Coming Home to a Michigan County Where Life Has Shifted

A lot here in this writing that has been hashed and re-hashed since the oil embargo in ‘76 first woke up “Michiganders” to the idea that we didn’t produce cars and soybeans and watch them just disappear on train cars and call it a night. Read it all the way thru hoping to find something different since that time when I pumped gas not far from Bay City. But so much for my bonafides. I wonder if the writer could serve us all better, and this paper’s cred too, by giving us some context on that $80K bailout that supposedly saved a farmer. How does that compare with his needs? How does that compare with what he was expecting if the markets were not trumped? How does that serve the farmer long-term? How does that compare with any other subsidy he had received prior? A number without comparison is not relevant and it kindof reminds of other folks who are misrepresenters if facts.

Biden said something interesting at a rally with Cory Booker and Kamala Harris: he described himself as a bridge to their generation, called them the future. That's how I'm thinking. Trump and co, as well as the older Democrats aren't the best for dealing with what's happening unless they're aware of the average American's situation and care. Trump doesn't know or care, perhaps Biden can administer responsibly and leave the Klobuchars, Harris' and Bookers, even the AOCs something to work with.

Thank you Ms. Blumenstein for this excellent and much-needed reporting. I, too, grew up in Michigan in a small town whose fate, like Bay City’s, was tied to the boom-and-bust cycles of the auto industry. The folks you profile here read as many of my high school friends and neighbors, their stories seldom if ever told by the media for a national audience. With its distinct labor history in which at one time the state had the highest income per capita in the nation, largely enjoyed by those without college degrees who worked at “the shop,” Michigan is a case study of the ways the hard-working residents of the post-industrial heartland were left behind, and of an America that can now no longer afford to move forward without them.

I have a question for those who back Biden. Why do you continually back someone who wants to comply with the Republican agenda? I don't understand. Please explain to me.

Someone needs to come up with a way to bring manufacturing something, anything, back to the US. We used to make everything that we need and also what other countries needed. Companies were allowed to ship these manufacturing jobs to other countries that were eager to make things with cheaper labor and no unions. That was the downfall of this country. When I was in high school (freshman year) I worked with my mother as a sewing machine operator. Of course my mom didn't want me to be a factory worker, so she sent me to college. That was in the 80s when college was still affordable, before Reagan pulled the rug out from under us by phasing out the Social Security orphan benefit that paid for college students who had lost a parent. I had no income that would allow me to stay in school. I tried to work and do school for a few more semesters but in the end, I had to go to work full time. Thank goodness I knew how to type and file which afforded me the ability to go for office work and has been good to my survival. I feel for those who don't have skills that are marketable in today's world. We need politicians who would work to bring back manual labor jobs for people who can't afford $50,000 per year for college but have strong bodies that can make things and get paid for it.

Bailing out GM, one of the worst decisions made. GM doesn't care about it's workers, and neither does that union.

The Auto Manufactures made Detroit, Bay City, and Saginaw, the UAW made them what they are today

It must be noted that Michigan is atypical even among the swing states. Before Trump's illegal Ukraine scheme came out, Michigan was the only swing state in which Sanders was polling better than Biden against Trump. At that time, Biden was doing better than Sanders against Trump in every single one of the other swing states. The only point I am making is that we should not draw any conclusions from Michigan, which looks to be at present an outlier. That said, I don't think anybody knows who would do better against Trump in November. The present situation is unprecedented. Everything is extrapolation. We have no idea what Trump will do between now and November. We might even have a pandemic.

The choice is really very simple, between good or evil.

The numbers don't support the notion that Sanders supporters are actually suffering more than Biden supporters. For instance, the 2016 per capita average annual incomes of Sanders and Clinton supporters were virtually the same. Yep, they are suffering but so are the other Democrats. The differences must lie elsewhere. Some of those differences have been reported here: Self-identified "very progressives" are 92% white. Sanders supporters are more likely to be susceptible to conspiracy theories. Among Democrats, they are uniquely characterized in studies by the fact that, on surveys and polls, they agree with the statement, "I would like to burn society to the ground."

Biden will lose Michigan to Trump.

The farmer son needs to wake up - there is a way to save his farm and not be dependent on china for sales or trump for a bailout - mj, hemp and make the switch to organic. The 30yo GM plant worker nailed it - Andrew Yang was the only candidate who had a vision for the future. I see a bunch of people unable to adapt to a changing environment. Instead, they lament about how things used to be. I don’t have a solution other than what i do myself - no reproducing, and consume as little as possible. Which, ironically, is what organisms in the natural world do when the external environmental conditions are hostile. Perhaps we should look to bacteria and spirochetes on how to proceed here....

