sweatshops in China. Lots oif luck to those of you who believe that the oligarcs are going to return their businesses to the USA and cut their profits. !Saludos desde Mexico!
You leftist dumbass. The entire problem is that unions destroyed Detroit not allowing Free Market Capitalism to work. They forced Automakers to pay unsustainable wages, benefits, and pensions even in times of economic downturn. The result as always is companies closing factories in order to survive and actually make sustainable profits by moving to Mexico and other countries. Democrats, big government, corruption, lefist/ Communist, politics and policies are primarily responsible for not only the fall of Detroit, but of every city, county, state, and nation that's failing in the entire world. They can't understand that it's better to have 100,000 jobs at $10 to $25 an hour, than 30,000 at $35 an hour. SF, Boston, NYC, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, LA, Seattle, Portland, Cleveland, etc. etc. they are all being destroyed by big government and leftist politics. Democrats tax societies to death, and have no concept of trickle down economics and how economies and Capitalism actually work (and why Free Market Capitalism is the only system that has ever worked).
@pices229 - Is what why (Capitalism)? What does that even mean? And what does it have to do with Trump? And please link your sources/evidence that Trump's family business has it's operational, financial, or organizational headquarters in China. I am a conservative leaning Libertarian since about 2009 (as has always been the innate necessity and nature of human beings throughout human history. But I am impartial. Issues have to be analyzed and dealt with individually, just as problems, solutions, and human beings. I am not a big fan of Trump (though I did vote for him). He has done and said a lot of things I agree with, as well as many I disagree with. But overall, he is the President and we have to give him a chance during his term and judge it at the end. I was a moderate Democrat for most of my life, and voted for Obama in 2008. But the Democrat Party was hijacked in the 20th Century, and especially since the 1960s. A major problem is the divide and conquer two party system (where both parties are corrupt). But in the history of this nation, the Republican Party has been far less corrupt, and more reasonable, honorable, and patriotic. What we really need is to break the two party system and get a 3rd Party (if not 4th) in power and in office, such as the Libertarian Party.
It was a combination of factors. The union bears some of this, they got too greedy, but more so, the company's, especially GM and Chrysler for failing to see the changes in auto trend, and their quality went down bad. But the big 3 all were more greedy than the uaw. They shipped more and more jobs overseas to exploit cheap labor. And, that is the main reason, to exploit cheap labor, it's not like they dropped the car prices any. What plants didn't go overseas, many moved to southern parts of the US where the labor market is less. They fled Detroit so fast, its unbelievable. The city that once thrived on the big 3, was doomed. What a damn shame.
Perhaps the best thing is from car industry to IT industry what do you think to make Detroit vibrant again. Praying for America to recover morally and economically. God bless.
@@AgeofCraccadilliaassent you are correct. i thought it might have been 68. i remember my parents taking us down there and things were still pretty contentious.
I was born and raised in Detroit. Its a shame what happened to the city. I had to leave in 1980 Absolutely no jobs. I loved the city. But when they signed the NAFTA almost all manufacturing left. I watch the videos. I have to wonder with all the houses being bulldozed down how will they attract people to move back without housing?
Most probably Japanese autos and the gas shortages. When the price of gas surged guys like me looked for MPG and that was either an air cooled VW or a Japanese import. When gas prices stabilized I remembered pushing a car to a gas pump so I was not about to buy a guzzler. Of course there are other reasons for Detroit's problems and as in any city should the jobs vanish so will the middle class and the tax base.
GM, Ford and Chrysler stopped to build the cars that liked to us. Crown Vics Marquis Oldsmobiles Cadillacs Pontiacs Furys. But now everything is plastic and rebadged Japanese, Chinese or Korean. We will not see again the glorious Fleetwoods RWD or the 1981 Pontiac Bonneville. It's sad to see how the big three are downsizing all the models. Asia is increasing the size of the SUVs. What is next?
I would love to tour this iconic city, it has so much rich history. It's sad that these people destroyed such propsperity and prominent communities. They didn't stop there, they had to vandalized the buildings and physically take down the cities once rich and beautiful legacy. All gone. What a great place this was, it's hard to believe what these people have done. It's sick and it makes me so angry and furious .
Micheal Stapleton Be careful looking at only negative videos. I have lived in Detroit my whole life. The 48 square mile city core is booming with renovations and new construction. There are still huge neighborhoods in serious trouble but the comeback is is spreading outward. You Tube Detroit comeback and Detroit rising to get the other side of the story. I have to be honest I am amazed by what is happening downtown. No one wants to view good news videos. Only ruin porn and negativity. Take it from someone on the ground in Detroit. I saw the city at it’s worse. It is coming back in spite of all the nay sayers who left forty years ago or have never been here. We have a long way to go but check out the positive videos. You will be surprised.
Detroit got too arrogant from their success and refused to adapt to changing times. I remember Africa was flooded with Japanese cars because they were more practical and fuel efficient. No one was crazy enough to drive American cars
Notice all the wide pan shots of the GM building, if they took any close up's you would see all the people walking around in suits and nice cars stacked up at intersections.
One thing that annoys me about media from this era is this universal understanding that SUVs were the problem with Detroit. Toyota sold more SUVs than anyone, and to this day they are what makes money for everyone. Small fuel-efficient cars are practically sold at-cost. Today the whole industry is going all-in on SUVs and discontinuing their unprofitable smaller cars. Detroit had a million problems, but a lack of cheap eco cars wasn't one. In 2008 GM was the global tech leader in EVs. After bankruptcy, GM and Chrysler were legally compelled to make more cars with high fuel efficiency. Both did, both lost money on them, and both bounced back to massive profitability on the back of trucks and SUVs. The Jeep and Ram brands were so profitable, they alone kept the entire Italian car industry from imploding after the Fiat merger.
First the workers took control through unions, sometimes requiring 4 or more be paid for the work formerly done bi one. Then in response to the Race Riots companies paid taxes to support welfare for those who did not work. This was the start of regulations making production more expensive. Mexico, here we come.
Slim Morden You are absolutely full of shit. I was a manager at GM for thirty years. We never hired four people to do one persons work. Ever. You are either ill informed or making up sheer bull shit. Which is it?
Here we are 3 years later and I never seen a volt or any electric car on the road. Cost to much for their short range and take to long to charge. It gets much worst if you have them in winter climates. Battery life is shorter in cold temp and power is needed to heat the car's interior .
