I have no data available to back up my perception of the unemployment rate of Downriver homeowners, but I have to think it is in excess of 25%. The figures the government gives us does not consider those who have dropped off the roles and have just stopped looking (extensions taken under consideration). I have heard, and have reported in this blog, that National Steel is calling people back to the steel mill in River Rouge. Something to the tune of 700 people. That makes me wonder; The Allen Park “Unity Studio” is talking about an initial job creation of about 87 with more to come. As reported in last Sunday’s New Herald: “The project has already been scaled back to half of what was originally projected”. At that time they were talking of 3,000 jobs. My question is who is better at creating jobs? government or the private sector? If the Renaissance Zone is approved, we will get absolutely no tax dollars from Unity Studio. Is 87 jobs worth giving up that much? Some say that the dollars spent in the local communities will make up for it and that it is not uncommon for a 2 week project to generate $200,000 to the local communities. My only hope is that there is a lot of 2 week projects.

On another note, the battery plant in Brownstown Twp. is suppose to hire 100 employees. Does anybody stop to think that we have lost well over 400,000 jobs in the last few years. Mostly to exporting our jobs overseas. How do they ever think that creating these small jobs of 100 or less is going to replace what we have given away to support the economies of other countries. I would also like to know what jobs are being created here to supply the demand for goods and services that these now developing countries are requiring.

Tags: Downriver Homes.

Posted on Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at 3:36 pm and is filed under Homes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.