I was born, grew up and lived in Flint, MI. To say Michael Moore is wrong would be less than truthful. He's right, Flint isn't a pretty place, it doesn't take more than 15 mins of driving or looking at crime stats to see that.
The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant Made GM is a book that not only illustrated the life of William C. Durant and the creation of GM, but also the rise of Flint from a lumber town of a couple thousand to a leading industrial town of many tens of thousands. The story of Durant is littered with names people living in Flint would recognize, Sloan, Dort, Kettering, AC, Whiting, Whaley, Chevrolet, Dodge, Chrysler, Ford and the list goes on.
Durant was a 100% capitalist, almost the kind you would see in character in a movie. He wasn't ruthless with his workers, just his competition. Instead of beating them head to head he would buy them out, those that didn't sell faced a shrinking market with increased difficulty buying goods. Ford became his strongest competitor, however, Ford stuck with the Model T which he said, "They can have any color they want, as long as it's black." Meanwhile GM threw every new innovation on every new product line. Causing Ford to retire the less loved T after 10,000,000 sold.
Durant at one point was one of the richest men in America lost his GM to the DuPont family. He started Durant motors and invested heavily into the stock market. As fellow heavy investor, Joe P. Kennedy had the common sense to get out in summer 1929, Durant stayed in, pumping million after million in to sure up his stocks (which had worked before) only to see his assets whipped out and him left in bankruptcy.
The great man he was he didn’t flinch when his estate on the Jersey shore was sold off, he went back to Flint and built bowling alleys. Durant signed off on the first marketable fridge, the Frigidaire. The self starter, inflated tires, enclosed chassis and that list goes on.
Durant put Flint on the map by following the money, being a torn in the eye of Henry Ford, the DuPont brothers, and Wall Street, men as such don’t come around often, but when they do, they need to be remembered.
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