John Smith . Mr Smith my thoughts exactly ! When I noticed the Obama references I realized this was an old post. But how true we still don’t make the very product that would save the industry. The design dept . With the British accent is a huge laugh as time would tell. Fell flat on your ass ! All they have left is ugly Cadillacs and Opel/Buick’s . My heart goes out to the every day workers who suffer.
thay sold union workers out.so thay could make there relatives CEOS. to collect higher paying salaries than people that actually work for a living. and when thay go bust thay go to the government for bailouts. higher wages means more cars sold in America. but those Congress leaders believe corporations before a working man or woman. only to allow corporations to move overseas. and cause jobs loss .make a point to not join the unions. for better wages. the wealthy CONTROLS our government. like our parents always told us. we are just a number. if not perform. good by jobs. and we haven't seen automobiles come down in price without union workers. and now being built by robots. and still making higher profits. always looking for an excuse to bring them higher revenues. to screw worker's out of pensions.
except, when you look at all the most prosperous cities in America, they are democratic run. Really shoots down your theory. And then you look at republican run states and see they are some of the poorest. Now I just sunk your talking points
@Brian Meyer www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/01/04/solved-why-poor-states-are-red-and-rich-states-are-blue/#594851f21d60 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_GDP_per_capita I could go much deeper, but this should show you I know what I'm talking about. The first article even explains why poor people in red states vote red, and that's because their cost of living is lower than wealthy blue states. I mean, I would rather the leaders I elect bring jobs and commerce to my state rather than just keeping the cost of living down. Cost of living in Chicago where I am is medium, yet you can make money without a college degree here if you know what to do. The second link is that of gdp per state. Every state at the bottom is a red state. Red states simply don't make money because no one stays to make it. Red leaders don't know how to bring innovators into the state other than just "tax breaks". Employees look for more than that when going to a city. They look for entertainment, people who aren't willing to shoot and kill you over nothing, the police aren't going to harass you, government that's going to protect your health through clean water and clean food, government that's going to regulate plants and not have them explode or give you cancer, where corruption isn't going to be swept under the rug etc. In closing, you asked for facts, I gave some to you despite not having to. I could care less for politics, but when morons try to blame politics on people who are center (calling liberals in the United States liberal is a joke, since we are still fighting over healthcare, tax paid higher education, job benefits etc when Western Europe has done this and more years ago. Liberals don't exist here, the center and right wing only exists here), I write paragraphs to prove my point because there's no other way around it
19:40 "Someone tells you that your job is over" you should have been paying attention, GM went down the toilet in the late 60s and it's never coming back. They'd have to make cars twice as good as the competition for half the price to win back all the customers they screwed over.
If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto My name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart. Malachi 2:2
12:13 explains the whole issue in a nut-shell... or resting on your laurels, instead of innovating. So you can make a hydrogen powered car. Big deal. Where is it?!!
Yeah, the 2 great things, the cars and Motown. We're living in the end times. All the more reason I'm listening to music I grew up with more than ever. And I'm saving for a 2007 or 2008 Ford Mustang. It will be my last fling.
When the largest good employers lay off 90% of their workforce over 40 years it will cause these problems. Add to that 40 years of stagnating wages nation wide due to tax cuts which is a dis-incentive for companies to invest in their workers via wage raises. Without the ability for a company to reduce tax liability by investing in workers there is no incentive to raise wages to keep up with inflation. 77 of the Fortune 500 companies recently gave some workers some form of raise due to the new tax law and the ability to bring back over seas profits free of a large penalty. The others back stock shares which increased executive wealth. There was no incentive for them to invest that money into their workers.
I fail to see the answer for the question 'How' from this documentary's title...in my opinion, the companies (especially GM) did this to themselves. I was laid off 2 separate times before I made the decision to move from Michigan for a better opportunity. With that, I came to the realization that if I was that disposable to GM, I vowed never, ever to purchase any GM product ever again. Plus, i suspect that guy gushing over the equinox may have had a rude awakening...Didn't GM kill all future car production to rely only on SUV and trucks??
The comment by that young lady (at min. 3:30) regarding receiving bonuses in 1999 epitomizes the problem with irresponsible management wrt wasting OPM. It doesn't take a genius to know that companies are designed to make a profit to survive. This is first and foremost in the capitalist's hand book. Unfortunately the management team at GM forgot this principle and doled out stock holder's money to union workers instead of using it for more worthy principles as in R&D, plant improvement and efficiency improvements. They, the management, along with their allies in the unions destroyed GM brick by brick. They ignored or pooh poohed their responsibility to manage the company in a most efficient manner by not adhering to sound capitalist practices and principles. In the end they overstaffed their rolls, failed to modernize their plants and failed to invest in real improvements in their operations. It wasn't enough that GM (and the rest of the industry) paid the highest wages in the country for assembly line work, but then doled un-deserving bonuses. GM bankruptcy case is a classic case on how not to run a company.
TENNSUMITSUMA - I think he said, If Lehman (Brothers) can fail, with its 100 year history, I think GM can fail. I had to play it back a few times to get that.
13:08 IKEA to take over GM ....!!! 😂😂😂 wish if that could've happened. Then I could have got myself a kit Chevy Camaro or a corvette which I could myself assemble in my garage...!!
The Chevrolet Volta is the bigseller in the future for GM?! The all-electric range is officially rated at 53 mi (85 km). I am not impressed when compered to Tesla with its all-electric range of 220 miles (350 km) and the long range model delivers 310 miles (500 km). Wonder who they think will buy Volta?
I brought a Ford & took off the stupid union decal ASAP. A good chunk of my price tag went straight into the UAW's pockets. Next time I'm buying a VW or Toyota
@Derek Charette Tell that nonsense to Boeing where the company was sued in 2010 by the union for leaving Seattle for Charleston, SC over "worker's rights". Not only that but despite rejecting unionization in a 2017 vote the unions are still agitating in 2018 for another election until they get the results they want.
@Derek Charette Furthermore you trying to equate unions with quality control is bunk. The most highly skilled workers in Germany are trained by their companies, NOT the unions. Industrial training is incorporated into the Educational Systems in most advanced West European economies. Despite that, on a cost and quality level Europeans are pretty much on par with the US. VW is notorious for selling safety at the expense of affordability. American cars are no different. TANSTAAFL!
YES YOU ARE RIGHT, AND THE VOLT IS NO MORE AND GM IS A CRAPSHOOT COMPANY GOING TO CHINA because I live here in Ecorse 1 mile from Detroit and liberals keep killing this city
Detroit is a model of what happens when economies shift. When Reagan was in office America was the #1 lender in the world, Now the largest debtor. Biggest producer to largest consumer. Not Democrats or Republicans fault.
Daniel McKenzie Two things. GM is not going to China. I recently retired from GM after thirty years. All major companies worldwide have a presence in China. While I am not happy about importing the two D Platforms from China I will offer that the real threat is from Mexico. The decision to build the Blazer in Mexico has led me to wash my hands of the company that I worked for for thirty years. Second. Ecorse? My youngest son lives next In Wyandotte. Ecorse is nothing to brag about my friend. It has always been a sketchy place.
