Building a Better Rust Belt

[displacedyankeedem]

I saw Kerry's quote about how he thinks the best days of the rust belt are ahead of it, not behind it. I (as one who was raised in suburban Pittsburgh) heartily applaud this sentiment. We're tired of laying on the floor and having the economic shit kicked out of us by the rest of the world. The rest of the country seems to forget in large part that it was built with Pennsylvania and Indiana steel, fueled by West Virginia coal, fed by beef from the stockyards in Illinois, watered with beer from Missouri, and tied together by Michigan and Ohio automobiles. Obviously those glory days are over, and we've sat and watched while the sunbelt has exploded with growth and prosperity while we've kept losing and losing. It's painful to have to watch it, even fro a far.

My Dad lost his job, so we were forced to head South, and while it's not a horrible place, but it's not home either. I went to high school in a place that can best be described as a refugee camp for Northeasterners and Rust Belt folks, largely Ohioans, Pennsylvanians, Upstate New Yorkers, and Michiganians. The diaspora was incredible, almost made you forget where you really were. Here's the really amazing thing: EVERY single student who had been dragged down here didn't want to stay(and a large chunk of us have been here 4-8 years at least). The simple message being: We'd be thrilled to come home, if only there were jobs waiting for us.

Problem is, how do you go about rebuilding the place?

The Problems

-Right to work laws make the labor force up there highly uncompetitive compared to the non-unionized South.
-Land costs up there are generally higher than comparible sunbelt areas.
-Taxes are generally higher.
-The weather makes year round opeartions in some industries difficult.
-Outsourcing isn't making anything better.

The Few Bright Spots

-Education system is generally better than the sunbelt.
-Most major metro areas have major research universities attached to them.
-Land costs are still lower than those in California.
-There's still tons of infrastructure left from the good ol' days(patching some of it up wouldn't hurt though).

Any thoughts?

[blackcat77]

1. Indiana's economy has been in the tank for 20 years

If somebody could come up with a workable plan, they'd probably win in a landslide but so far, it seems like companies just come in, grab some huge incentive and then close the doors again a couple years later.

[displacedyankeedem]

4. IN: Example #1

United Airlines had a huge maintainance base at Indianapolis Airport, which was subsidized with taxpayer money. Now, nobody uses it.............

[starroute]

2. Are you familiar with Richard Florida's "Creative Class"?

A good introductory article
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0205.florida.html

Florida's own website
http://www.creativeclass.org/

It should give you a lot to ponder about what the rust belt need to bring people like you back to it.

[Michael Costello]

3. my take

I am not an expert on the particular industries. I know textiles moved from the unionized north to the right-to-work south, but now even they can't compete so it goes to Brazil and China. But actually, people might not even realize that China and Brazil have actually been losing manufacturing jobs for the past few years. A lot of what is happening is people are just being automated out of jobs, and new jobs are not springing up, in my view. I'm well aware of specific cases where jobs have moved due to cheaper labor, but a lot of jobs are being lost to automation as well (with a dearth of new jobs to replace them).

As far as right-to-work and so forth - I really think the solution is more unionization, everywhere. In the US, states are played against each other, and then, being as the world is divided into an industrialized world and a non-industrialized world, workers in different countries can be played against each other. I do think reducing hours (down to 40, then maybe 35) reduces unemployment, like France did. I guess you could say I'm very down on the system as it's going - more out of observation than emotion, I think.

I mean, in the US, according to the BLS (which puts out official figures like the unemployment rate, wages etc.), the average US inflation-adjusted wage is BELOW what it was 30 years ago. And that's not just the past 3-4 years, it was down before that as well. How well are things going when wages over the past 30 years have fallen for the average person. The American worker now works more hours per year than any worker in an industrialized country, even the Japanese currently.

I really think unions cushion the blows for these types of things. I really personally from all my readings think this morbid situation for the past 30 years is even going to get worse. But I can't tell the future so who knows. Keynes seemed to pull a magic rabbit out of a hat in the 1930s that fixed everyone's problems, for a while. Even liberals like Paul Krugman of the New York Times are saying not that we're in a depression or about to have one necessarily, but that all of the barriers preventing one from happening are gone. People don't think things like bank failures, the 1930s and so forth can happen, but it does. I mean look at the 1970s - super inflation, long lines to get gas and so forth. People don't like to anticipate bad things happening naturally, but I do not anticipate a sunny economic future for the US in the early 21st century.