Back to the Motor City

A commenter a couple of days back asked why I was advocating a package for Detroit, why not just split $25 billion dollars over 500,000 workers and call it a day? I think many of the neo-Schumpeterians out there discount the value of organizations. There's real economic value in being able to pick up the phone and call Jimmy in Finance or Xia-Li in the Shanghai office. Just think how hard people work to develop a strong rolodex, and then multiply it by whatever. Policies, procedures, physical infrastructure, culture... there are values in corporations which shouldn't be tossed aside lightly.

This is not to say that Detroit doesn't suck and suck mightily. It should be allowed to die a sorry death in its own due time, but it shouldn't be forced into the arms of the grim reaper because of greivous bullshit on the part of Wall St, Washington, and, yes Virginia, Main Street, and not right now.