I'm so sick of seeing articles about this town.  It's tough everywhere - have you ever thought about highlighting the problems in other cities? 

I think the idea was to go into greater in depth detail with one city. and they picked one with the most problems...with the idea of illustrating that this is as bad as it gets, to shock the complacent into seeing the true effects of disaster, and on the other hand to show others that it could be worse. And if Elkhart recovers, it will provide Americans with a glimmer of hope.

We are far from the happy optimistic stuff of course. But we are Americans.

"We will win through, no matter the cost!"

Unbelievable! What type of "human-being" would make such a comment. Everyone has been affected by the recession! Americans should NEVER get tired of hearing about other American families that are without jobs, food and shelter. The fall of the RV industry is a BIG DEAL because the community that is has affected is small in comparison to the world scale, but big to those who live in Elkhart, Goshen and surrounding cities. MSNBC HAS covered the crisis of financial strife in SEVERAL American cities. Elkhart just happens to be one of many! Have a heart...show some compassion, YOU WOULD WANT THE SAME!

GOD BLESS YOU KATE!

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I am a resided of Elkhart Indiana.Over the past 59 years of living here, I have watched and helped this town recover from several disasters and economic recessions.

Although Elkhart is known as the RV Capital, we had been known as the Band Instrument Capital and listed as “The most millionaires per capita”.

One thing I am sure of is this town has the stamina to recover. Elkhart has always came through adverse situations and emerged in the forefront of recovery well ahead of the nation. Elkhart is a bellwether of economic health, probably due to the overwhelming amount of indigenous entrepreneurial spirit.

“Leave¿”, now is when you want to come.

OH 'bye' the way should been by .my bad

Hang on, it will get worse. Obama promised everyone free money, housing,to get there vote. Still glad you voted for him?

sounds like it is an agenda thing for the media, this is how they operate, while bombarding you with the news of elkhart, they go look for another top story to drown this one out, and if not, they will keep telling you the same thing over and over again, and people are fed up with it. All they want to report any way is oppression,depression,recession,death destruction,hype,gore,and political correctness!!!!!!!!

I have lived in Elkhart almost my entire life and we have a very fine community, however, unfortunately our economy has always been very much up and down (much more than the national economy). I am glad to see the spotlight on our community which hopefully will lead to other industry opportunities for our area to replace some that were taken from us (Miles Labs-inventors of Alka-Seltzer that was moved to Puerto Rico due to tax benefits). Also, to all the people commenting about the plight of the workers in the state of Michigan, I understand and are sympathetic with you also, however, I am not aware of the government throwing billions of dollars to bail out the RV industry the way they are the automotive industry. We are having to basically go it alone without government help (for now) and we will succeed. Thank you.

This could possibly be just the tip of the a HUGE iceberg if GM goes into bankruptcy.

Well, many issues here and don't know where to start. I live near a big midwestern city and I thought that places like Elkhart was the norm, sub-par conditions in some places and those with no other means of support and education, what does one really expect of them in troubled times? Don't want to offend but in a nutshell, NO matter where you live, it's been vice, corruption and greed that has hurt those in need and sad to say it's part of world history to say the least. No one is immune to that. Also If most of these people don't have good education, and moral support from family and friends, don't expect them to change, they will still be complaining rednecks looking for handouts! Ok getting away from the overall point, sorry! Essentially what has happen is that corporate greed and political favors has put our economy in a strain, capitalism at it's worst! Where I live, nothing has really changed that much other then hearing it from the news or websites. Stop whining America and find the means and way to make things work, I'm sure if our ancestors looked upon us, they will simply laugh based on how easy we have it compared to them!!! When it's all said and done, wait another 50 to 60 yrs and it will happen again and Elkhart will still be the same!

I see someone mentioned GM above. I think it stinks that "WE" (government, people of the US, taxpayers) give tham a bail out because if not GM will go bankrupt and we will lose all of those jobs. Now thay are going to import cars from CHINA!!! What about saving all those jobs. I think WE should demand our money back and let them fold.

"At Kramerica, it's business as usual."

It is really sad to see what is happening here in Elkhart and all the other areas that have really been hit hard by the ecomomy. Like the mayor said in one of his interviews years ago we had lots of home owned bsuinesses. He said they have all gone away. I think it is TIME to RETHINK this idea of HOME OWNED BUSINESSES. Why not have a Plan B income that we build for ourselves from our own home that WE HAVE CONTROL over. We could do it on the side part-time or if we can't find a 9-5 job even do it full-time. The point is you won't lay off yourself. We could build something that has the potential for us here in the Elkhart area and something that could branch out into other areas of the US that haven't been hit as hard with the ecomny.

I know many have put their whole life into the RV or related industry and now have nothing. The key is to also look for something that you will have control over yourself that you can build right from your own home that can't be taken away from you again. That is my plan! Good luck to all of you out there.

Who cares! If you were making 2k a week and lived from paycheck to paycheck perhaps they should read the "Ant and the Grashopper." I suppose they can read. I have no sympathy for people who cause their own problems and they look for help from others. Should have saved when you had the chance!!!!

Sick of the story How about Mena AR still in rubble or Fargo/Moorehead still buried in sandbags and recovery. This is hardly the most seriously distressed community in the country. And will not be the last. Get over it and move on.

