The city is home to the failing auto industry and is also the highest crime rate and recently voted the most dangerous city in America. This is more than just a simple bailout can fix, Detroit needs a complete make over. They need to remove all business taxes to attract new investors to the city, demolish whole sections of the city and start making capital investments in the infrastructure. There is so much that Mo-Town could offer the world if it just started to lose the corruption from top to bottom and started to turn around. I have faith that Detroit will change but it needs to take a step back from itself and try something new because making gas guzzling cars in the same fashion isn't going to save that place government bailout or not.
Foreclosure fallout: Houses go for $1
One dollar can get you a large soda at McDonald's, a used VJS movie at 7-Eleven or a house in Detroit. While selling a home for the amount of change most people could find between their couch cushions is unusual, some abandoned homes in Detroit sell for $100; vacant lots can be purchased for $300.
"My 14-year-old son could buy a block of Detroit property," said Ann Laciura, senior servicing specialist for the Bearing Group.
This house at 8111 Traverse in Detroit has been stripped of its siding, plumbing, copper wiring, hot water tank and furnace. Desperate to sell, the bank that owns it has put it up for sale for $1. (Bearing Group)
GO HERE FOR FULL STORY:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080813/METRO/808130360/&imw=Y
wha?? another sex scandal? what in the wide, wide world of sports is going on here?
To the editor:
Today's editorial "All gassed up in the Senate" argues that the CAFE standards (Corporate Average Fuel economy) imposed by Congress have not achieved a reduction in overall gasoline usage. Assumptions like this are at best difficult to prove and most likely not a proper correlation. What is clear is that the price of gas has not yet risen to the point which would force us to significantly modify our driving habits. It would be better to ask the question, how much more gasoline would we be using without CAFE?
Fuel usage in our country is, as economists would say, semi-elastic. Price thus far has only had a minor effect on usage. Perhaps that is because we live in a culture that requires us to drive often and the price of gas has not yet become a significant factor in reducing "elective" driving; those extra, non-essential trips we take without considering the price of fuel.
It is true that fuel imports have nearly doubled since the CAFE laws were passed in 1975. However fuel usage and imports would be even higher if CAFE was not in effect. One loophole in the CAFE standards requires a much lower standard for SUV's, pick up trucks and other large vehicles, very popular until recently.
Fuel usage will only go down when the price of gas causes us to change our driving habits and higher CAFE standards ensure that we use less fuel than we would with lower standards. The current public discourse over energy, however, leaves me with hope.
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