[Alberta's Child]

Many of the manufacturing jobs that left the Rust Belt in the 1970s and 1980s weren't "outsourced" to foreign countries -- they were "outsourced" to the southern U.S. The 1980s marked a great turning point in this nation's history, as we started seeing major Japanese auto manufacturers like Nissan and Honda open their first plants right here in the U.S.

Nissan has been employing 6,000 auto workers at its plant in Smyrna, Tennessee since 1983.

[american spirit]

I think you forgot about the maquiladora plants in Mexico that landed a lot of work that used to be done in the Midwest and although many southern states did lure in auto plants the fact is many communities were devastated after the factories left. That's why there was such a signifiicant exodus of people south from states like Ohio, Pa., Ill., etc.