Before NAFTA, in the rural region that I grew up in....within fifty miles, there were hundreds of small manufacturing operations....some were just a dozen people....some were a couple hundred. Most people graduating high school could depend on a job being there and giving them some start in life.
Today, within that same circle...the bulk of those $10 to $15 an hour jobs are gone. The jobs that do still exist...are on the bare threads and the guy is likely lucky to make $10 to $12 an hour....for what was normal pay 20 years ago but the cost of living is double what it was 20 years ago.
Exactly. And Trump is going to dominate the Rust belt... I can drive 100s of miles from where I live in Pittsburgh all the way to upper MN and find town after town with the exact same story.
It has been the Republicans idiotic and nearly religious following of the Free Trade dogma, which is not conservative at all, that has prevented them from making the rust belt as solidly red as the south.
If Republicans don’t squander it, this election could be the beginning of the long long overdue realignment of these states for generations.