Originally Posted by pitfield
How do you go from zero to glory and back to zero inside 100 years, just how disposable can a culture be?
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Endless land, virtually endless opportunities. Detroit was a powerhouse of manufacturing prior to the auto industry; but that really defined "boom" times... People don't stay when they can go elsewhere.
Once the highways were created; the great White Flight happened which created a massive urban sprawl. People crave land, and land is what they got by leaving the city. Over a period of 5 years, the city's population dropped from 2.2 million (in the city limits) to 1 million without the state losing people. These days, we are losing people by the tens of thousands each month. The expertise found here is both aging, dwindling, and departing our universities in unbelievable numbers. As a state, we are looking at over 20% unemployment right now.
There is a lot of rich heritage here; but its almost forgotten.