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Presenting America's Own "Ghost Cities"
Zero Hedge ^ | 02/26/2016 | Tyler Durden

Posted on 02/27/2016 8:28:37 AM PST by Leaning Right

We’ve written quite a bit about the decline of America’s once proud manufacturing industry which is now but a shadow of its former self and long ago ceded its place in the public’s heart and mind to the service industry...And if it was already bad, it's getting worse.

(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: economy; ghostcities; manufacturing
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To: Leaning Right

Private sector unionism is dead. You can scratch that off of your list. It s a shadow of its former self.


21 posted on 02/27/2016 10:29:35 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va
Private sector unionism is dead.

Not dead, but very dormant. And that can lead to problems. If heavy industry came back to my neck of the woods (a rust-belt state), it would soon be followed by union organizers demanding all sorts of things.

At first, workers might put the union at arm's length, as they would be happy to just have a job. But in a few years the seductive promises of a union would start to have an effect.

And that would be no big deal, if the laws provided for a level management-union playing field. As in: Workers should have every freedom to join a union. Management should have every freedom to refuse to talk to a union, and permanently fire strikers. See who blinks first.

22 posted on 02/27/2016 10:40:41 AM PST by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: Leaning Right

The south would be the place for resurgent manufacturing. At lest that is how I see it.


23 posted on 02/27/2016 10:46:01 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va
The south would be the place for resurgent manufacturing.

Absolutely! And that would put some much-needed pressure on the north. You want those factories back? Then use the south as a model. Unfortunately, I doubt if the northern pol's would take that to heart. Today's votes are more important than new jobs tomorrow. But it's worth a try.

24 posted on 02/27/2016 11:00:30 AM PST by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: Leaning Right

A president that pledges to and does bring back American manufacturing, including jobs, could remake the dynamics of the political parties. It would be a great opportunity for a guy like Trump to wander around in the husks of old factories and talk about what he would do to get them producing again. The landslide would be on.


25 posted on 02/27/2016 11:51:11 AM PST by Defiant (After 8 years of Chump Change, it's time for Trump Change!!)
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To: Leaning Right

Zero Hedge is pessimistic, yes, but is there any arguing that what has happened to our economy has been catastrophic?

The American people, especially the ones over 40, realize that something is very very wrong with our economy.

They remember the days when a college grad didn't have to go job hunting for a year just to earn a living.

They remember the days when a young person didn't have to send out 5000 resumes just to get a handful of interviews.

They remember their parents having good, stable, decent paying jobs and were able to raise a family in middle class America.

Those days are gone, and it's very sad.

26 posted on 02/27/2016 12:52:21 PM PST by IDontLikeToPayTaxes
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To: central_va
True. But there are many factors involved in reviving American manufacturing. Among these:

- the government must get out of burdensome regulations and taxes

- the EPA must be brought to heel

- the local workforce must be culturally stable (i.e. plants moved away from Detroit MI and Camden NJ because the workforce become drug addicted, violent, and had little nuclear family structure)

- the goods manufactured must have a viable market, either domestic or overseas

- our government must adopt a sane form of "protectionism" that does not allow other governments to dump cheap, slave labor goods in our markets while they tariff the crap out of our goods sold to them

But the larger problem right now is that the global economy is in a Recession, and is bordering on a collapse that will make the Great Depression look mild by comparison. The Central Banks are largely responsible, but so are the world governments and markets that are based on the Central Bank Ponzi Scheme

27 posted on 02/27/2016 12:53:01 PM PST by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: IDontLikeToPayTaxes
They remember the days when a college grad didn't have to go job hunting for a year just to earn a living. They remember the days when a young person didn't have to send out 5000 resumes just to get a handful of interviews. They remember their parents having good, stable, decent paying jobs and were able to raise a family in middle class America. Those days are gone, and it's very sad.

We have Communist Marxists in power, and en economy that reflects this reality.

