Reply #37: More bad news for Michigan

[conflictgirl]

My father works for GM. He's 58, not quite old enough to retire yet but not at such an age that he could easily find employment elsewhere. There are a lot of people like him around here, and I worry about that.

I'll be the first to point out what GM has done wrong, particularly the way they've dragged their heels about fuel economy issues. Their design leaves much to be desired, too. At the same time though, I think the "quality" issue is a bit of a red herring - since we get GM discounts due to my dad working there most of my cars have been GM, and right now our household cars are 7 and 9 years old and still running well, only requiring the regular maintenance stuff.

Honestly my biggest concern in all of this is what these job losses will do to communities like mine, where GM is the only real game in town. I don't live far from Flint and saw everything that happened there. Even though I hold GM responsible for most of their own losses and have significant issues with their management (and ineffectual union!) and hold my state responsible for being too dependent on one industry for far too long, it's still hard not to feel worried about how this announcement will likely ultimately bring even more bad economic news for an already struggling state. :(