r/Detroit • u/Healthy_Block3036 • Feb 28 '25

Politics/Elections Michigan Democratic Gov. Whitmer makes direct appeal to young men after sharp shift in election

https://apnews.com/article/michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer-young-men-e237387d0762e900f2dc7e38a1c49f7b
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106

u/MasterSpoon Feb 28 '25

Michigan used to be one of the best manufacturing centers in the world. We had steady, union paying jobs that got shipped to Mexico because corporations like the big 3 wanted to juice their quarterly profits, decimating the ability for workers to earn enough money to support a family and live in dignity. Michigan’s neo-liberal Democratic Party is just as guilty as the Republicans in where we are today.

Bring back manufacturing jobs that allow for one income to make enough to live a comfortable middle class life, or continue to lose. Rhetoric doesn’t pay the bills or give young men a path to a dignified life. You want to reach young men? Give them a real opportunity to become their own man in your system.

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u/3coneylunch Feb 28 '25

Those jobs are gone. The state hurts itself every time it cuts another check for corporate welfare to the auto manufacturers. They should be investing in technology, health care, education. 

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u/BeefInGR Mar 01 '25

technology, health care, education.

Three sectors that require specialized training.

Or...manufacturing jobs that any able bodied person can do.

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u/NewbGingrich1 Mar 01 '25

You're not gonna out compete Mexico for cheap manufacturing labor. That ship is sailed permanently. "That any able bodied person can do" - exactly, so why would companies choose the much more expensive Michigan worker over literally anyone else?

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u/BeefInGR Mar 01 '25

You're right. Except for the unhinged cheeto in the Oval Office who threatens every other week to impose a new tariff or tax. That might be a reason to look at manufacturing.

Also, let's not pretend every job in tech, health care or education is a gold mine. Most are...well...highly specialized fields that don't create significantly more wealth at the base.

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u/singlemale4cats Mar 01 '25

why would companies choose the much more expensive Michigan worker over literally anyone else?

So people can afford their products? No middle class, no profits, no auto industry.

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u/NewbGingrich1 Mar 01 '25

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with your sentiment - Henry Ford figured this out over a century go, almost got away with it and those ratfuck Dodge brothers sued him for having the audacity to insist on keeping wages high and prices low, successfully establishing the concept of shareholder supremacy.

But that was a 100 years ago, and even then it was a loss. Now we're dealing with massive globe spanning multinational corporations. Michigan is just a line on a spreadsheet. No amount of corporate welfare is going to bring back the golden era. You're not gonna tariff people into buying American. Chasing the highs of the past is the wrong move.

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u/singlemale4cats Mar 01 '25

Corporations can be brought to heel. People talk like the current order of things is an immutable fact of the universe, rather than the blip on the historical radar it actually is.

The funny thing is, as much as Elon Musk sucks, Tesla makes the most American car you can buy.

2

u/3coneylunch Mar 01 '25

Every state has jobs that an able bodied person can do. If this state wants to retain young college graduates, moderate to big earning individuals, they need to divest from manufacturing 

2

u/Icy-Bicycle-Crab Mar 01 '25

Those jobs don't exist any longer, they've been automated. 

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u/Icy-Bicycle-Crab Mar 01 '25

The two cities that lost the most manufacturing jobs were New York and Los Angeles, when the garment industries left the US. 

But no one gives a fuck about those factory jobs because they were women's. 

And you'll notice that neither NY or LA are short of good jobs now, because neither of those were a one horse town that discouraged competition.

2

u/Substantial_Lab_BCG Mar 05 '25

I have purchased union made men's suits. Excellent. Textiles were in a race to the bottom foe cheapest manufacturing location. Somr of those countries protect their textile industry. I would rather by union made clothing and shoes.

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u/Stripe_Show69 Mar 01 '25

Yeap. I work at one of the biggest tier one suppliers in the world. Our headquarters is in Michigan and it’s seems every year more and more of the jobs that were done here in Michigan have moved down to Monterrey Mexico.

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u/esjyt1 Feb 28 '25

it's just not possible and government can't do this.

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u/tmoney645 Feb 28 '25

If they make it financially ruinous to ship jobs to Mexico they will do it. If keeping factories open in Mexico or elsewhere hurts the shareholders, they will move operations back state side.

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u/AskMeAboutMyCatPuppy Mar 01 '25

OEMs would leave the US before they would bring everything back stateside. Then you’d be blaming government for them leaving.

The world has changed. Those jobs aren’t coming back. That reality hasn’t changed for decades. We can keep clamoring for a nostalgic dream but it will, at the end, still be just a dream.

Consider the countless people who moved north to take those factory jobs more than half a century ago. People from dried up farms and coal mines. Did they sit around whining that the government needed to bring back their old farm jobs? No. They moved on to where the economy was going. And we all benefitted for it. And now we wish we had it again. But we do—we can do it again. People just have to be willing to adapt.

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u/BlackDog990 Mar 01 '25

If they make it financially ruinous to ship jobs to Mexico they will do it. If keeping factories open in Mexico or elsewhere hurts the shareholders, they will move operations back state side.

I mean I agree with you in theory but in execution things don't really work that way....If say OEMs had to bring back all the MFG to the US their labor costs would be too high to remain profitable and costs couldn't be raised high enough to get back into the green because people simply can't afford 100k Malibus.

The OEMs would simply lean hard into automation solutions that mitigate their need for people costs. Heck US OEMs are already crawling with automous little bots scooting around the factories as well as automated processes.

Michigan needs jobs for educated/skilled/trade people because the heyday of US manufacturing is over. MI, not any other state can change this.

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u/tmoney645 Mar 01 '25

I agree. If the auto companies are forced to keep manufacturing in the US, the push for automation is going to increase tremendously. This is still good for US workers as these automated systems need near constant maintenance and supervision, and the supply chain for production of the robotics will also bring more jobs. 

1

u/BlackDog990 Mar 01 '25

the push for automation is going to increase tremendously. This is still good for US workers as these automated systems need near constant maintenance and supervision, and the supply chain for production of the robotics will also bring more jobs.

Admittedly I'm not heavily researched in this area, but at face value I'm not convinced there would be a net gain from a jobs perspective. The primary goal of automation is to reduce people costs. So while there may be some job gains to satisfy need to maintain or maybe build the robotics/program the AI these will come alongside greater losses of core manufacturing jobs.

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u/singlemale4cats Mar 01 '25 edited Mar 01 '25

I don't think American production means 100k Malibus. They'd love for you to think that, though.

1

u/SnooBooks9492 Mar 01 '25

Only middle of the road comment I've read in the whole thread.

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u/One-Point6960 Mar 03 '25

Shame that Biden didn't sell on the accomplishnets he did have, some called it industrial policy. I would argue it was intellectual basis of one to take next step. A lot money and effort they didn't sell it. Huge mistake. 950 factories and facilities committed or under constrcution build new or expand. I've seen the Granholm team at DOE use, how do only the energy nerds know this? Now to be fair even if the Ds won, normal slowdowns of that 950 fscitltiy number you'd have businesses hit pause, decide its not worth it anymore. To go back to my first point its foolish to not sell what you did to the people, assume the msm will talk about it rather the palace intrigue day after day.

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u/bertch313 Feb 28 '25

No one in the US needs to be a manufacturing slave

We have culture to export It's fucking free

0

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '25

The middle class would be back and that’d incentivize many other businesses to. They could if they gave a damn….they really could