I agree on the oppy in Detroit. Huge workforce just waiting for jobs. Lots of cheap real estate for fabrication/manufacturing. Lots of existing infrastructure for shipping. Basically all it needs is money and someone with a good idea and balls.
Not hating, just repeating what I have heard recently.
As for reading:
What is the functional illiteracy rate in Detroit?
47% of metro Detroiters are reportedly functional illiterate.
http://www.detroitliteracy.org/faq.htm
My original comment was completely tongue in cheek. I don't actually believe that anyone in Detroit wants to move to NK. However, that "huge workforce just waiting for jobs" is going to be waiting a crap ton longer since we've out sourced damn near every job that a functional illiterate could do.
The education and training of the Detroit workforce is entirely different than virtually any growth industry today. The U.S. is still No. 1 in manufacturing but the industry employs a shitload fewer people due to productivity gains.
Those same gains means that the factory workers left are smarter/have more education than the previous generation. A high school diploma was fine for the guy pulling sheet metal off a stack and throwing it on a press. Not exactly what the company is looking for to run its robotic assemblies though.
Companies are more likely to locate in an area where the populace is trained. It's why the I-70 corridor in Missouri is attracting companies like Intel, IBM and Google for data storage. Yes, they're getting some incentives from the state, electricity is marginally cheaper in some locations there, but the primary factor for most of them was there is a trained workforce already in place.
Detroit isn't coming back until it can solve some really big issues that don't have any easy answers.