Hardly. The criminals come in the vacuum of industrial collapse to scavenge the ruins. I'm from Bluefield, a miniature version of this where the coal mines closing down left a major industrial vacuum and now the streets are lined with abandoned houses, abandoned buildings, and roamed by druggie drifters and petty criminals.
Mi Horrorshow OK. Please explain how Detroit was destroyed by Marxism. Do you even know what Marxism is? I have lived in Detroit my whole life. I am a white professional and a Republican. But the use of the term Marxism is ridiculous. I was a USMC officer in the 70s and 80s. We studied Marxism closely. I await your explanation.
The problem was union and management. They couldn't get along and work together. That's was the problem Americans can't work together on many fronts. American workers made good money and bought homes, durable goods which raised the GNP. They built banks accounts which helped the banks. Somehow we lost our way. American companies wanted more profits and the Mexican Peso is really worthless and they moved those plants there because of cheaper labor.The Asian companies have a different philosophy. This is why they build their cars down south and away from union areas lie Detroit all of Michigan and parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
Toyota and Nissan (aka Datson) and Volkswagen were making more energy efficient cars in the 1970-80's as the US oil industry was going through embargos and other oil industry problems. The downfall happened because of the high wages that the unions demanded and could not compete with the overseas cheap labor.
GM no longer produces ANY cars except Corvette. Detroit is dead, GM is dead, "Chrysler" is now Fiat and makes junk. Detroit is America's first totally dead major city. A portent of things to come for American industrial metropolis'.
Detroit Was the RICHEST state until the DemocRATs took it over . Look at it now ! Your state next to be turned into a shithole state too. TERM LIMITS .They should be held accountable !Hang Them for Treason ! TRUMP 2020 More swamp draining needed !
relax buddy, you are the republican the new conservatives, and even Trump ran against. it's not a democrat / republican problem. Bush made the auto industry a bail out of Fed Govt. don't forget that
As a new driver, I only bought and drove used american cars. I fixed what I thought the prior owners had broken. By my mid 20s, I bought my first new car...american of course. I was not happy with the shoddy construction, the cheap materials that looked old quickly, and the recurring mechanical failures. I shopped around when it was time for a replacement and realized the quality of the american brands was in the toilet. Sorry Detroit if I contributed to your decline but I never bought another american vehicle.
I never thought I would say this about Obama, but thanks for giving these people back their jobs! and for the free gas money, and better social programs. you are so smart, Obama
I visited Detroit (as a tourist) last year 2017. It was my third visit and I could see the changes. Detroit has definitely turned the corner. It may never be the city it was, but it will be great again, You can feel it in the air.
I was born & raised in a beautiful booming Detroit. I feel for the folks who are there doing the best they know how. I cried like a baby when I went back to downtown & looked around.
Pj Lewis You cried downtown? Seriously? When were you there? I have lived in or near downtown for fifty years. I saw it up close at its worse. The 48 square mile city core is booming. I just bought a condo in Brush Park. Ten years ago it was an abandoned wasteland. Today? 5000 housing units are being built within three miles of my front door. There are three 20+ office towers being built, three newer stadiums, Michigan Central Station is being renovated and Ford Motor is moving in, old Southwest Hospital is being rebuilt and Bosch is moving in. The River Walk is reclaiming a long dormant water front. Dequindre Cut is transforming the Near East Side and Eastern Market is booming. Cork Town is booming and The Woodward Corridor has 18 construction projects underway as I type this. I don’t know where you were downtown but I don’t see it. There are still some crappy areas near downtown. Is that where you were?
@@edwardschwenk3100 not even...the Lions?
no you didn't
@Lil_LyriX Love you babe
Nothing last forever..
And the future? GM have the mindset that the only vehicles customers want are SUV's and trucks at $60,000 a clip leaving the field wide open to Honda and Toyota in the supply
of four door sedans. Autonomous vehicles? Good luck with that!
they are not wrong, atleast not in the american market but on the rest of the world youre right.
Right?! And here in Brazil GM is the second most popular car brand, right behind Volkswagen
here in the uk toyota is all we buy.there are other brands but tbh there junk break down and not as well built. my first car when i was young was a shit Peugeot french car that was pure junk broke down all the time needed something. my next one was vw group cars .great car never any bother drove and drove and drove with no problems.never gave much bother and always started lol.tbh coming to a end i got bored of driving it so next one is a toyota . great big car with no problems what so ever but tbh i do kina miss the vw group tdi cars compared with the toyota common rail system
It's the only vehicles they can sell and be profitable. See the profit margin on fuel efficient vehicles is lower and with the high union wages (50/hour including benefits), the Detroit 3 can't succeed selling those. But companies like Honda can sell all kinds of vehicles so when gas prices go high, they aren't upended.
It's insane that Camrys and Accords etc were selling so well 30 years ago, gaining exponentially, and GM/Ford?Chrysler did nothing except make some thin competition in the class rather than storming the class.
Big American egos scoffing at the middle/lower class, thinking that Camaros/Mustangs etc are the showcase. You still don't get it today.
Arrogance is part of it probably but camrys and accords have lower profit margins. The Detroit 3 can't afford to make those as easily with their expensive union wages and benefits. So even if they were complacent, they had an economic incentive to not make fuel efficient vehicles even when gas prices went up in the 2000's.
But I still love Mustang GT, I got 2 of them right now and happy as hell
Nearly 30 years ago GM built an electric vehicle called the EV1... it was absolutely fantastic... 200 were built before GM decided electric cars needed to be killed so all 200 were crushed... except 1, which is in a museum.... GM killed itself....
Shame.. When they actually try, they really make some of the best stuff.
In Detroit??? How about in the USA!!!! This applies to every large city in the country now!! In case no one has noticed...ROME IS BURNING!!!
Gord Beneteau everything's going great here in Boston.... It's all bio-pharma businesses. Lots of money to go around
@@stereomaster4231 It's also one of the least diverse places in America... 😆😆
@@cretansuperbos2121 Really?? Are you sure about that? Have you ever been here before?
The politicians ( like Emperor Nero) are fiddling white ( Rome/ Detroit) burns.
The same has happened in the UK jobs started being lost in the seventies n eighties when factories, coal mines and steel works closed. In Stoke on Trent where I live there are a lot of homeless people poor wages and Stoke is the "money dust capital" of the UK
- One trick pony town.
- Oil crisis of the 1970's.
- automation / downsizing
- off shoring to cheaper countries
-Japanese/German Cars.
That too.
yep
Thanks to people like Ken we will all learn to get along.
Ben and hellofajr pretty much summed it up.
Why is this considered news? Detroit's auto plants were shutting down in the 1980's. By 1990 it was a train wreck.
Um by the 50s lmao, you're outta the loop and need the news clearly lmao
@@matt.squarebody5427 the 50s is when they were still expanding.
it is more a documentary piece
in 2009 when this was made, the big 3 took tens of billions from the government, that's why it was news back then.
