Not your father's Detroit: the motor city virtually created the old era of shared prosperity. Today, the middle has fallen out of the economy. What can we do to get it back?(REPORT)

IN THE MID-1950S, THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY DECIDED that its most profitable car needed a new home. Up until then, Ford had been making Lincoln Continentals in Highland Park, the industrial enclave near the center of Detroit, where the company had first put down its roots. In 1957, though, it moved its Lincoln production line to its shiny new plant in Wixom, a rural community soon to become suburban, located about a half-hour's drive from Detroit. In short order, Wixom was not only turning out all of Ford's Lincoln models, but also that most classic of 1950s cars, the Thunderbird.

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