I do not know of any town that doesn't have tough now. The big picture has to be looked at as to why this economy has tanked. I think there is alot of blame to go around but I think you 1st have to look at government causing alot of the problem whether it is through taxation or regulation both have a negative impact on business. Government needs to get out of the way of privated enterprise. Next is unions, unions have driven up the cost of the end product so much that they cannot compete with other countries. This has been done through high wages and perks and the fact that it has turned the union worker into a very lazy individual. I was brought up on a farm and was taught to pitch in where ever help was needed. I went to work for Ford's when I was 21 & figured out real quick one of the main reasons auto's cost so much. The union worders goal was not the end product it was his own particular classification, which I also believe turned them into very selfish people. The other problem is greed for money and/or power. The other problem is us, we have a tendancy to go along with these programs because we think we will get something for nothing. This is false thinking somebody always has to pay.

I'm tired of hearing about everybody losing their jobs now. I didn't see any of you screaming when the manufacturing industry left or when IT industry had their jobs outsourced. It was OK for those people to lose their jobs but it is not OK when the car industry does. Well welcome to the real world. This is just one of many industries that have been hit hard but it is one of two that our govenment is trying to bail out so consider yourself lucky.

No more tears just grin and bare it like the rest have done in the past and survived.

Please stop talking about it. I was tired of it the same day it came out. There are problems like that in a number of smaller communities across the country.  It appears that it must have been a slow newsday for someone to assign this piece of junk. Pat

The residents of OF ELKHART are an inspiration to the rest of the nation by showing that no matter how bad thetime are or the economy gets ,even though most of them lost a lot. They are not giving up ,that there is hope, and that times will get better for them and the nation. We should all be proud of them and our nation. Times will get better, and sooner than we think.

As I said in a note to the Whitehouse, this town should be converted to making modular housing for those in need, Veterans, Native Americans, homeless, etc. The industry, tooling, and skills exist already. No mobile homes, no RV's, actual housing. Fund a project like that before reworking the rail system.

There's a rescue plan for a city and industry that will benefit society.

Dumb idea to pick a single city as a representative city. It seems to me that the US is a little too big for that. I recognize that Elkhart and its citizens are going through a tough time, but we all are. How are some of the towns in the southwest faring? The west coast? The southeast? As far as Elkhart goes, I think I have a pretty good handle on that city.

For those that still don’t understand why Elkhart was chosen. First of all Obama visited often, there are political connections there. As for a simpler analogy, if a person falls down ill, for no reason we usually check there pulse. Well Elkhart is that pulse for many reason. First and foremost Disposable income, if people in the country have it, Elkhart receives a certain percentage every year.

Elkhart credit markets are first to react or to recover. Ah yes the recovery be careful to keep your eyes on both hands of this magic trick. On one hand Elkhart is doing ok, you know the one owned by the banks that would never loan to the high risk market customer in the first place. And on the other hand the majority of Americans that live and work not just in Elkhart the ability to be given a chance at fair credit products that they can afford, not programs or products designed to make them pay for the Banks broken lending practices.

Banks Should no longer be allowed to create separate banks just to handle different class customers, this has lead to a very discriminatory practice, that manipulates the system and exploits people who can least afford outrages interest rates or terms that customers have no other loans or programs to chose from. This type of discrimination transcends Race, Age, and Sex. It is the one type of discrimination not protected from in the constitution directly. Equal access to credit would force lenders to take responsibly for the loans they give and blame no one else, or make others pay for their mistakes (except their investors) if the customer defaults.

Sorry (Main Street) Banks and Big Insurance Company (Bank in hiding), Open your books for the last 30 years how much did you suck out of hard working Americans. Now you are in trouble, cry me a river. I know what you would tell me if I walked in your office and said “I worked hard for 30 years, now I am in financial trouble I never set anything back for a rainy day.”

I would have been shown out to sidewalk, while a loud Laughter could be heard from your office.

NOLAGIRL and winsettz got it 100% right. 

I think Elkhart is the perfect example for our nation and I am glad to be reading about that beautiful town.

Hearing many of the stories from Elkhart convinced me more there are two Americas - ignorant, and informed. I'll let you decide where Elkhart fits, but you have to feel little sympathy for a population that seems built on an industry that clearly had no real future. How can an intelligent individual really be so naive to think that world truly sustainable? Well they can't. And if they can't, there really is no point in highlighting or pondering their self-created misery and plight as NBC has done. Now the citizens from Elkhart are grabbing onto yet another naive notion that Obama will save them. They're belly-aching that salvation hasn't come quick enough. Come on think will ya. That America really needs to stop their silly whining and fall in line with the other America that thinks. Period.

Gee, there is so much bitterness on the boards about the plight of Elkhart. As a taxpaying, small business owner here, I would like to say that the citizens of this town did NOT ask the president or anyone else to pitch us into the lime light and cause the rest of America to hate us. And it wasn't just RV - we supplied the auto industry, too, and they got a bailout that did no good! Miles Labs bailed for Mexico, and God knows what happend to the band instrument industry here - it is no more. For the record, it hasn't done anyone here a bit of good. Valmont is closing it's doors in June, Performance Plastics and Indalex just shut down, the big ones fell and us poor little suckers are still trying to hang on. Yet Air Force One keeps showing up (Notre Dame on Sunday) and costing this area more and more money. He could have at least paid the tab for his own security. No one I know believes ANY government official will save us. The President needs to stay in DC and do what work he was hired for -fix this mess in the whole country - and quit campaigning in Elkhart.