Detroitification
Detroitification
This is a new word on me. I think of it as similar to stagflation and malaise, words used in the 70’s to describe the economy.
Having lived in Detroit and environs for most of my life, I have had time to study Detroitification close up.
I’m theorizing here; when you have large institutions, the kind that even the Bush administration say are too big to fail, there can be many different memes (Look it up. Young folks use this word all the time) running through an organization.
Lets start with abuse of power at the top. I guess the folks at the top don’t realize they are messing up. For many reasons, they are cut off from their costumers. Once in a while they will have access to cleaning staff, but you only get to clean for the boss if you have your mind right, don’t talk and do your job. Top management lives in a classic insulated bubble.
Then there are the petty dictators. They take the policy put out by the top guys (and they are mostly guys) and they try to make policy based on the flawed policy at the top. There are many forms of corruption in this pyramid, not all intentional, but practical in that the policies work for the short run.
Once policy, and all distortions there of, filters to street level (down from the metaphorical, and often physical) from the top floor it is easier to see problems. Most know on which side their bread is buttered, few complain. Those that do are marginalized as complainers.
Many consumers would have bought high mpg cars, if there had been any to buy. Those of us who bought Japanese cars in the 70’s because they were affordable and didn’t break down, soon learned that so called American car companies learned a thing or two and came up with more dependable models in later decades.
I say so called American cars because I live in the motor city and talk to people in the car industry, parts are made for cars all over the globe. Many car parts go into all cars, Ford makes a good drive train and they all use it. GM makes a good transmission, it ends up in Toyota’s cars.
I did start driving Fords again because relatives and neighbors worked at Ford. I soon found that contrary their reputation, Ford was making a car that lasted. Being sentimental people, we like to drive our cars for at least ten years in my family (we are also adverse to spending money on a new car, except for my father-in-law of whom it is said that he would buy a car rather than empty his ash tray). My old Subaru didn’t die of old age, but had to be sold lest my kids fall through holes in the floor. We sold it to a pizza delivery man. Japanese cars did have a rust problem. Car makers have taken Volvo’s lead and put an extra digit in the odometer so that the owner can keep track of miles over 100,000. I have not owned a car that didn’t make it to 150 thousand. My Fords and Mercuries have been worthy. The old soccer van saw untimely traffic accident death, when it had 150,000 miles on it.
Most of my friends are old enough to have lived through the economic downturn of the seventies. We found ways to fit into the old economy that was then the only one on the visible spectrum, though many felt like round pegs in square holes. Some found ways to create small business without money and some found illegal means to capitalize businesses that banks would not.
Now we are in another downturn, from all reports, worse than in the 70’s. Detroit and carmakers are getting a bad rap for being who they are, for not bucking trends, for making high milage cars, for having unions, for generally not being lean and mean. Mean, maybe, but not lean.
I understand this attitude a little. In traveling, I notice you get street cred just for being from Detroit. Every body drives the cars, though.
I’m speculating; we don’t have the tools in general lexicon to build a large institution. I have seen abuse of power in many places and many institutions, from religious to counter cultural as well as familiar mainstream ones. There are many ways to open a door on corruption.
I am leaning way into sociology here and don’t have a PH and d, but here is what I know: everyone must have a place at the table.
We are putting together a puzzle as we try to move along and everyone has a piece, even people who don’t know they have a piece, or people who have been maimed by a system that ignores their particular piece of said puzzle.
I don’t know how to build a table large enough for everyone to have a seat. I don’t know how to get someone to talk who has found that the best way to get along is to keep their piece of the puzzle hidden. Many theories of management have been devised to try to include everyone. Has any worked? Maybe I am too Detroitified to know. Fifty years of Detroitification has made me certain that all stakeholders must have a place at the table and since we are all in this together, everyone is a stakeholder.
(by the way, there are some neighborhoods in the city that are finding solutions to Detroitification. Ya’all come down and find out what is happening, my guess is you would learn something about bootstraps and regeneration, especially since the whole country seems to be heading in the Detroitified direction. Notable to me is that the Rouge River, a mostly urban watershed is healthier now than at any time in half a century.)
