The Big Three have a history with Detroit that goes back a
century. Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), some divisions of General
Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and Chrysler had their beginnings in
Detroit, which shortly will fall into bankruptcy. Do the car
companies have any obligation to Detroit? Perhaps not ethically,
and perhaps not based on profit goals, but the metropolis
started to crumble long ago. There is no evidence that any of
the car companies made even the most modest efforts to help. The
only one of the Big Three that maintains its headquarters in
Detroit is GM. Ironically, its headquarters are in the
Renaissance Center that Henry Ford II helped build. GM's
headquarters was for decades downtown. Ford's is in nearby
Dearborn. Chrysler's is in Auburn Hills, much further away.
Neither city is wealthy, but both look like palaces compared to
Detroit. The car companies also do not keep large factories in
Detroit. Their U.S manufacturing is spread to places like
Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. Some production has been move