GM Close to Bankruptcy Filing

While General Motors and the other big three automakers have made plenty of insanely stupid decisions over the years and in some ways deserve to fail as a result, the impact on the larger economy will be severe if GM goes under. But what will be a bad recession for the larger economy will be a down right depression for many areas that rely on auto plants for their livelihood. The Washington Post has a story on one such area of Ohio and what could happen is terrifying to the local populace. Never in my life time do I remember economic matters so dire, and I was born when Truman was still president. GOP senators either do not get the picture or, more likely, do not care - after all, many of these folks are evil union members. Here are some highlights:

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LORDSTOWN, Ohio -- Elsewhere in the country, the question of whether the government should bail out U.S. automakers unfolds as a debate over political principles of free-market ideas and corporate responsibility. But here in the Mahoning Valley, people wonder: If General Motors goes down how will we get by?

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The GM plant in Lordstown is one of the few pillars propping up the sagging Rust Belt economy in the small towns and cities in this area of northeastern Ohio. In Lordstown, the plant accounts for more than 70 percent of the tax base. It employs 4,250, paying people some of the best wages around, and sustains an additional 10,000 or so jobs in the companies that supply the GM plant. And as in other places where an auto plant is an economic engine, it's not just auto workers who are worried, but restaurateurs, bar owners, grocers and nearly every merchant in town.

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"Not having GM here would be catastrophic," said Herb Washington, a former star base-stealer in Major League Baseball, who owns 21 McDonalds in the area. "You take that out of here, and what do we have to survive?" . . . We talk about leaving," said Bruce Thomas, 40, who puts in windshields at the Lordstown plant, "but everything I ever had came from GM." His wife works at the plant. So did his dad and her dad. So did two of her brothers. Her oldest brother worked at a supplier.

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The other issue: Who would buy the homes of retreating employees if the plant goes down? "My wife talks about picking up and moving," said Russ Pinkard, 41, a team leader in the trim department. "But no one can sell a house as it is. It will only get worse if the plant closes -- a lot worse."

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This week, Forbes magazine ranked Austintown, the Youngstown suburb that is home to the largest share of GM employees, as the fifth-fastest-dying town in America. In neighboring Warren, home to the second-largest contingent of plant employees, Mayor Michael J. O'Brien said 4,000 of 21,000 houses in the city are vacant.