Busing people out of Detroit and Michigan

[Patrick]

I have heard from a number of people that throughout the years, the poor Southern states would give people one-way bus tickets to Detroit in order to “cut� the fat. Is this true? If so, would this work for Michigan? Would it be easier to “bus� the unskilled weight to better off places?
Here is a quote from the following article:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ggwJmBwTB9LR-UQjgR2KUXZ3ZdFQD9BCURQO2

"So many people that's not working ... it's just been hard," said DeAndre Wallace, 19, an alternative education student at Detroit Cares Academy. "I want to go into the service. Go ahead and graduate and leave the city."

Would this be the best option for Detroit and Michigan to succeed? OR, are we just punting our problems onto another region of the nation as they did to us in earlier years?

[cloud_wall]

Whether people were given the tickets or paid the small amount they would have cost, the difference is that there was somewhere unskilled people could go and be almost assured of finding a decent job.

As far as I know, there's no place accessible by bus that would offer the same solution today.

[cloud_wall]

The one exception maybe being the military, which Mr. Wallace mentioned. And they'll provide transportation.

[stasu1213]

Henry Ford once had a train to go to the south and transport blacks and poor whites from there back to Detroit to work in the foundaries

[iheartthed]

It seems to me that enough people are finding their way out of Detroit on their own. Not sure why the cash strapped government would need to help.

NYC has a program where they will purchase a one way plane ticket to anywhere in the country for a homeless person who wants to leave. As long as they can prove that they have family/persons who will take them in at the destination.

[Retroit]

Why limit it to buses and to the U.S.? If people need jobs, maybe we should send them [[voluntarily, of course) to a country where government regulation hasn't prevented the creation of jobs. How about China, India, anywhere in Asia? The cost of a one-way airfare would be much less than unemployment benefits, welfare, etc.

[English]

Why limit it to buses and to the U.S.? If people need jobs, maybe we should send them [[voluntarily, of course) to a country where government regulation hasn't prevented the creation of jobs. How about China, India, anywhere in Asia? The cost of a one-way airfare would be much less than unemployment benefits, welfare, etc.

You're being facetious, but you're actually closer to the mark than you know. Throughout human history, there has been economic emigration. In the 19th century, the outflow was from Europe to the U.S. in the 20th, it's been the Third World to the First World.

In the mid-to-late 21st century, I'd be willing to bet that you'll have many more US immigrants in China. That is, if they'll let us in. Or maybe we'll be treated with the same... um, warm hospitality... that we provided to the Chinese railroad workers 150 years ago.

Ridiculous? Maybe. But your ancestors in 1700 over in Ireland or Russia or Italy didn't think their descendants would be making their way in the American wilderness, either.

[Red Devil]

This is a very interesting topic. Since China will still have roughly a billion people and hundreds of millions of peasants for some time, I don't see them taking in desperate US workers or a lot of foreigners period [[as we know, they had a problem with that in the 19th century). However, the very few with specialized skills China needs, Mandarin ability, and a willingess to do things the Chinese way may be able to find some interesting opportunity there or as part of a Chinese MNC. I wonder where else Americans could find themselves migrating to en masse this century...

[hudkina]

China is a relatively modern nation that has been around for thousands of years. It is absolutely nothing like the U.S. during the 19th and early 20th century. If China wants unskilled laborers, it will only have to look as far as its own rural areas.

BTW, I've also wondered about sending our state's most impoverished citizens to places like Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Phoenix, etc. Honestly, I would have no problem with it as long as they stay there. If those states want to take our jobs and companies, they should have to take our unskilled, unemployed, impoverished citizens as well.

[Retroit]

Oh, English, I am not being facetious, and I am well-informed of the immigrations that you mentioned. My grandparents came to the States for one reason: JOBS! And they came here poor, much poorer than most any "poor" person living in Detroit today. Of course they were from an era when hard work was the only option for feeding oneself, so the same initiative shouldn't be expected from a people bred on governmental welfare dependency.