Comments on: Economic Storm Batters Ohio Town

60 Minutes' Scott Pelley Reports From An American Town In The Path Of An Economic Storm

[presjfk]

" The Germans are idiots and only know how to ruin companies. Posted by Credibility2"

Yeah, there aren''t any American companies going out of business adversely affecting our economy, the German or worldwide economy (sarcasm of course).

Are you kidding me? Have you been paying any attention to what is going on? American companies are responsible for the vast majority of our economic problems and the problems much of the world now faces, including Germany.

Hey genious, list the top exporter in the world. Did you say China? WRONG! The top exporter in the world is Germany. So much for stupid Germans.

Here''s another fact for you. Germany has had a trade and budget surplus almost forever. We arguably had 1 year with a budget surplus in the last 40 years, Clinton''s last year in office.

Corporations have been analyzed by psychiatrists and been determined to be psychopaths. American companies in particular care nothing about their country, employees, often nothing for their customers and care only about money even if they risk their very existence. Wall Street is full of the psychos or was before they ended their lives so to speak.

So you had a bad time with a German company. Well many millions more of use, some even your neighbors have experienced the very idiocy you spoke of from our American psychopathic employers, corporate America. These CEO''s and other should be pout on trial for trean and shot at sundown.

[kaleom]

I would like to respond to Screen name: Credibility2,
You wrote that the Germans had messed up an american company! Well who sold the American company to the Germans? And a response to the video, I totally agree with why ABX/DHL wasn''t bailed out like other companys like some car manf.?

[shirleyk5]

We can thank President Bush for this disaster in Wilmington and I am sure in other towns in America. Perhaps he would like to take some of his millions and help out these poor people who have nowhere to turn.

[keeblers69]

If you want a job you have to move, it is that simple. I have been through 2 downsizes and a coporate buy out. Yes I wanted to stay by my family but I also have to feed my family and I figured out if you want a job bad enough, then it doesn''t matter where it is.

[credibility2]

I worked for a company that was American and then purchased by the Germans, who ruined it because they didn''t know what they were doing and applied their marketing techniques that worked in Europe to those in this country, which didn''t. The Germans are idiots and only know how to ruin companies.

[ford555551]

Hey ceross64, who give free pass to these miss-managed corporation, the Republican. Sounds like you are a republican. Bush was never elected; He was selected by the Supreme Court in 2000 and rigged the election in 2004 in Ohio. I never called him President Bush because he was not legitimately elected. It is disgusting to hear when he talks about democracy and spreading democracy around the world.

[letters2mary]

I could not fight the tears. These are truly blameless, hard working people. Where will they go? Prayer alone (freely offered) won''t do it all.

[sebastian27-2009]

If nothing else comes out of the present state of affairs in this country, I hope that the lost habit of SAVING MONEY is restored to it''s proper place among our people.
In order for this to happen the government should abandon it policy of supporting SPENDING to the exclusion of SAVING.
The last ten or so years government policy ie. the Federal Reserve''s policies have resulted in LOW INTEREST RATES on savings. This discourages savers who see inflation eating up the meager returns on savings.
The savers felt that they had to turn to GAMBLING ie. the STOCK MARKET to try to stay ahead of the games. You can see how that has turned out.

[ceross64]

asdf

[ranaldo0]

My father has been employed by Airborne Express/ABX Air since the early 1980s (and is losing his job in the coming weeks). There are a few facts that the show did not cover. Airborne Express, prior to the DHL takeover, was not a profitable business. Airborne''s shipping business maxed in size in the mid-1990s before going stagnant; DHL is probably the only thing that kept many of these people employed this long. Also, ABX Air was only under contract to provide maintenance until 2011 -- many people were employed in a finite arrangement that had no guarantee of being renewed anyway. I''m no cheerleader for DHL, but to provide some balance, know that they have been paying time-and-a-half to at least some ABX Air employees (not sure about DHL) since last summer as incentive to stay, and the community has known for several months that the jobs were disappearing (or longer, if they had been paying attention to DHL''s business results -- they''ve been publicly reporting their troubles for some time). Thus, the impression that the rug has been ripped out from under everyone without forewarning is misleading. My dad saw this coming a few years ago and prepared himself, and I''m happy to say that my parents will be OK financially, whatever happens. I do feel especially bad for people who are supporting families or are midway to retirement. Tip: Be aware of what is happening in your industry and try to have a backup plan. Sometimes there''s no bailout except for the one you provide yourself.

