Budget Cuts Don't Work

[prole]

Slipping back into the Third World...

 

In Michigan, Deficits Defy Years of Cutting

 

LANSING, Mich. — Long before California resorted to i.o.u.’s to pay state bills, and before New York’s political insurrection made a mess of this year’s budget planning, and even before the recession pushed dozens of other states into their worst fiscal distress in decades, lawmakers here were cutting.

 

The cuts started in the 2002 budget year, when some prisoners were ordered to sleep two to a cell. Then came cuts to state colleges in 2003, and orchestras, zoos and operas in 2004. Medical payments for the poor were cut in 2005, followed by cuts to a youth prison in 2006. After that? More cuts — to prisons, crime laboratories, libraries and day care programs.

 

Last month, 100 state troopers were laid off, and the troopers left behind were told to drive around less to, of course, cut costs.

 

In all, even before thinking about the coming year’s $1.8 billion shortfall, Michigan’s lawmakers had — through cuts, accounting shifts and tax increases — closed more than $7 billion in budget gaps over the past eight years. While many states have experienced a year of pain or perhaps two during this downturn, Michigan is approaching nearly a decade of budget misery.

 

“The big difference here,” said Robert L. Emerson, the state budget director, “is that we have very little to fall back on. Michigan has already done a lot of the things that other states are only thinking about doing now. Every reserve fund in the state government has been drained long ago. Our rainy-day fund? There’s $2 million in there. That won’t last you 30 seconds.”

 

Just to cope with the most recent slipping revenue projections, Michigan is preparing to close eight prisons or prison camps (and despite the political risks, release some inmates as soon as they are eligible for release), as well as drop state support for dental and podiatric care, glasses and hearing aids for poor adults. State grants for doctors who agree to live in rural, underserved places and counseling for teenage parents will likely end, too.

 

On the revenue side, all sorts of notions have been entertained — Michigan, the new Hollywood? Michigan, the wind turbine state? — even an idea offered in a closed meeting this year by John Engler, the former governor, that Michigan ponder housing detainees from the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, raising perhaps $1 billion. (Mr. Engler, through a spokesman, declined to discuss the matter.)

 

Most people tie the state’s lasting fiscal woes to the collapsing auto industry, and by some measures, Michigan seems to be marching backward. While much of the country emerged from a downturn that started in 2001, Michigan never really seemed to do the same.

 

The state has cut 10,000 employees since 2000, leaving it with a staff comparable to the early 1970s. Annual general fund revenues, when adjusted for inflation, have shrunk in all but one of the last nine years. They are expected to be $6.9 billion next year, a level last seen in 1991 (and with the inflation adjustment, more like the 1960s).

 

Announcements of ever-shrinking revenue estimates have grown so common that some lawmakers complain they have little time to cope with anything else. --- more here: NYT 7/11/09

[Water]

as a born and raised michigander I have to say that the state is fucked for a while. The decline of the auto-industry really started hitting around 2001, even though SUV sales were strong, that was a spikey thing and overall sales from the big three were going south.

 

I don't know what the state is going to do. I have no idea how my girlfriends parents or my mom and stepdad will ever sell their houses there. My dad works with a good environmental ground water testing company and that will be solid well past retirement if he wants to keep working there, but that type of story is far and few between among everyone I know in Michigan..

I can't imagine moving back to anywhere around there, and not just because there aren't any mountains.

 

 

[Fairweather]

God forbid! State employees to suffer the same indignation as the little people in the private sector? Absolutely outrageous.

[tvashtarkatena]

Michigan is just one of the worst examples of an overall economic model that is unsustainable. Any model that depends on continued economic and population growth can't, of course, continue without collapse, and such collapses have historically been sudden and catastrophic. Under such a model, the inventory of public infrastructure grows to the point where it can no longer be maintained even by a growing economy. One hiccup in that growth the realization of just how far we are overextended hits home; then the shit really hits the fan.

 

Michigan also suffers from its overdependence on a very few, very large corporations, which are now collapsing in unison, as large, integrated systems that overly rely on short term drivers tend to do. This undiversified employment model matches those of many other relatively shitty midwestern locales with comparably shitty climates in the U.S.

 

The folks of Michigan need to look in the mirror, rather than towards Gross Point, for their care and feeding going forward.

 

Regarding the "Who's going to buy my house?" question, the answer is "Who cares?" Primary residences should be purchased to live in, enjoy, and be stewards of, not to speculate on.

[prole]

Regardless of whether or not the Fordist model is viable (the shift away from it has been going on for decades) people still live in the state of Michigan. Unless "looking in the mirror" means stalking game through the parking lots of ruined strip malls, home schooling (great!), and DIY appendectomies they're still going to need some services.

