Six crazy ideas for saving Detroit

Can't believe people still cling to "GDP growth" as a true measure of anything.

Let's say you smoke like a chimney for 10 years, contract lung cancer and spend $1,000,000 on hospital bills.

That's $1,000,000 added to the GDP.

And for what?

GDP measures economic "activity," regardless of whether the activity produced anything or had any real benefit.

 

Convert some of those gigantic old factories into soundstages for Hollywood productions.

Then get creative in getting film and TV productions to move there. Hey, Christopher Nolan, want to blow up a real city for the next Superman movie? Have we got a deal for you!

The NYC in Avengers was a sound stage in Albuquerque. I think Detroit could pull that off. Particularly with the special effects intensive movies made now. Everything has to be green screened, so they need a place with a giant interior.

I also think it would be in Canada's best interests to have a thriving Detroit.

Why not create some kind of international free trade zone that would allow for free movement back and forth without all the checks and security precautions?

Or live in Detroit and you get free Canadian healthcare. I think what really hurts startups is the fear of not having insurance. So that wouldn't be a problem.

Build another bridge, or two, or three.

Seems like Canada wanted to build a bridge and Detroit, where the main crossing is privately held, waged a PR war against it. I don't remember if the bridge was built or not.

 

Or maybe because manufacturing cranked up due to World War II.

You've heard of that, right?

 

Because originally, they were meant for babysitters, only the Labor Dept. defined "Companionship" too loosely.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-leberstein/home-care-workers-minimum-wage_b_3518739.html

And Obama is trying to change it. But .... guess who's against it? Yep, the GOP.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/opinion/fairness-for-home-care-workers.html?_r=0

 

That graphic was from 1929-1941, which, except for 24 days, didn't count World War II.

But you knew that, right?

 

They tried the Hollywood thing. the former governor, Granholm, implemented it and for a while it did bring in a few productions, Then a new governor came in and gutted the whole thing.

and yeah, the second bridge thing was a mess and at the moment there is still only the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.

 

Another bridge is in the works. It's expected to be finished by 2020

Manuel Moroun, private owner of the Ambassador Bridge, filed several lawsuits in an effort to stop construction of the new crossing. The fight had been going on for about 15 years and he finally lost.

The fact that a bridge between two countries has been privately owned is ridiculous.

 

I also know a five-fold increase in defense spending began in 1939-1940. Well before we were in the war.

Like most things, I expect you didn't know that.

But, yeah, FLSA is solely responsible for that increase...

 

I said FLSA was an accomplishment of the New Deal. I said the increase in GDP from the graphic was a benefit of the New Deal. Two things.

Even taking the ramp-up in manufacturing into consideration, from 1938, when the FLSA was implement, and '39, when the ramp-up started, GDP still went up.

 

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3540

Yeah, pity the poor South. They couldn't exploit kids in mills anymore. But they could still treat blacks like shit.

 

Oops...didn't see that "u"

How about this for Detroit salvation -- FRACKING! Could it be the next North Dakota?

 

They certainly can't make the environment any worse there.