1950 was the peak year for employment in Detroit. Been on the decline since then.
did that guy just blow through a stop sign at 14:43
that's normal here haha
Yes he did... like a boss.
I was thinking the same thing! Maybe it was one of those neighborhoods where you don't stop...
yesss... with funky music
That's normal in Detroit
Wages , car prices , quality , GREED
And the Japanese and German Automotive industries.
Only about $2,500 is labor cost in a new vehicle.
maybe already mentioned but 14:43 blows through stop sign like a boss.
It breaks my heart to see the Seaton's at 9:00; these are hardworking Americans whom care about their jobs, city, and their kids.
I am a union worker ,for the last forty years, but is the union that bring the business to there knees
It’s actually the CEO’s who want more profits
@ omg finally someone with a brain
Why? Because they wanted better pay for their workers?
In short Detroit did not recover from white flight and the city was not able to tax the adjoining suburbs for funds.
Its not even just White Flight. It also became Middle Class Black Flight too.
Gordon Lumbert I think that you have stated a rarely noted and very important fact. I am a white, middle class Detroiter. There was a significant black middle class in Detroit in the 60s and 70s. When they left for Southfield etc.. the city lost an invaluable asset. Only now, years later, are they returning. I live in Brush Park. My next door neighbor is an African American accountant at Quicken Loans. His wife is a nurse at Henry Ford Hospital. They are representative of the neighborhood. They are involved in a bunch of committees and improvement teams. I am thrilled to see that happening.
I bet know one really lives in Detroit it up and coming shit changed from when I was a kid to now
@@sixmile2360 yeah we gotta keep a eye on quicken loans make sure they don't quickly leave us. Dan Gilbert is from Detroit and has been doing us pretty good. More people need to have a helping hand rather than there hand out.
The reason there was white flight was the unions were so successful in helping to rip off the automobile industry that the just took the money and ran.
Detroit is an example of a city that didn't adapt quickly enough and faced the consequences.
They're also so focused on making it building cars, that they blind themselves from trying other routes that don't have as fierce competition.
The fall of Detroit happened the day they foolishly told the Great Every 100 Year Genius Dr. W.E. Deming to go EFF off!
And so Dr. Deming did, right over to Japan where they adopted his lessons, becoming the largest and best auto makers in the world. He even predicted the fall of Detroit because his laws are as certain as gravity. Pay attention or pay cash America!
A very simple solution to this problem: Make cars that people want at the price people can afford.
Is that too much to ask? It that too much to do as a car maker?
That is too much to ask. Cars are expensive to build. Minimum wage jobs don't cut it.
You hit the nail on the head!!!! So much crap put in the cars you don't need!!!
In every country in the world their gov'ts subsidize their car production. That's why they're able to make better cars cheaper.
Yes your thinking is sound. I drive a car just to get around and not make a wealth or fashion statement. Good MPG and workmanship are a must. Remember years ago the cheap "YUGO' imports - an example of how to do just about everything wrong. US wages have to rise to make anything happen.
@@ripperwrestling6587 Yes - I remember being just out of the Army in 1972 asking a dealer for a car with a manual transmission and no air conditioning. The guy laughed at me and needless to say he never saw a my money. I had to settle for a used 1970 Mustang with automatic transmission and power steering but no A/C.
I feel I need to point out the thumbnail for this video shows Corvettes which are built in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Not Detroit. A nitpick yeah, but it made me chuckle.
This comment is stupid
G it was kind of fun fact quit being a Debbie downer
G ** nine months later lmao 😂
also the clip of the People Mover has the automated recording announcing Millender Center as the next stop when the footage clearly shows the train leaving Cobo en route to Fort/Cass.
@@Knightmessenger Nice catch.
Well fast forward to now in 2022 and downtown is completely different. Just got back from Detroit a few weeks ago and was shocked at all of the downtown development going on and all of the people running around. Downtown is not quiet anymore and it is pretty nice now.
UAW bleed them dry, not enough money left to engineer quality products. Legacy costs of retirees will keep the big 3 making inferior products for years to come.
Shareholder speak...
My father knew a Ford engineer who's job it was to reduce the quality of electrical switches so they would fail sometime shortly after the warranty expired. Now explain to me how that was the fault of the UAW.
St. Louis is in fast decline also , no more jobs in america
3.7% un - employment don't need any more jobs
It was McDonell Douglas city, Boeing have been desinvesting there.
The american dream is long but gone, it ony exist in a time when American were racist.
@@Brandonhayhew no it's not gone at least for white folks it's not
@@leooel754 when it returns can it competitive against china and Germany.
First lose manufacturing jobs second lose you economy. Just that simple. What are the consequences? Detroit and a long list of of rust belt cities.
I’m born and raised there. Sadly so many are wishing on a star and mentally stuck. They often times can’t do better because they’ve never seen better. The industrial times are done and over and unfortunately many places like detroit, are praying that it comes back because they feel it’s going to give what it once did and it’s not. It will be Decades before you see major turn around then. Too much crime, blight and uneducated in the state of Michigan but significantly in Detroit. Smh! They doomed that city YEARS ago!
Japan may have lost WW2, but won the Automobile war. Government got out of the way, workforce knew not to bleed the companies dry, the companies knew how to build better cars people would buy for cheaper. Also helps that Japan's society is more cohesive and stable compared to US's dysfunction, debt, and unrest.
Recently the problem has kind of been the opposite for the big three American car companies, they have been focused on building BIG SVUs and lots of Pick up truck that are expensive but generate more profit per vehicle when what is really needed is smaller less expensive cars that more people can afford.
Also greedy CEOs that make hundreds of times more than the average worker and are pretty much only concerned with the stock prices to which their compensation is tied.
I was working as a temp in a company who are making GM car windows... union own. And let me tell you, they are so lazy. I was working on a 4 person line, meaning 4 people run this line but we were 8 people, 4 temps who was running the line and 4 union workers, them union workers were standing around all day... they called it seniority! In the end we got pumped out after 3 months because they said we didn't work fast enough. Bull s#$&. I hope all union in the car industry will shut down. Union are greedy and only for lazy people. People who are willing to work hard have no chance to drive there because they make them union workers look bad and lazy.
You are super truthfully
I know unions, some industries more so than others have turned into a cancer for business. It's also worth remembering that unions were formed out of necessity for dealing with unscrupulous employers. I'm certainly not a hard line unionist but I think we're better off with them than without them.
mrpaperbag paperbag I am sorry to call bullshit but... Bullshit. I have worked as a manager at GM for thirty years. If your story is true then it is a management problem or this happened in the insane 70s and 80s. Any supplier worth it’s salt has the opposite problem with labor as car companies continuously squeeze suppliers for reductions in costs. So. Either you worked for a really poorly run company or you are full of shit. Which one is it?
I wondered how it was possible to make a car and ship it from Mexico cheaper than in Detroit, but it makes sense if you needed twice as many people to make the same product in Detroit.
