This is the “maiden” entry in my new blog, where I will be exploring the following issues:
1. The economic conditions of Michigan, and specifically southeastern Michigan.
2. How the LGBT market is reacting to these current economic conditions.
3. The impact of the LGBT market on the general economy.
4. The most effective means of reaching the LGBT market, and most importantly, how to engage that market.
For 16 years I have been in charge of the sales force at Pride Source Media Group. We’ve sold advertising to gay and non-gay business leaders in boom times and in bust. There are distinct patterns of behavior with our advertisers and our readers reactions to our advertisers. I will share my insights and analysis on this blog.
So here goes - hope you enjoy it, and I ALWAYS welcome your comments and feedback.
The greater Detroit area is suffering one of the worst economic downturns in the United States since the turn of the last century. Some experts predict that when the slide finally ends, Detroit-proper will be a third of its former size, large areas of the city will be returned to nature with city services discontinued, and our economy will be driven by high tech service industries and green products development - much of which is still on the drawing board or within the imagination.
I see a different future, based on my analysis of the macro-economic forces currently at work. First, the economic meltdown of 2008 shook the financial markets to the core. When Lehman Brothers failed last September, financiers were presented with the unthinkably reality that huge banks could simply disappear overnight. Our nation was forced to rack up enormous new debt to protect the financial sector, stimulate a stalled economy and bolster confidence in the markets - both on Main Street and Wall Street. Internationally, we saw emerging economies such as China as sources of new money, as we borrowed trillions of dollars.
Now, one year later, we see our leaders breathing a collective sigh of relief that the cataclysm of economic collapse has been averted. But - we also hear the call for “balance.” What does that mean?
Economic balance among the world economies, simply put, means that the United States has to spend less and save more, and the emerging economies have to save less and spend more. For 30 years the American consumer has been the market-of-last-resort for exports from China and the rest of the burgeoning economic world. Manufacturing has shifted from the United States to these cheaper labor markets, and the goods they produce have flooded into the hungry US consumer market. Profits from the sale of these goods have been heavily reinvested into increased production capacity - but it has not been invested in increasing the purchasing power of the very people who make these goods.
“Rich Americans” have run up their credit cards buying the cars, TVs , appliances, electronic devices, clothes and other consumable goods manufactured overseas. Now the party is over. We are being asked - in fact forced - to stop buying on credit, pay down our debts and start saving.
Which means we will no longer be the market that China and other emerging countries have enjoyed. Demand for their goods here will slow, and to maintain their internal rate of growth China and the other exporting countries will be forced to raise wages to create markets for their goods within their own countries.
As those internal markets develop, the manufacturing sector within the United States must rebuild to meet the domestic demand that will surely grow. Where we used to buy more than we needed - on credit - we will return to creating much of what we use more closely to home.
Detroit is perfectly positioned to become an epicenter of this new manufacturing-based American economy. We have the natural resources - especially water, the manufacturing capacity, the infrastructure, and after these years of economic battering - we have developed the flexibility and hunger to recreate our city and our region.
But just because it makes perfect macro-economic sense surely does not guarantee that this is our future. We have the obvious roadblocks - a history of inept local government and racial tensions leading the list. I hope that leadership will arise that sees our many challenges as a call to action, because I believe that if we are smart we can rebuild this city and recapture our mantle as THE world leader in making things.
I am absolutely convinced that any plan to rebuild Detroit that does not embrace the LGBT market as an integral part will not work - not just because it is cool to be hip to the gays, although that is trendy and appreciated. The LGBT market is a large economic subset, it is a leader in style, it is highly defined as a “community” (more on that in later posts), it is politically savvy and connected to other LGBT communities in other areas. In short, the LGBT market can contribute enormous resources and talent.
Check out this story by a Detroit News auto writer who attended a same-sex wedding of a co-worker, and realized the injustice of no marriage rights here in Michigan. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20090917/OPINION03/909170373/1386/OPINION0308/Cadillac%20s%20CTS%20Sport%20Wagon%20weds%20fun%20and%20function
The new Detroit paradigm will take time, creativity, intelligence, commitment and cooperation. LGBT people can - and must - contribute all these factors, and the region’s economic and political leaders must embrace everything our community has to offer.