To use those terms in the past was labled as "stretching it" - but no longer.

28 posted on 02/27/2016 12:55:30 PM PST by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: Defiant
It would be a great opportunity for a guy like Trump to wander around in the husks of old factories and talk about what he would do to get them producing again. The landslide would be on.

Well said. If any Trump staffers check FR, this would be one post I'd want them to see.

29 posted on 02/27/2016 3:11:24 PM PST by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: Leaning Right
Thanks. I'd also like to see another one where he reaches out to black voters. Maybe compare the black family in the 1960s to today. Maybe talk about how Democrats kept blacks down after the civil war, and when they finally gave in on civil rights, they made sure to keep them poor so they would vote democrat. How black employment in the 60s compares to today. How entry level jobs are taken by illegal aliens. Promise to work to fix all those things. After 50 years, have the democrats really done anything for your people? If not, vote Trump. Freedom, economic prosperity, jobs for those to whom the American dream was promised in 1865, not 2010.

That sort of thing. Get 40 percent of the black vote, Dems won't know what hit them. And more important, follow up to do the things you promised to do.

30 posted on 02/27/2016 3:36:52 PM PST by Defiant (After 8 years of Chump Change, it's time for Trump Change!!)
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To: central_va
There's an old saying, "You are entitled to your opinion, but not to your own facts." Manufacturing output is up. "That's a fact, Jack." As a former mayor of New York City used to say, "You could look it up."

Why is manufacturing employment down? As I said, it's because of increased productivity. Better machinery, more capital investment per worker, and so on. Offshoring doesn't begin to explain the decrease in manufacturing employment, but it's a good narrative to get the voters upset, and never mind the truth of the matter..

In any sensibly run country, greater manufacturing productivity would be welcomed. It would mean lower prices for domestic consumers, and greater competitiveness in foreign trade. Unfortunately, our country doesn't work that way.

That if the factories were still here instead of being offshored there would be more jobs is one of those things that sounds self-evident but isn't. For many of those companies, the choice was between going offshore or going bankrupt. Either way, the jobs were going to be lost.

We are not being murdered by companies going offshore. We are committing suicide by driving companies offshore. Case in point: The Carrier company decision to transfer production from a plant in Indiana to a plant in Mexico. The news media noted that the Indiana plant was unionized. Now what kind of politicians did the union support with money from the members' dues? What kind of politicians did the union urge the members to vote for? What kind of politicians did the members vote for? Do you even have to think hard to answer those questions? You know full well they supported and voted for politicians whose policies are simply watered-down Marxism. The people whose investments made the Indiana jobs possible, that paid for the machines and the roof over them, are eeeevil people who should be punished -- part of the infamous one percent.

Today's Wall Street Journal noted that Nabisco was closing the world's largest bakery in Chicago and transferring production to a plant in Salinas, Mexico. The article noted that Nabisco had asked the unions for concessions equal to the savings it would achieve by shifting production. The union refused, threatened to strike, and brought in an official from the Bernie Sanders campaign (remember what I said about watered-down Marxism?) to speak at the press conference at which they threatened a strike.

The Journal also noted that Ford was closing plants near Chicago and building an engine plant in Mexico. The Journal pointed out that Illinois has among the nation's highest property and corporate taxes. Do you suppose that there just might be a connection between those taxes and Ford's decision to move from where they're not wanted to a place where they are wanted?

Nor is it only American manufacturers moving to Mexico. Among others, BMW, Honda and Volkswagen are also building plants in Mexico. Part of the reason is that Mexico has free trade agreements with 45 countries; the US has such agreements with only 20 countries. Exports from Mexico can easily enter far more countries that can exports from the US.

You want more jobs in the US? Fine. Then quit flogging this false narrative of "offshoring" being the problem, and start doing something about what's driving companies offshore. Getting the story right would be a good start.

31 posted on 03/04/2016 7:25:02 AM PST by JoeFromSidney (,)
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