The University of Michigan can hide its head in the sand and think that defeat by Ohio State is the worst that can happen (and Ohio did defeat us Saturday). Professors with tenure are in good shape, and Ann Arbor is still a nice place. We are still happy. But since you asked, a few bits of evidence about things in general outside the Academy:
- The local food pantry's Christmas fund raising letter says last summer they ran out of food for the first time in their history. Demand for social services is way up in other agencies.
- Many middle class people lost jobs in the past year not only because of the auto industry, but because Pfizer, a major pharmaceutical corp., closed its Ann Arbor research labs leaving hundreds unemployed. There's no quick fix to this.
- Local schools have less money because the state is broke. Things may get worse.
- House prices are dropping. A realtor told us that for the first time the real estate companies in Ann Arbor had to teach agents about foreclosure, which has essentially never happened here before. Now owners who find themselves unable to make payments can't so easily sell and get out of their debts, as once was the case.
- Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the US, or did last time I checked.
- And I just had a conversation with a young man (driver for the car dealer where my car is being serviced today) who said he was born in Poland and is now going to leave the US and go live in Europe. Having immigrants go back is a very big symbol for our country. He was in the military, and had lots of complaints about how a great number of things are being mishandled by the Government. I couldn't contradict him.
PS -- Ann Arbor is luckier than Detroit. Besides inner city poverty, they've just been named "most dangerous" city. And their leaders seem to be spending more energy disputing the label than fighting crime.
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