Part of GM problem was there attitude was you bought it now its your problem. My local ford dealer answer is if you have a problem is just buy a new one we wont fix your old one . With the junk there producing there isnt anthing I would spend my money on . The quality just isnt there .the high price lack of service no real value its not only the big 3 its all of auto industry. If Mercedes coudent make Chrysler work how is Fiat . Yore paying more for less . I dont see it getting any better any time soon.
Quality of general motors and Ford vehicles is terrible. They have been skating off their brand name for 30 years now. Japanese care far more about the quality of their product.
@@MultiAnne36 Oh those Japanese ppl.r very smart..They make wonderful car's..
Some of those workers have been out of work so long, it's going to cost a fortune just to re-train 1/2 of them. Plus the enormous cost of retro fitting the old factories. And the simple fact is even if jobs do come back there won't be that many of them as they're not needed anymore.
where are you going to get the megawatts from
Blame NAFTA, car makers went "South" or overseas as America's factories and jobs did also. I saw a Mexican Ford factory all happy about the prosperity it to the area. Jerks!
They were leaving before then.
Less competition before then.
After WWII most of the world was blown apart. The big three and Detroit had the world to themselves. Took till the 60's to rebuild Europe and Japan. Then they started producing and perfected their products. Competition. 1970's rolled in and Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW ect were poised when fuel prices rose during the embargo. The rest is history...
Of course all by design. we live in a big business plan nothing happens by chance
Datsun, not Nissan, which is Renault, which makes garbage.
Honda, Toyota, and VW just simply do it better. They capitalized on the energy crisis of the 1970's by building cars that were simply more practical, more fuel-efficient AND more reliable.
PREACH IT MAN..
Death Vims small Ford cars sell well in the UK
I just retired from GM with 50 years. The answer to GM's problem is in it's past, but GM management is to young to know that. They have no imagination. GM has the engineering to produce a product that can outsell anything made today. The people that have the power to make it happen lack the imagination, and wouldn't consider it because it's not their idea. The Idea could be tested with one SUV assembly line, and people that want it to work. Finding the people is the easy part. The hard part is getting management that wants to do it.
James Holland James. What part of GM did you retire from? I just retired in January after 35+ years. Spent the last twelve years splitting my time as a Platform Engineer in Warren and at Pole Town. Started out on Clark Street. You don’t like the young engineers? I find them refreshing. I blame most of the problems at GM on my generation. Mainly piss poor management, short sighted focus on profit, terrible products, shady quality and an entrenched culture of bureaucracy that drove me crazy for years. It is better now. A lot better but I had enough. I consult now at Pratt and Miller in Wixom and teach a couple of classes at Wayne State in continuous improvement.
So much for the Volt.
The American auto industry will never ever ever ever learn. How can you tell? Because like the lady said, in 2005 they started seeing and writing about the problems. Those problems started in 1970, which says the stupidity runs deep, and high paid executives and union bosses keep running from the alligator hoping it eats someone else next, and they’ll get out with their pensions and lifestyles intact. She thinks it’s a cycle, yet the city’s been going on only one direction since the HUD scandal of the early 60s.
The UAW expectations back in the 70's and 80's were so greedy and unrealistic, they contributed mightily to the demise of the Detroit automobile workforce.
FAKE facts...the Union bashing was a key corporate /shareholder agenda who bought themselves the GOP to help them bust the Unions...the booting of the middle class
Spot on. Corrupt unions and politicians killed Detroit and other Rust Belt cities. Now they've turned their attention to once beautiful cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Miami, Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Atlanta, etc. and turning them into urban s#it holes where the only people who live there are either filthy rich or dirt poor. Leftism always has and always will kill any semblance of a viable middle class.
WonderMagician Shareholders > labor
@@knockknockbusted - That's how it works. If there are no investors to risk their *own* money to start and support a business, then there would be no place to the laborers to earn a decent living to support themselves and their families. 🤯
You mean corporate greed killed the company.. if man works 35 plus years hes entitled to retire with a pension .. Because I know for a fact that the CEO's of these companies make more than what they put out for pension. funds
Let's not sugar coat it I think we all know why Detroit is the nation's gutter.
Yes
Why? Praytell.
@@Alleycat1921 Black's
Charles Manson Excuse me, how disrespectful, unethical, and sickening.
@@CocoTaveras8975 Truth usually is.
car prices are not matching people paychecks it does not look good for the future of American jobs
When I was going up things in the 80s and 90s was diffrent. Like downtown Detroit Hudsens was closed in 1983 later Demolished by 1998. The Brewster Douglas home before it was left in ruins. Was a great place to live. Hidden drugs was out of sight. Corner party stores was easy to reach. Before Cass Technical High school closes in 2005 and demolish in 2011 is where I gotten my summer job in 1999. And in the Brewster homes in 1997. Before Old Hudsen was razed me and my family walk pass there going to Kresge department store. Further down was Radio shack. It was later changed into a dollar store when Radio shack closed in 1999. By the Cadilac Square building they have DDOT shutters (Where you catch the bus to your distination from 1974) it was moved to another location to make way for a park.
I bought a new 1972 Gran Torino Sport V8 for $3800 and by 1985 a similar car cost 15K.
. In 2008, Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino cost $33 million.
Bob S . True 🚙
Bob S But what would a similar car been?. There wasn't any that was similar to a 1972 Ford Gran Torino Sport.
@@michaelweizer7794 Chevy Monte Carlo. My point is that during that period the price of cars skyrocketed largely due to dramatic wage increases. These dramatic price increases brought in Japanese cars.
1:53 First off, the People Mover runs on the same technology as the Vancouver Skytrain so it is not a monorail.
Also, the train is leaving Cobo en route to the Fort/Cass Station, the audio of the announcement for Millender Center was taken from a different part of the loop.
At least downtown looks a lot nicer now. Heck it's busy with people walking around during the pandemic.
Dick Johnston went into Club 'd Retirement, and put up that velvet rope right behind him. The Chevy Volt cost $76k per unit and the car will never make tax payers money. My favorite NYT headline features a picture of Obama admiring a Chevy Camaro saying "Detroit is back". The Camaro is made in Canada and Detroit is not back.
Good catch.
These are the four main reasons for Detroit's demise:
1. Blacks keeping their bitter attitudes from the unjust treatment of the Jim Crow south thus reinforcing the black stereotype from the local white population.
2. Electing a leftist black racist and corrupt mayor named Coleman Young from 1974 to 1994, which destroyed race relations and business opportunities in the city.
3. Relying on one industry for far too long while other cities, like Pittsburgh, diversified their economies for the 21st century.
4. Becoming a one party city that caused a lack of diversity of thought and ideas to solve the city's problems.
That photo of the family with Obama is a cardboard cutout lol
clowns posing with clowns
They fell hook line & sinker for the charade that was the Obama presidency.