The view from Vermont is similar, long cold snowy winters for one thing, but that is changing, as the forecast by 2050 is that VY will be like southern VA and I am convinced it is too late to do anything about it and granted we don't have any huge plants that have been downsizing, okay, one outside Burlington, an old IBM plant that has changed hands many times, because the IBM exec was a big skier when it opened in the 60s. Fortunately, we are having friends over for dinner this evening and not that I would be watching the returns anyway (I am too exhausted with all of it to even care anymore) but the results in Michigan, this primary day and the November election after will say a lot.

This is the price of cheap goods at the Walmart and Costco. Americans demanded cheaper products and manufacturing responded. GM responded to Japanese companies putting out quality cars by giving us the Vega and the Hummer and going into the financing business (GMAC). The folks who flipped Red voted for a man known to have stiffed his own contractors, bankrupted Atlantic City, filed for bankruptcy 6 times and whose family, German immigrants, has never served in any military service in 5 generations. To the current administration, we are all just commodities and a well of financing for health, education and services for which they determine the price. Four more years?

Thanks for the interesting article and broad coverage. Tears my heart to see the agony of the many working families in Michigan (where I grew up), while the wealth and power of the few rises, yet people still get distracted by "straw dog" issues (gun control or not?) and then vote against their own interests. As Pete Townshend said in the The Seeker: "...as I ransack your homes, you wanna shake my hand."

This is nothing new. It's been happening for over 40 years. My husband & I grew up in Bay City, MI. He was hired at GM in 1978, was laid off many times, moved many times (worked at 7 different plants & some were out of state). Why is this just now news?

I grew up in Flint. This article is a touching and sensitive expression of my feelings. Since 1980, the essence of public policy has been to let markets solve all our problems. NAFTA came with the promise of millions of new jobs. Cut taxes and we'll get millions of new jobs and opportunities for our children. Shrink government and a magic hand will bring shared prosperity. Face it. We have 40 years of lived experience with neoliberal free-trade free-market public policies. That approach is exhausted socially, politically, and economically. I am a capitalist for one reason - to raise living standards and improve well-being in my community. I don't see that happening. We did better with a mixed economy. Other countries are doing better with mixed economies. It's time to rehabilitate the social contract, restore social cohesion, relegitimize the role of government, and develop effective national strategies to address the defining problems of our time.

Sometimes it all boils down to expectations, wants, and contentment. My father worked in the Coal mines. The industry was always laying off or cutting hours. He had only an 8th grade education and would not qualify for jobs in most factories. But he always saved as much as he could, spent only what was needed, and found contentment with what he had.

Thanks for the article. I was raised in Midland a short drive to the west and the economic dislocation in the area is tremendous. People want to work but there are no jobs left that pay well. Interesting that the only one doing well, the farmer, received essentially received "welfare" from the government and had no problems with it. I doubt our cut taxes and spend more President has any real interest in these folks either since his economic policies favor those that hold onto wealth v. those that create it.

What seems to be neglected by so many of the 'struggling' residents of these no-longer-prosperous towns and the home seekers that wait for 'affordable housing' in California is that there are places in the U.S. that have jobs and affordable housing. It's just that they'd rather sit and wait for someone to give them a job that doesn't require advanced education and a choice of housing that's 'affordable'.

GM and the US auto industry have their head in the sand. They are alive because of government bailouts. They can only produce big trucks profitably. And they blame the unions, China and foreign companies for their troubles. Look at the old shuttered GM NUMI factory in Fremont CA. It’s now resurrected as a Tesla factory and is bursting at the seams producing cool EVs. The company has a market value far greater than GM or Ford. And it’s cars are all American made. The irony is that GM actually had an electric car back in the 80s but killer it. It’s about innovation and looking forward, as opposed to clinging to a past. The problem is not trade deals or unions. The problem is management and it starts and ends with the leaders of GM and Chrysler.

The same struggle is apparent here in San Diego. The rents are astronomical. The young (in particular, but many others as well) work two and three jobs. One friend of mine works at a coffee shop, walks other people's dogs, and helps senior citizen friends who can pay her to do so. She and her husband have chosen not to have children and they hope to move to another country at some point. What sort of country is this - that permits multi million dollar homes and abject poverty (many with no homes here) in the same town without batting an eye?

I come from a labor-oriented family - my grandfather helped start the pipe fitter's union in Buffalo. It isn't that people aren't willing to work hard; it's that there are not sufficient decent-paying jobs and the decrease in the number of unions and the number of people who belong to them is a very large factor. Amazon's warehouse employees, restaurant employees, especially big chains, Walmart employees - all should unionize in order to have leverage and a negotiating process and strength. All of the people who do the work, who are not in the headlines, who are desperate - it's the only chance and change I can see that may make a difference in their working lives and ability to support their families.