[lost_america]

I wrote last week about how my company has sent my IT job to India.

We found out two weeks before Christmas.

Yesterday my wife got the word from her boss that he was letting her go because of the down turn. Ironically, part of the reason is that my wife (the company bookkeeper) has been unable to collect a huge debt one of their vendors owes. It seems that this national company outsourced their billing to India even though my wife spent hours on the phone talking to the folks over there she can%u2019t make them understand anything other than what is written on their cards.

My last day is looming, Cathy%u2019s was yesterday%u2026

I don%u2019t know what we are going to do.

God help us

[walt1944-2009]

Having been laid off, gone thru a bankruptcy that closed the company''s doors, and having worked at a company that was closed down so that the parent corporate management could enjoy their big pay and perks, I can relate to what these people are going thru.

You spend so many years of your life working for a company, coming in even when you are sick or when weather is downright nasty and dangerous and sometimes working on your own time at home on the weekends, and what appreciation does the employer give you?

A kick out the front door!!!

That is why there is a lot of truth to the saying:

NEVER TRUST AN EMPLOYER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAIL OBAMA!!!

[jaygeebee-2009]

This is bad.

[ceross64]

Sooo...one 15 minute segment on 60 Minutes makes a person an expert on the situation? If you aren''t truly informed on the subject matter, please keep your hateful and ignorant comments to yourself!

DHL purchased Airborne Freight. But as a foreign company, they were not allowed to purchase an airline in the US. So ABX Air was spun off and made into it''s own company, ie: the airline that was already in place on the air base, with DHL then becoming our largest customer.

60 Minutes failed to mention that a HUGE number of ABX employees are also losing their jobs as a result of the DHL fiasco. But ABX is already pursuing other business in an attempt to rebuild.

DHL poured needless MILLIONS into this place. And I''m not saying every cent was unnecessary, but much of it was. I''d love to have the money they spent just on yellow paint.

Much more to the story, too much to cite here. Do the research if you''re truly interested - the information is out there. If you''re not informed, you really aren''t entitled to make judgment calls.

This is not a story about Republicans or Democrats or obesity in the heartland, or the morality of casinos - it''s a story about corporate mismanagement and what happens to the little people as a result. It''s a story about ordinary Americans going thru tough times.

But here''s the real truth they barely touched on - we''re a tough breed in these parts...we''ll survive.

[otiswestfall]

Everything that is going on now was clearly predicted by Pat Buchanan 15 years ago. Read any of his books and you''ll wonder how he could have been so accurate and why his detractors were so critical of him.

[rockerrb]

I saw this show on TV and was deeply saddened by what has happened to this people. If the federal government doesn''t step in then it is likely that the town will have to build a homeless shelter and the families may have to give their children up for adoption. I think the employees should consider filing a class action lawsuit against DHL.

[blessed1959]

beaudine3

I hope your customers find out that you made this comment... I hope, for your sake, all your customers are skinny and hyper.. You are a disgrace to the human race... I''ll bet some of your relatives are overweight.. I feel sorry for them being related to you!

[texan76063]

I am a true supporter of Obama and change. I was born in Wilmington but that is about it. I have family there and know that ABX/DHL was a huge part of Wilmingtons survival. I think we all need to quit pointing fingers as to whos fault this is Republicans/Democrats..etc. We as americans need to start taking care of ourselves. We need to stop funding the rest of the world until we get ours back on track.There are alot of people not in the US that need alot of help but we need help here in the USA as well and I hope that one of the changes that I see in this administration is that we quit handing out money to other countries. HELP US !!!!

[ici2i]

Wow, this article has somehow attracted more ignorant people than usual. Of the 8,000 people employed by DHL, we have one guy saying they''re ALL fat and lazy based on a couple that were interviewed. We have another who thinks a one vote liberal majority can overcome a veto proof congress and another who doesn''t know anything about putting a kid through school. Well, at least they read newspapers but cognitive skills, logic, and perception interpretation are not high on the list of abilities.

[farmcutie22]

After reading the post made by jet8908, I agree with ya! I live 20 minutes away from Wilmington. I''m upset that people would bash as town they barely know. We are in everyone elses situation as well.