Lady J pp
Lolz
@@silverleaf494 It's ten years later and just maybe they don't feel the same!.
22:24 Dude blows right through that stop sign, and he's in a decent neighborhood with occupied houses.
I live in Saltillo, the Detroit of, Mexico. This is where your so called American car and pickup makers went. Late at night miles long trains loaded with parts are assembled here by line workers making about US $12 to $15 dollars equivalent PER DAY. This is where your Republican oligarcs outsourced thos Detroit jobs. They will be returning to the USA right after Evanka Trump closes her garment sweatshops in China. Lots oif luck to those of you who believe that the oligarcs are going to return their businesses to the USA and cut their profits. !Saludos desde Mexico!
thats good money in mexico
You leftist dumbass. The entire problem is that unions destroyed Detroit not allowing Free Market Capitalism to work. They forced Automakers to pay unsustainable wages, benefits, and pensions even in times of economic downturn. The result as always is companies closing factories in order to survive and actually make sustainable profits by moving to Mexico and other countries. Democrats, big government, corruption, lefist/ Communist, politics and policies are primarily responsible for not only the fall of Detroit, but of every city, county, state, and nation that's failing in the entire world. They can't understand that it's better to have 100,000 jobs at $10 to $25 an hour, than 30,000 at $35 an hour. SF, Boston, NYC, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, LA, Seattle, Portland, Cleveland, etc. etc. they are all being destroyed by big government and leftist politics. Democrats tax societies to death, and have no concept of trickle down economics and how economies and Capitalism actually work (and why Free Market Capitalism is the only system that has ever worked).
Thanks for the facts...
@@Sovereign_Citizen_LEO Is this why Trump won't bring his family business back from China? Do as I say not what I do President. What a joke.
@pices229 - Is what why (Capitalism)? What does that even mean? And what does it have to do with Trump? And please link your sources/evidence that Trump's family business has it's operational, financial, or organizational headquarters in China. I am a conservative leaning Libertarian since about 2009 (as has always been the innate necessity and nature of human beings throughout human history. But I am impartial. Issues have to be analyzed and dealt with individually, just as problems, solutions, and human beings. I am not a big fan of Trump (though I did vote for him). He has done and said a lot of things I agree with, as well as many I disagree with. But overall, he is the President and we have to give him a chance during his term and judge it at the end. I was a moderate Democrat for most of my life, and voted for Obama in 2008. But the Democrat Party was hijacked in the 20th Century, and especially since the 1960s. A major problem is the divide and conquer two party system (where both parties are corrupt). But in the history of this nation, the Republican Party has been far less corrupt, and more reasonable, honorable, and patriotic. What we really need is to break the two party system and get a 3rd Party (if not 4th) in power and in office, such as the Libertarian Party.
What is the song name at 2:56?
This is from 2009.Why post it in 2016? Alot has changed since then.Real estate prices are almost as high as they were in 2007.
shes comin back
There was No American dream it was a settlers delusional.
Rob James yeah they rebuilding mid town
And in Detroit that means prices are back up to $1 per property on the county tax sales........
dalmation girl: you hit the nail on the head.
It was a combination of factors. The union bears some of this, they got too greedy, but more so, the company's, especially GM and Chrysler for failing to see the changes in auto trend, and their quality went down bad. But the big 3 all were more greedy than the uaw. They shipped more and more jobs overseas to exploit cheap labor. And, that is the main reason, to exploit cheap labor, it's not like they dropped the car prices any. What plants didn't go overseas, many moved to southern parts of the US where the labor market is less. They fled Detroit so fast, its unbelievable. The city that once thrived on the big 3, was doomed. What a damn shame.
I'm surprised the toilets even flush anymore!
Mine just blocked up....HELP!
Perhaps the best thing is from car industry to IT industry what do you think to make Detroit vibrant again. Praying for America to recover morally and economically. God bless.
International Director Maybe Tesla will pick up the slack in Detroit
we had a 66 G.T.O i was twelve. thought it was awesome. Then we had the riots in 1967 and the tigers won the world series in 1967.
they won in 68 came close in 67
@@AgeofCraccadilliaassent you are correct. i thought it might have been 68. i remember my parents taking us down there and things were still pretty contentious.
I was born and raised in Detroit. Its a shame what happened to the city. I had to leave in 1980
Absolutely no jobs. I loved the city. But when they signed the NAFTA almost all manufacturing left. I watch the videos. I have to wonder with all the houses being bulldozed down how will they attract people to move back without housing?
if there is no job nobody can afford housing anyways
Most probably Japanese autos and the gas shortages. When the price of gas surged guys like me looked for MPG and that was either an air cooled VW or a Japanese import. When gas prices stabilized I remembered pushing a car to a gas pump so I was not about to buy a guzzler. Of course there are other reasons for Detroit's problems and as in any city should the jobs vanish so will the middle class and the tax base.
Make small American cars and pump them into Europe.
De Cnijf Kris the chevy spark was bad
De Cnijf Kris You’re gonna have to make good ones , our small cars are great quality and cheap to buy and cheap on gas !
They do it half heartedly...leaving the market to the japanese and koreans
@@yuh2634 and the cobalt, cruze, aveo, sonic.
America dosent do "small" sir, in anything....
GM, Ford and Chrysler stopped to build the cars that liked to us. Crown Vics Marquis Oldsmobiles Cadillacs Pontiacs Furys. But now everything is plastic and rebadged Japanese, Chinese or Korean. We will not see again the glorious Fleetwoods RWD or the 1981 Pontiac Bonneville. It's sad to see how the big three are downsizing all the models. Asia is increasing the size of the SUVs. What is next?
"One of the reasons it was happening was two reasons"?? Okeedokee then.
I would love to tour this iconic city, it has so much rich history. It's sad that these people destroyed such propsperity and prominent communities. They didn't stop there, they had to vandalized the buildings and physically take down the cities once rich and beautiful legacy. All gone. What a great place this was, it's hard to believe what these people have done. It's sick and it makes me so angry and furious .
Micheal Stapleton Be careful looking at only negative videos. I have lived in Detroit my whole life. The 48 square mile city core is booming with renovations and new construction. There are still huge neighborhoods in serious trouble but the comeback is is spreading outward. You Tube Detroit comeback and Detroit rising to get the other side of the story. I have to be honest I am amazed by what is happening downtown. No one wants to view good news videos. Only ruin porn and negativity. Take it from someone on the ground in Detroit. I saw the city at it’s worse. It is coming back in spite of all the nay sayers who left forty years ago or have never been here. We have a long way to go but check out the positive videos. You will be surprised.
Memphis Tennessee gets the same rep
How about a 10 year bumper to bumper on the high end cars.
