America on the road to perdition

James Doran

James Doran drives from Wall Street to Detroit to discover how the American Dream turned into a nightmare

After entering Michigan in the dark and spending another night on scratchy motel sheets, we find some light relief at a Michigan Wolverines football game. They are playing the Toledo Rockets in a local derby. Americans are crazy for football, stadiums packed to the overflowing every Saturday. The Wolverines stadium holds over 106,000, double the size of Yankee Stadium in New York. Crowds clad in bright yellow college colours rush through huddled groups of ‘tailgaters’, fans who prefer to sit outside the ground on lawn chairs drinking beer and grilling burgers in the parking lot.

Dirk Kaymike, 27, is one such tailgater who believes the failure of the American auto industry has been the most damaging aspect of the country’s economic decline. He drains his can of Budweiser and says: ‘This is not a new thing. It has been going on for years. Everybody is affected by the decline of the motor industry in this area. I do not think there is a single person in the metro Detroit area that doesn’t at least have a connection to somebody that is affected by it.’

The state of Michigan, home of the Big Three automakers – Ford, Chrysler and General Motors – was once among the most prosperous states in America. It is now among the poorest, and the decline shows no sign of abating. The day before we arrived, shares of GM hit a 58-year low and talk of bankruptcy or emergency mergers filled the local papers. Louise Schefler, 60, works for Ingersoll Rand, making heavy engineering equipment. ‘I’ve been in this job and a United Autoworkers Union member for 20 years, but I think I’ll be losing my job pretty soon. I think I’ll be among the next to go,’ she says. Her friend and fellow tailgater Cindy Martins, 49, challenges her gloomy outlook. ‘If you are a skilled individual and you’re prepared to diversify and seize any opportunity then things will be OK. Healthcare is very big in the state of Michigan today. You could take your skills and go into healthcare,’ she says. ‘I don’t want to work in healthcare. I’ve been 20 years in the United Autoworkers,’ Schefler counters.