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I live in and about Lewistown, PA and Lewistown is no worse than many old Pennsylvania Cities that have a large demographic of unskilled workers who have either quit school or did not go onto higher education. And the major new building in the middle of Lewistown’s main street is the Mifflin County Prison with the new court house within a short distance.

The companies that employ this demographic pay minimum or just a little higher that minimum wages. As soon as there is a negative economy, the assembly line jobs are cut and there are no other companies taking on the unskilled. And to say that the employees are dependable would not be the truth.

There are suburban homes in the area but they are homes of people either employed in State College or Harrisburg. The young people who graduate college go to other areas of the country for employment. This happens in Pottsville, Shamokin, Altoona, Huntingdon, Sunbury and other similar areas.

Lewistown is no different.

It's sad to see, but so much of Pennsylvania just seems like a relic of days gone by. Sort of like the old wooden grain elevators that are disappearing from the prairies.

One of the things that most people don't seem to understand is that it is damn near impossible to employ large numbers of people in manufacturing unless they are willing to settle for a standard of living that is substantially lower than that of most Americans. That's always the way it's been, and it will always be so . . . if you are going to make widgets in a factory, you have to be selling them to people who can afford to buy them. And you probably won't be able to afford them yourself.

I agree that Lewistown is much like many other towns in the vicinity, including Frackville and Shenandoah. Shenandoah, by the way, was at one time the most heavily concentrated population in the United States in terms of persons per square mile.