I Rant More (so excuse me)

When I lived in the Seattle area, I thought that it was an especially unique region; not just possessing traits unheard of in other metropolitan areas, but a truly "special" place in and of itself. However, since living in Metro-Detroit, I have learned that every place likes to think of itself as special. It's how the masses try to make themselves important. In short, it's regional propaganda.

In truth, there's nothing special about the Seattle and Detroit areas. Sure, the greater Seattle area has Weyerhaeuser, Microsoft, Nintendo, trade with Asia, and some remnants of Boeing. Of course the greater Detroit area has the somewhat-Big Three. In the end, however, both regions are just people trying to make a decent living.

Let me tell you about Detroit's problems. Detroit is the victim of labor-union mentality: the idea that a non or semi-skilled laborer is extremely valuable to an industry.

Of course laborers are necessary for any industry. However, to place non or semi-skilled (i.e. factory workers) on some kind of pedestal is downright ridiculous.

If your contribution to an industry is something that can accurately be mimicked by any low-brow sort in India or China, then you are not valuable. You are only valuable to a company if your labor is irreplaceable. If a company can incur fewer expenses by moving operations oversees, then that's what that company should do.

Too few people in the greater Detroit area understand this. The operate under the assumption that if they put in their nine hours they somehow deserve outstanding healthcare and wages. The fact that others in other countries will do the exact same work for less proves the ridiculousness of such an assertion.

Why blame GM for moving plants to Mexico if the same work can be done at a cheaper cost? Contrary to what Michael Moore might think, such is absolutely the right move.

Moreover, it positions the United States as a country of wealth able to provide the services (too often neglected in the GDP figures) that make industries work. If you want to know what industries without the creative geniuses behind them look like, then read Ayn Rand's fictional (but all too true) novel Atlas Shrugged.

The bottom line is that Seattle is losing Boeing because they've made Boeing's business cost-prohibitive. Detroit is losing the Big Three because labor unions have done the same. You can only suck on a teet so long until you have to grow up.