Praying for global warming

Today I turned my rental car around in the parking lot of a shuttered Walmart.   Next to the former Walmart was a strip mall of which about 1/3 was occupied.  Next to the strip mall was a shuttered Steak and BBQ restaurant.  The kind of eerie thing about these abandoned properties was that they were not rundown.  This was not a 1960's or even 1970's looking decrepit strip mall.  Both the mall and the restaurant are very 1990's looking in architecture and layout.   As I drove further down this very typical looking suburban four lane road, I found closed down gas stations, convenience stores, and many restaurants.   

I have seen many examples of urban blight in my life and have also seen rural poverty.  But this was the first time I had seen (or perhaps noticed is more honest) very middle class suburban blight.   This vision of one version of America's future is in my home away from home these last two months, Michigan. 

This post is kind of a part 2 from my February post on comparative advantage.  I am having a very hard time envisioning a very bright future for Michigan.  At least New Bedford, the town in Massachusetts I wrote about in my Feb post, is near the ocean and surrounded by more prosperous regions.  Michigan has crappy weather a good half of the year and seemingly nothing very compelling around it either.   Those with the skills and education to get new jobs as the manufacturing continues its exodus will largely move to nicer climes.  Those left will perpetuate the blight.  Their only hope may be global warming.

Comments

[wil]

I was born and raised in Michigan. I left for Texas when I was 21. That was 1980. I saw the hard times even then and decided to live where I could find a better job and a warmer climate. My cousin still lives there. He owns his own business and has told me that things are worse than they ever have been up there. Including the crime rate, so stay safe and tell the last person to leave Michigan to turn out the lights.
You mentioned global warming. It's a really hot topic. Real or not? There's a pretty heated debate going on right now about just that at RiledUp. http://riledup.com/debate/313/global-warming-fact-or-fiction Take Care

[ShaMao]

Thanks for your message and the link Wil. I actually wrote a post about global warming "Hot Air?" back in Jan 08. I am still agnostic on it. As I think I said in that post, whenever I see public mania and Inquisition style intolerance for contrary viewpoints like I am seeing now with global warming, I grow very skeptical...