Imagine If - Flint Michigan - General Motors (gm)

Imagine If

Flint Michigan was the city responsible for the creation and up rising of the company General Motors (GM). General Motors was the top employer during the 70's and 80's. In the 1980's, Thousands of employees relied on numerous benefits for their families, and a more then average pay scale. Flint Michigan is a city located about sixty-six miles northwest of Detroit. There were several GM manufacturing companies; General Motors was easily the biggest employer in Flint. GM employed eighty thousand employees, and now there is roughly eight thousand still employed. The rise and fall of General Motors traumatically impacted the life of thousands of people living in Flint.

Before the closing of several plants, Flint Michigan was an iconic place known throughout the world. It was almost as if it was a fairy tale. Daily parades crowded the streets; Happy employees strutted home to healthy families. Basically the perfect city to raise a family is what could describe Flint Michigan. GM closed won eleven manufacturing plants, which left forty thousand people jobless. The whole town was shocked, GM was one of the richest companies in the world, and steadily making profits, so the closing of plants caught people by a huge surprise. An interesting fact from the movie roger and me was that, Health officials confirmed that the rat population in flint now doubled the human population because so many civilians were fleeing the city (Roger and Me film 1989). The ones who could afford to pay their rent could stay, and the local sheriff department evicted the ones who couldn't. Flint's crime rate shot through the ceiling, and a lot of families were left on the poverty line. A lot of laid off employees relied on social security to suit their needs and pull through the depression. One woman in the film roger and me solid rabbits as pets or meat in order to provide a living for herself (Roger and Me Film 1989). It just goes to show how bad the circumstances were during these rough times. Throughout this depression, at one point Flint had the highest crime rate in America. When people have no work it upsets them, when people are upset and confused they sometimes to stupid things like violence for example. Flint came up with the brilliant idea to hire laid off GM employees at the city jail. I guess in retrospect it is good for the economy, but at the same time it's hard for the prison guards to see their former co-workers in jail. So many people were moving that the local post office had to handle eighty two thousand address changes. People who were trying to re locate sometimes couldn't because all of the trucks and U hauls were rented out. After the GM lay off, Flint Michigan was the capital off unemployment in the United States. At one point money magazine declared Flint Michigan the worst place to live in the United States (Roger and Me film 1989).

Flint Michigan was able to fight off these economic down falls with the opening of countless