[Fairweather]

Michigan is just one of the worst examples of an overall economic model that is unsustainable. Any model that depends on continued economic and population growth can't, of course, continue without collapse, and such collapses have historically been sudden and catastrophic. Under such a model, the inventory of public infrastructure grows to the point where it can no longer be maintained even by a growing economy. One hiccup in that growth the realization of just how far we are overextended hits home; then the shit really hits the fan.

 

Michigan also suffers from its overdependence on a very few, very large corporations, which are now collapsing in unison, as large, integrated systems that overly rely on short term drivers tend to do. This undiversified employment model matches those of many other relatively shitty midwestern locales with comparably shitty climates in the U.S.

 

The folks of Michigan need to look in the mirror, rather than towards Gross Point, for their care and feeding going forward.

 

Regarding the "Who's going to buy my house?" question, the answer is "Who cares?" Primary residences should be purchased to live in, enjoy, and be stewards of, not to speculate on.

 

Well said. Especially that last sentence.

[prole]

Well said. Especially that last sentence.

 

The Turd of Approval, the Runny Stool of Excellence...

[tvashtarkatena]

One of my points was to highlight the danger of relying on a bunch of far away psychopaths who've never met you or anyone you know and who wouldn't give a shit if they did for your survival. Michigan is a case study at this point.

 

Too many Michiganers opted over time to become relatively unskilled insects in a colony run by an entirely different species so they could go to work, turn their brains and hearts off, collect a paycheck, and buy mostly shit they don't need. Basically, they became farm animals in someone else's pasture. Now it's slaughter time, cuz there's no more feed left.

 

Yeah, my heart goes out to them, but they are just the poster children for a much more systemic problem: one that extends to many of you cube monkeys out there right now reading this drivel will pretending to work on a bunch of crap you really don't care about at all.

Edited July 14, 2009 by tvashtarkatena

[olyclimber]

tyranny or freedom...its that simple people

[olyclimber]

[video:youtube]-Psfn6iOfS8

[Bosterson]

Yeah, my heart goes out to them, but they are just the poster children for a much more systemic problem: one that extends to many of you cube monkeys out there right now reading this drivel will pretending to work on a bunch of crap you really don't care about at all.

 

Anyone have a copy of John Sherman's essay about finding your "inner dirtbag," published in an old Patagonia catalog? (I have a photocopy of it at home somewhere, but I'm monkeying in my cube, busy reading drivel while pretending to work on crap I don't care about.)

 

It's good to keep around as a reminder, along the lines of "the things you own own you."

[prole]

Yeah, my heart goes out to them...

 

Why even bother with this pretense at all?

[Water]

Wow. What sweepingly broad generalizations about Michiganders. Yes, there are just so many factory assembly workers who turned their brain and heart off for money..yada yada yada.

What a load of fucking bullshit. The amount of people who don't work with the auto-industry but are impacted by its problems is huge, at least in Michigan-I can explain how that works if you don't understand how that works. But yeah, they're totally different than people who live in the rest of the country who grow up where they are born and apply for jobs that are available so they can work and consume. Right... Michigan is just SO unique in that sense. Sure, Michigan was dependent on the Auto co., and over time became more dependent on them than the Autos were on Michiganders. And obviously the Auto co's did a shitty job of playing business. Collapse the largest industry in any other state and see what happens-its not pretty-and it is especially bad in Michigan. But yes, this comes down to the stupid assembly line worker who just wanted money to consume. What a logical conclusion. Not like if that other species actually did a half assed job to develop and position their industry to evolve it could have helped at all..

 

It is clear you've never been to Southeast Michigan, or if you have, it was as a computer. Let me tell you a secret that people in Michigan are nearly creatures of another planet who don't have communities, families, dreams, hearts, and intellectual pursuits. All those assholes at the Michigan Jungian Society meetings I went to were such losers for having even ancillary jobs connected to the auto market or being even born in Michigan. Same goes for the Michigan Cacti and Succulent Society --unthinking heartless drones!

 

There might be some housing speculation in Michigan - but I'll tell you thats not really a place to point a finger, might try the southwest or florida for that. There are people who want to leave Michigan who can't. People who've lived there for decades, who aren't trying to speculate, who simply need someone to buy their house--even at a huge loss. Nobody is moving there!

My girlfriends parents would like to leave the state when the youngest finishes college. They'd like to move back to of all the flashy places - pittsburg - to be closer to family. Heaven forbid they'd want to sell their 2k sq ft cookie cutter suburb house (you can call it a "speculative mcmansion" for effect) for 3 kids + grandma & 2 cats they've been in for 15 years, in the area they've lived in for the last 30.

 

Your statement about what Michigan's population did 'wrong' is simply incorrect. If anyone is at fault for 'shutting off their hearts and minds' for money it would be those who made high level decisions for the Autos-assembly line workers did not march the companies off a cliff with poor designs, r&d, and response to foreign competitors.