This is a new word on me. I think of it as similar to stagflation and malaise, words used in the 70’s to describe the economy.
Having lived in Detroit and environs for most of my life, I have had time to study Detroitification close up.
I’m theorizing here; when you have large institutions, the kind that even the Bush administration say are too big to fail, there can be many different memes (Look it up. Young folks use this word all the time) running through an organization.
Lets start with abuse of power at the top. I guess the folks at the top don’t realize they are messing up. For many reasons, they are cut off from their costumers. Once in a while they will have access to cleaning staff, but you only get to clean for the boss if you have your mind right, don’t talk and do your job. Top management lives in a classic insulated bubble.
Then there are the petty dictators. They take the policy put out by the top guys (and they are mostly guys) and they try to make policy based on the flawed policy at the top. There are many forms of corruption in this pyramid, not all intentional, but practical in that the policies work for the short run.
Once policy, and all distortions there of, filters to street level (down from the metaphorical, and often physical) from the top floor it is easier to see problems. Most know on which side their bread is buttered, few complain. Those that do are marginalized as complainers.
Many consumers would have bought high mpg cars, if there had been any to buy. Those of us who bought Japanese cars in the 70’s because they were affordable and didn’t break down, soon learned that so called American car companies learned a thing or two and came up with more dependable models in later decades.
I say so called American cars because I live in the motor city and talk to people in the car industry, parts are made for cars all over the globe. Many car parts go into all cars, Ford makes a good drive train and they all use it. GM makes a good transmission, it ends up in Toyota’s cars.
I did start driving Fords again because relatives and neighbors worked at Ford. I soon found that contrary their reputation, Ford was making a car that lasted. Being sentimental people, we like to drive our cars for at least ten years in my family (we are also adverse to spending money on a new car, except for my father-in-law of whom it is said that he would buy a car rather than empty his ash tray). My old Subaru didn’t die of old age, but had to be sold lest my kids fall through holes in the floor. We sold it to a pizza delivery man. Japanese cars did have a rust problem. Car makers have taken Volvo’s lead and put an extra digit in the odometer so that the owner can keep track of miles over 100,000. I have not owned a car that didn’t make it to 150 thousand. My Fords and Mercuries have been worthy. The old soccer van saw untimely traffic accident death, when it had 150,000 miles on it.
Most of my friends are old enough to have lived through the economic downturn of the seventies. We found ways to fit into the old economy that was then the only one on the visible spectrum, though many felt like round pegs in square holes. Some found ways to create small business without money and some found illegal means to capitalize businesses that banks would not.
Now we are in another downturn, from all reports, worse than in the 70’s. Detroit and carmakers are getting a bad rap for being who they are, for not bucking trends, for making high milage cars, for having unions, for generally not being lean and mean. Mean, maybe, but not lean.
I understand this attitude a little. In traveling, I notice you get street cred just for being from Detroit. Every body drives the cars, though.
I’m speculating; we don’t have the tools in general lexicon to build a large institution. I have seen abuse of power in many places and many institutions, from religious to counter cultural as well as familiar mainstream ones. There are many ways to open a door on corruption.
I am leaning way into sociology here and don’t have a PH and d, but here is what I know: everyone must have a place at the table.
We are putting together a puzzle as we try to move along and everyone has a piece, even people who don’t know they have a piece, or people who have been maimed by a system that ignores their particular piece of said puzzle.
I don’t know how to build a table large enough for everyone to have a seat. I don’t know how to get someone to talk who has found that the best way to get along is to keep their piece of the puzzle hidden. Many theories of management have been devised to try to include everyone. Has any worked? Maybe I am too Detroitified to know. Fifty years of Detroitification has made me certain that all stakeholders must have a place at the table and since we are all in this together, everyone is a stakeholder.
(by the way, there are some neighborhoods in the city that are finding solutions to Detroitification. Ya’all come down and find out what is happening, my guess is you would learn something about bootstraps and regeneration, especially since the whole country seems to be heading in the Detroitified direction. Notable to me is that the Rouge River, a mostly urban watershed is healthier now than at any time in half a century.)
posted by Ridgewriters at 7:22 AM
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