Detroit got too arrogant from their success and refused to adapt to changing times. I remember Africa was flooded with Japanese cars because they were more practical and fuel efficient. No one was crazy enough to drive American cars
I take you never drove a 2019 Chevrolet Silverado LTZ Z71 w/6.2L V8
th-cam.com/video/fUt6Sfj7QD8/w-d-xo.html it eats Japaneses metal.
Notice all the wide pan shots of the GM building, if they took any close up's you would see all the people walking around in suits and nice cars stacked up at intersections.
One thing that annoys me about media from this era is this universal understanding that SUVs were the problem with Detroit. Toyota sold more SUVs than anyone, and to this day they are what makes money for everyone. Small fuel-efficient cars are practically sold at-cost. Today the whole industry is going all-in on SUVs and discontinuing their unprofitable smaller cars. Detroit had a million problems, but a lack of cheap eco cars wasn't one. In 2008 GM was the global tech leader in EVs. After bankruptcy, GM and Chrysler were legally compelled to make more cars with high fuel efficiency. Both did, both lost money on them, and both bounced back to massive profitability on the back of trucks and SUVs. The Jeep and Ram brands were so profitable, they alone kept the entire Italian car industry from imploding after the Fiat merger.
First the workers took control through unions, sometimes requiring 4 or more be paid for the work formerly done bi one. Then in response to the Race Riots companies paid taxes to support welfare for those who did not work. This was the start of regulations making production more expensive. Mexico, here we come.
Slim Morden You are absolutely full of shit. I was a manager at GM for thirty years. We never hired four people to do one persons work. Ever. You are either ill informed or making up sheer bull shit. Which is it?
When she started singing at 7:21 I literally threw my phone and ran away straight 5 miles from my home, I had to write this comment after returning
Problem with the big three is the quality is gone
Here we are 3 years later and I never seen a volt or any electric car on the road.
Cost to much for their short range and take to long to charge.
It gets much worst if you have them in winter climates.
Battery life is shorter in cold temp and power is needed to heat the car's interior .
John Smith . Mr Smith my thoughts exactly ! When I noticed the Obama references I realized this was an old post. But how true we still don’t make the very product that would save the industry. The design dept . With the British accent is a huge laugh as time would tell. Fell flat on your ass ! All they have left is ugly Cadillacs and Opel/Buick’s . My heart goes out to the every day workers who suffer.
10 years later and we are in a worst position then when this video was shot.
Definitely better than 10 years ago!
What song is at 5:19?
Don't show corvettes cuz not one of them were built in Detroit. EVERY CORVETTE is built in Bowling Green Kentucky.
I miss Detroit
What happened to Detroit? Democrat leadership. But don't take my word for it, research the history, follow the money, and cross reference your info.
thay sold union workers out.so thay could make there relatives CEOS. to collect higher paying salaries than people that actually work for a living. and when thay go bust thay go to the government for bailouts. higher wages means more cars sold in America. but those Congress leaders believe corporations before a working man or woman. only to allow corporations to move overseas. and cause jobs loss .make a point to not join the unions. for better wages. the wealthy CONTROLS
our government. like our parents always told us. we are just a number. if not perform. good by jobs. and we haven't seen automobiles come down in price
without union workers. and now being built by robots. and still making higher profits. always looking for an excuse to bring them higher revenues. to screw worker's out of pensions.
except, when you look at all the most prosperous cities in America, they are democratic run. Really shoots down your theory. And then you look at republican run states and see they are some of the poorest. Now I just sunk your talking points
@Brian Meyer www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/01/04/solved-why-poor-states-are-red-and-rich-states-are-blue/#594851f21d60 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_GDP_per_capita
I could go much deeper, but this should show you I know what I'm talking about. The first article even explains why poor people in red states vote red, and that's because their cost of living is lower than wealthy blue states. I mean, I would rather the leaders I elect bring jobs and commerce to my state rather than just keeping the cost of living down. Cost of living in Chicago where I am is medium, yet you can make money without a college degree here if you know what to do.
The second link is that of gdp per state. Every state at the bottom is a red state. Red states simply don't make money because no one stays to make it. Red leaders don't know how to bring innovators into the state other than just "tax breaks". Employees look for more than that when going to a city. They look for entertainment, people who aren't willing to shoot and kill you over nothing, the police aren't going to harass you, government that's going to protect your health through clean water and clean food, government that's going to regulate plants and not have them explode or give you cancer, where corruption isn't going to be swept under the rug etc.
In closing, you asked for facts, I gave some to you despite not having to. I could care less for politics, but when morons try to blame politics on people who are center (calling liberals in the United States liberal is a joke, since we are still fighting over healthcare, tax paid higher education, job benefits etc when Western Europe has done this and more years ago. Liberals don't exist here, the center and right wing only exists here), I write paragraphs to prove my point because there's no other way around it
19:40 "Someone tells you that your job is over" you should have been paying attention, GM went down the toilet in the late 60s and it's never coming back. They'd have to make cars twice as good as the competition for half the price to win back all the customers they screwed over.
I am convinced there is a market for leftover stock in Eastern Europe and in Russia. To be investigated.
Not really, there are enough used European and Japanese cars there.
If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto My name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart. Malachi 2:2
Amen..
Sad and helpless feeling...
12:13 explains the whole issue in a nut-shell... or resting on your laurels, instead of innovating. So you can make a hydrogen powered car. Big deal. Where is it?!!
Apart from some great cars from the 50s 60s the equal best thing was Motown.
Yeah, the 2 great things, the cars and Motown. We're living in the end times. All the more reason I'm listening to music I grew up with more than ever. And I'm saving for a 2007 or 2008 Ford Mustang. It will be my last fling.
evimlck Just steal it that will be your end times. I have a few cars of my dreams, rarely get to use them, but I ain't letting em, memories
When the largest good employers lay off 90% of their workforce over 40 years it will cause these problems. Add to that 40 years of stagnating wages nation wide due to tax cuts which is a dis-incentive for companies to invest in their workers via wage raises. Without the ability for a company to reduce tax liability by investing in workers there is no incentive to raise wages to keep up with inflation.
77 of the Fortune 500 companies recently gave some workers some form of raise due to the new tax law and the ability to bring back over seas profits free of a large penalty. The others back stock shares which increased executive wealth. There was no incentive for them to invest that money into their workers.
This problem was long in the making,but the great Bush recession brought it to a head.
I AGREE..
Bro completely missed a stop sign at 14:42. lmao
I fail to see the answer for the question 'How' from this documentary's title...in my opinion, the companies (especially GM) did this to themselves.
I was laid off 2 separate times before I made the decision to move from Michigan for a better opportunity. With that, I came to the realization that if I was that disposable to GM, I vowed never, ever to purchase any GM product ever again.
Plus, i suspect that guy gushing over the equinox may have had a rude awakening...Didn't GM kill all future car production to rely only on SUV and trucks??