 

p.s.: thanks for taking a shit on the humanity of most of the people I know. classy.

Edited July 14, 2009 by Water

[prole]

Anyone have a copy of John Sherman's essay about finding your "inner dirtbag," published in an old Patagonia catalog? (I have a photocopy of it at home somewhere, but I'm monkeying in my cube, busy reading drivel while pretending to work on crap I don't care about.)

 

It's good to keep around as a reminder, along the lines of "the things you own own you."

 

Don't have a copy, but these folks seem to be "finding their inner dirtbag" just fine without the manual. Dumbass.

 

[Bosterson]

Don't have a copy, but these folks seem to be "finding their inner dirtbag" just fine without the manual. Dumbass.

 

I'm sorry, do I need to write a disclaimer when I stray off topic? Do you think I think that people in tent hovels in Michigan are climbers who would be amused/inspired by reading Verm? Do you really think I think that the homeless are the overconsuming bloodsuckers of our society?

 

Now stop being a tool.

[olyclimber]

i've always differentiated between the "dirtbags" who choose that lifestyle by choice, and the "dirtbags" who live in situations they feel they did not choose/actually didn't choose.

[olyclimber]

[video:youtube]OGhsbRb_pqE

 

 

WHEN AN ANGRY GORILLA CRIES!

[prole]

Do you really think I think that the homeless are the overconsuming bloodsuckers of our society?

No, apparently that distinction goes to autoworkers.

[Bosterson]

i've always differentiated between the "dirtbags" who choose that lifestyle by choice, and the "dirtbags" who live in situations they feel they did not choose/actually didn't choose.

 

Is "dirtbag" a common term for referring to the homeless? I don't think I've ever used/heard it in a non-climbing context.

 

("Inner dirtbag" is, I think, a direct quote from the Verm essay (which is like two pages long). Conceivably it's titled "Finding Your Inner Dirtbag" or something like that. Basically, Verm finds himself with a job and a house and a car and decides he should work less and climb more.)

 

Anyway, to fix the confusion:

 

a dirtbag

 

[img:center]http://www.chesslerbooks.com/eCart/catalog/s/Sherman_Drinking_Climber.jpg[/img]

 

Prole

 

[img:center]http://www.clker.com/cliparts/d/c/1/a/11971190802048057250kubble_Wrench.svg.med.png[/img]

 

[tvashtarkatena]

Well, my statement was about members of the modern, over specialized workforce, post-merger/acquisition era, but, as a dumb-as-fuck Michigander potato-eater, you shouldn't be expected to catch that.

[prole]

Maybe his subscription to Orion ran out?

[olyclimber]

Stay classy.

 

For the win.

 

you, sir blah

 

 

these are phrases i seem to detest for some reason. not sure why.

[Fairweather]

Well, my statement was about members of the modern, over specialized workforce, post-merger/acquisition era, but, as a dumb-as-fuck Michigander potato-eater, you shouldn't be expected to catch that.

 

You been reading Wendell Berry?

[tvashtarkatena]

As a matter of fact, yes. I've got a fresh copy of "Given" at my bedside.

 

But that's not what's happening here. I'm just takin the piss as usual.

[Water]

Too many Michiganers opted over time to become relatively unskilled insects in a colony run by an entirely different species so they could go to work, turn their brains and hearts off, collect a paycheck, and buy mostly shit they don't need. Basically, they became farm animals in someone else's pasture. Now it's slaughter time, cuz there's no more feed left.

 

Yeah, my heart goes out to them, but they are just the poster children for a much more systemic problem: one that extends to many of you cube monkeys out there right now reading this drivel will pretending to work on a bunch of crap you really don't care about at all.

 

 

Sure you extended your statement out to cube workers, but you start with "Michiganers opted over time to become relatively unskilled insects". So are you referring to engineering, design, managerial arenas when you say they chose to become relatively unskilled (by being "over-specialized"?)? Perhaps they should have learned construction trades simultaneously? Or when you're speaking of unskilled, did you mean, assembly line workers who are metaphorically are being culled. They over-specialized? Please clarify. Perhaps you meant society's attitudes and approaches are fucked up and Michigan gives a preview of what can/may/will happen elsewhere. However to single out Michiganders as a people having made some sort of dehumanizing choice different from people elsewhere is disingenuous.

 

You are spot on about the worthlessness of over-specialization into the minutiae of corporate/modern workplace scheisse. It has it's place, science can to speak to it, but to the value for an individual and for society to focus so intently down narrow paths surely doesn't make one very adaptable. I myself am wired to be a generalist, and while it can be difficult to find a current at times-there are many currents to ride. This may be a society-wide issue, so speak it as such, no need to speak so mordantly about Michiganders.

 

The generalist knows less and less about more and more until finally S/He knows nothing about everything

 

The specialist knows more and more about less and less until finally S/He knows everything about nothing