Wither the car, wither Detroit, wither the whole North American economy

It's hard to figure out what happened to Detroit?  Afterall, the federal government has given it $2 billion, not including the multi-billion dollar bailouts given to the auto makers.  I guess it's a case of too-little-too-late; they needed the money before everyone panicked and headed for the hills.

Now the once-great metropolis has filed for bankruptcy.  I visited Detroit a few years ago and it was a mess then -- looked like that show 'The World After People', with entire neighbourhoods abandoned and derelict.  B and I had our 'Bonfire of the Vanities' moment driving back to Windsor around 11 p.m., when we missed the turn for the Ambassador Bridge and landed under it, surrounded by scary-looking, loitering black men.  Our lifetime-height-of-dumbness moment occurred when B got out of the car and asked directions...wait for it.....outside a liquor store!  How perfect was that at 11 at night?!  God was hovering above us because the least-threatening guy he approached told us how to get out adding, "And you better do it fast, man," dressed as we were in our evening duds and finery.  A serious "duh" moment. 

Driving around with friends, we were instructed not to look at anyone while trapped at a stoplight.  And this was in broad daylight!  "Oh yea, I forgot, you people can carry guns," I realized, after staring too long at one very weird black guy.  "Some of our neighbours have just disappeared overnight because they couldn't pay the mortgage," they also explained of folks in their affluent northern suburb. 

No $$$ assistance is being offered by Obama, in spite of the fact that he was the guy who crapped all over Mitt Romney when he said, "Just let Detroit go bankrupt."  Never gonna do that, he avowed!  There is precedent.  The feds bailed out New York City a few years ago, a town now thriving with all the money paid back. 

It's a fact.  A major part of the North American economy is tied to the auto industry.  We are our cars.  They are now pushing the re-set button; let's hope it works.