Kokomo Indiana Faces Autoworker Doom

Kokomo, Indiana is ground zero for auto industry layoffs. Autoworkers say if nothing is done to save their jobs, the town is finished.

“It’s gloom and doom around here,” said Rick Ward, a union steward standing outside a Chrysler transmission factory at quitting time. “We’re just hoping it stays open. There aren’t a lot of other opportunities here in central Indiana.”

“We don’t know what to expect,” Cliff Pitcher, an electrician for Chrysler, said over a beer at a local bar. “If we go down, the whole town goes down,” said Pitcher.

If Delphi, currently in bankruptcy, and Chrysler, probably about to enter bankruptcy, closed their doors tomorrow, the town could be looking at an unemployment rate of 40%. Even with the two plants lumbering along the unemployment rate is nearly 20%.

“When Chrysler and Delphi do close, I don’t think we’re going to see people spending any money,” said Troy Black, owner of Kokomo Paint and Body. “We’re headed for a major hurt.”

With the prospect of both GM and Chrysler entering bankruptcy proceedings within the next month or two the prospects for a healthy economic future, in fact any future at all, for Kokomo and for towns like it seem dim to disastrous.

America is in for a world of hurt as it’s remaining industrial base crumbles further away during this new depression. While something will eventually emerge as the new America no one really knows at this time what that will be. The possibility of the “New America” being in a form that most present day Americans would object to is frighteningly real.

Our nations “leaders” appear to be still delusional. They are operating on the assumption that eventually things will return to “normal” and our economy which was built on the back of cheap energy will function just fine in an age of expensive energy and scarce resources.

Our leaders can not solve problems that they refuse to acknowledge exist.