The comment by that young lady (at min. 3:30) regarding receiving bonuses in 1999 epitomizes the problem with irresponsible management wrt wasting OPM. It doesn't take a genius to know that companies are designed to make a profit to survive. This is first and foremost in the capitalist's hand book. Unfortunately the management team at GM forgot this principle and doled out stock holder's money to union workers instead of using it for more worthy principles as in R&D, plant improvement and efficiency improvements. They, the management, along with their allies in the unions destroyed GM brick by brick. They ignored or pooh poohed their responsibility to manage the company in a most efficient manner by not adhering to sound capitalist practices and principles. In the end they overstaffed their rolls, failed to modernize their plants and failed to invest in real improvements in their operations. It wasn't enough that GM (and the rest of the industry) paid the highest wages in the country for assembly line work, but then doled un-deserving bonuses. GM bankruptcy case is a classic case on how not to run a company.
Martha Reeves. WOW
3:18
the what can fail?!
TENNSUMITSUMA - I think he said, If Lehman (Brothers) can fail, with its 100 year history, I think GM can fail. I had to play it back a few times to get that.
13:08 IKEA to take over GM ....!!! 😂😂😂 wish if that could've happened. Then I could have got myself a kit Chevy Camaro or a corvette which I could myself assemble in my garage...!!
lol
Probably would do a more professional job as well.
The Chevrolet Volta is the bigseller in the future for GM?! The all-electric range is officially rated at 53 mi (85 km). I am not impressed when compered to Tesla with its all-electric range of 220 miles (350 km) and the long range model delivers 310 miles (500 km). Wonder who they think will buy Volta?
I brought a Ford & took off the stupid union decal ASAP. A good chunk of my price tag went straight into the UAW's pockets. Next time I'm buying a VW or Toyota
Shout itOut u know german workers are unionized as well right?
Shout itOut hope your kids cant get jobs
@Derek Charette Tell that nonsense to Boeing where the company was sued in 2010 by the union for leaving Seattle for Charleston, SC over "worker's rights". Not only that but despite rejecting unionization in a 2017 vote the unions are still agitating in 2018 for another election until they get the results they want.
@Derek Charette Furthermore you trying to equate unions with quality control is bunk. The most highly skilled workers in Germany are trained by their companies, NOT the unions. Industrial training is incorporated into the Educational Systems in most advanced West European economies. Despite that, on a cost and quality level Europeans are pretty much on par with the US. VW is notorious for selling safety at the expense of affordability. American cars are no different. TANSTAAFL!
So you hate Americans earning middle class wages?
What song played at 5:18
Detroit is a model of what happens when completely controlled by Democrats!
YES YOU ARE RIGHT, AND THE VOLT IS NO MORE AND GM IS A CRAPSHOOT COMPANY GOING TO CHINA because I live here in Ecorse 1 mile from Detroit and liberals keep killing this city
Detroit is a model of what happens when economies shift. When Reagan was in office America was the #1 lender in the world, Now the largest debtor. Biggest producer to largest consumer. Not Democrats or Republicans fault.
Daniel McKenzie Two things. GM is not going to China. I recently retired from GM after thirty years. All major companies worldwide have a presence in China. While I am not happy about importing the two D Platforms from China I will offer that the real threat is from Mexico. The decision to build the Blazer in Mexico has led me to wash my hands of the company that I worked for for thirty years. Second. Ecorse? My youngest son lives next In Wyandotte. Ecorse is nothing to brag about my friend. It has always been a sketchy place.
Dallas
And yet California has the 5th largest economy in the world. Where do you think your technology comes from?
Layoffs at GM and Ford recently and yet the price of housing in se Michigan remains inflated. Makes no sense.
I can tell you exactly what went wrong in Detroit. CRIME!
Hardly. The criminals come in the vacuum of industrial collapse to scavenge the ruins. I'm from Bluefield, a miniature version of this where the coal mines closing down left a major industrial vacuum and now the streets are lined with abandoned houses, abandoned buildings, and roamed by druggie drifters and petty criminals.
Not crime but Marxism went wrong
Infestation
Crime is a byproduct of economic decline.
Mi Horrorshow OK. Please explain how Detroit was destroyed by Marxism. Do you even know what Marxism is? I have lived in Detroit my whole life. I am a white professional and a Republican. But the use of the term Marxism is ridiculous. I was a USMC officer in the 70s and 80s. We studied Marxism closely. I await your explanation.
The problem was union and management. They couldn't get along and work together. That's was the problem Americans can't work together on many fronts. American workers made good money and bought homes, durable goods which raised the GNP. They built banks accounts which helped the banks. Somehow we lost our way. American companies wanted more profits and the Mexican Peso is really worthless and they moved those plants there because of cheaper labor.The Asian companies have a different philosophy. This is why they build their cars down south and away from union areas lie Detroit all of Michigan and parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
THE UNION!
Toyota and Nissan (aka Datson) and Volkswagen were making more energy efficient cars in the 1970-80's as the US oil industry was going through embargos and other oil industry problems. The downfall happened because of the high wages that the unions demanded and could not compete with the overseas cheap labor.
GOOD OLD MARTHA
GM no longer produces ANY cars except Corvette. Detroit is dead, GM is dead, "Chrysler" is now Fiat and makes junk. Detroit is America's first totally dead major city. A portent of things to come for American industrial metropolis'.
Detroit Was the RICHEST state until the DemocRATs took it over . Look at it now ! Your state next to be turned into a shithole state too. TERM LIMITS .They should be held accountable !Hang Them for Treason ! TRUMP 2020 More swamp draining needed !
relax buddy, you are the republican the new conservatives, and even Trump ran against. it's not a democrat / republican problem. Bush made the auto industry a bail out of Fed Govt. don't forget that
You stupid.
you know it's a city right? you Russian? you obviously know nothing about the U.S.
As a new driver, I only bought and drove used american cars. I fixed what I thought the prior owners had broken. By my mid 20s, I bought my first new car...american of course. I was not happy with the shoddy construction, the cheap materials that looked old quickly, and the recurring mechanical failures. I shopped around when it was time for a replacement and realized the quality of the american brands was in the toilet. Sorry Detroit if I contributed to your decline but I never bought another american vehicle.
Don’t blame America, those parts are from China and those cars assembled in Mexico.
Because of Japanese cars
wrong. detroit built craply cars
14:44 is that a stop sign? no... that is not a stop sign.. this is Detroit baby (cruises right through it)
I never thought I would say this about Obama, but thanks for giving these people back their jobs! and for the free gas money, and better social programs. you are so smart, Obama
You gotta be brave sometimes and leave the place you called home. Yeah, it sucks but there's a better life out there. America's a big place.
I visited Detroit (as a tourist) last year 2017. It was my third visit and I could see the changes. Detroit has definitely turned the corner. It may never be the city it was, but it will be great again, You can feel it in the air.