Yes, I love Scarlatti's music.  I usually hear those pieces on violin.

The City of Detroit proper had close to 2 million residents in the 1950's.
Now it is estimated to be below 900,000.  Negative population growth in
every area of Detroit City except for Mexican Village.  We are moving the
dental school into that region this year.  Scheduled to open in January
2008.  I am chairman of one the fund raisers for the new school.

The suburbs are in negative growth mode as well right now.  Our economy
ranks 49th out of the 50 States right now.  Kids are graduating and leaving
the State.  Lots of mature people leaving as well.  Nothing on the political
horizon to change anything either.  With a democratic Governor, she is
proposing to tax services now to make up the short-fall.  I wish someone
would tell her that the State would have a lot more tax money if more people
were working here.  Adding a 2-3% service tax during a recession is only
going to make many services too expensive for more people.

The auto companies have been announcing cut-backs in labor for the past few
years.  Unfortunately, the local news people report the total number of
lay-offs in the industry with no explanation of how many of these people are
in other States or Countries.  So, people hear the big lay-off numbers and
panic.  Also, the news media will report the lay-off numbers again after a
couple of weeks (or more) not mentioning that this is the same lay-off
report from before, but the population will think this is even more numbers
of lost jobs and panic further.  There is a huge lack of economic confidence
in this area right now.  I am treating more dental problems related to high
emotional stress than I ever have previously.  People are generally in foul
moods and get angry over meaningless things all the time.

Don't plan on moving the Michigan during the next few years unless your
business involves mortgage foreclosures or similar enterprises.

Manufacturing is profit driven.  When the government wants to tax the plant
on its land holdings, its building, its building improvements, any
furniture, all the machinery, all the tools, all the raw material, and all
the labor, the plant begins to wonder how to make a profit.  Then, add in
numerous regulations about storing chemicals, raw products, shipping raw
products, manufacturing exhaust, etc., and the plant actually begins to look
somewhere else.

Close the big plant, and you not only put a bunch of employees on the
street, you stop buying cleaning supplies from the local dealer, you stop
getting production tools from the local tool shop, you stop ordering molds
from the mold maker, you stop filling vending machines in the cafeteria, you
stop ordering fresh vegetables from the market, you starve the local
restaurant where workers would stop for breakfast, the gas station relying
on workers to fill up on the way home closes shop, etc. etc. etc.

When your State thinks that big business is evil and they can do anything
they want to the big plants, the entire State loses.

Joel who?

carabelli