Wednesday, October 10, 2012

After the Factory




4 comments:

  1. Looking forward to this ... did you hear what the fellow said? "It's the people." I work in Detroit and I see the signs of people rising up amidst the ruins, creative, smart and committed. Jay Leno can joke about Detroit, but he'll never understand what it's like to be in a place where they haven't surrendered to his brand of gloom and cynicism.

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  2. I am very excited by this topic. More details please, e.g. when released, is this cinema piece?

    Post industrial urbanism is a major issue for the next 50 years. We now have the ability to manufacture far in excess of our demand. What will become of the over capacity? Very interesting indeed!

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  3. Here's the official website list of screenings. It appears to be making the rounds of the Midwest.

    http://afterthefactoryfilm.com/screenings/

    I completely missed the pre-release press for this, but it's been written about in the Detroit papers. I'm hoping it makes it to San Francisco.

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  4. Regional economies have balances of payments, too.

    Regional income (from outside the region) has to be sufficient to pay for whatever the region wants to import.

    Most regions import almost everything they consume. Hardly any region is broadly self-sufficient anymore.

    The primary ways of earning income from outside your region are exports of manufactured goods/materials, extracted natural resources, or farm products. Pensions, savings and government transfer payments also contribute to local income, as does local provision of education or medical care to consumers who come from elsewhere and bring money.

    Just about every job in retail and local services and most related to distribution are import-related.

    "Post-industrial" means less money for stuff we want to buy from outside our region.

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.