http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,599988,00.html
(...)
Because the industry knew that it could expect financial assistance from Washington when in need, all Detroit's crises never made the Big Three any wiser – only more arrogant. Somehow Detroit always managed to keep going.
But then along came October 2008, which many observers regard as one of the worst months in Detroit's history. The three major US automakers reported their biggest declines in sales since World War II. October sales at Chrysler and Ford were a third lower than in the previous October, while General Motors' sales were down by 45 percent over the same period in 2007.
Industry executives insisted that without a government bailout, only Ford would stay in business. General Motors and Chrysler, they said, needed immediate financial help from Washington to avert bankruptcy within a matter of weeks.
This is a different kind of crisis. This time there is no stability anywhere in Detroit, where everything is in crisis: the real estate market, the banks, the Big Three, politics and the media. To cut costs, the city's two biggest daily newspapers have reduced home delivery to three days a week – Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. The city's young mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, is now in a prison cell in downtown Detroit, after being forced to step down after lying under oath and using taxpayer money to pay for sex parties. The Detroit News commented sarcastically that Detroit now has its very own Nero, and that at a time when the city is heading for a budget crisis and an education disaster. Only one-third of all children in the city graduate from high school.
Although the government in Washington is now sending money to Detroit – Chrysler and General Motors will receive $17.4 billion (€12.9 billion) in emergency funding by March 2009 – this does not solve the problem. Aside from money, what Detroit lacks is the right cars. The vehicles it does produce are out of step with the times. They are too big, too dirty and too loud. And they cost too much to produce – the Big Three spends up to $2,200 (€1,630) on employee benefits for every car it makes.
There is no light at the end of the tunnel, nothing the city can look forward to. It is now a matter of life and death for Detroit residents. Detroit is filled with people with no places to live, no families and no jobs. All they have left are their guns....
(((You know, Europe is full of towns that were bombed to pieces by huge shiny aircraft made in Detroit, and nowadays those towns generally look pretty perky. Perkier than Detroit, anyhow. Sometimes you really have to wonder about mankind.)))
