Posted on 05/15/2025 8:22:02 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Middlebury College professor Gary Winslett somehow got the Washington Post (of all places) to print this list of the key ingredients that caused the Midwest to rust and the South to boom. It reads like a greatest hits of HOTLINE themes:
Right-to-work laws, cheap energy, affordable housing, low-cost land, fast permitting, low taxes, immigration. That’s a powerful combination, and it has had big effects. In 1992, there was not a single auto plant in Alabama. Today, Alabama is the No. 1 auto-exporting state, producing more than 1 million vehicles a year. That’s brought more than 50,000 jobs and billions of dollars in investment. Instead of a Big Three, it has a Big Five (Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Mazda) along with an ever-expanding web of suppliers. This is just one example of the South’s burgeoning economic prowess…
Both parties prefer simple villains, whether it’s China or greedy corporations. But what’s needed isn’t more warm fuzzies about the way things used to be or globalization scapegoating. It is a clear-eyed approach that understands why companies choose Alabama over Ohio and that embraces the choices made by Southern states.
The new big government Republicans called National Conservatives (NatCons) want to expand unions and repeal right to work laws at the same time they say they want to bring manufacturing jobs back to the Midwest and the Northeast. These NatCons are supposedly smart people, but they have a hard time seeing that these are completely contradictory goals.
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It’s been great to watch President Trump bringing huge trillions of dollars worth of manufacturing jobs back to America. This is on top of equally huge expansion projects by domestic companies. Anybody want to make a bet which states will pick up the majority of jobs. I live in California and I don’t think we will get a single job. Gavin Newsome style business policies will guaranty this. We will get the lions share of homelessness, drugs, crime, and illegal immigration however.
I have to disagree. The US did lose manufacturing jobs, all over, since 2000. What happened was the blue states continued hemorrhaging jobs and industry while the red states realized there was a huge problem, scooped up what they could by scavenging desperate blue state industries but at the same time making themselves more inviting to industry to start there or move there from foreign countries. They used tax and regulatory incentives, changed their educational systems, worked with industry to get infrastructure built that could support them, and kept on top of things like continuous state recruiting. The blue states didn’t see a problem with industry disappearing until it was far too late, and they continue to bleed out.
Many people here ridiculed then-Texas-Governor Rick Perry for taking so many trips to woo business to the state. This is why he did that and his efforts, among many others, are why we have a vibrant economy and manufacturing sector in Texas.
My read of the statistics from the article is that many of the companies that started returning to the U.S. during Trump’s first term built their new facilities in right to work states rather than the more traditional union manufacturing states of the mid-west - which makes complete sense.
But I imagine there are still some advantages that rust belt states have, such as proximity to the raw materials needed for heavy industry.
I’d like to see that graphic overlaid with the color county electoral map.
>>”I have to disagree. The US did lose manufacturing jobs, all over, since 2000.”
Yes, I agree. The growth in sun belt manufacturing was largely a cannibalization of jobs from the rust belt rather than a net gain for the country as a whole. The factories that were more likely to relocate down south were predominantly light industry. I believe there are still some economic advantages for industries like the steel industry to be located in the Mid West.
Curious, was the “cannibalization of jobs from the rust belt” a result of poor tax or economic policy on the part of said rust belt? #Genuine
“The blue states didn’t see a problem with industry disappearing until it was far too late”
And they STILL don’t see a problem. Their “solution” is more and endless subsidies for favored industries that cannot stand on their own, more unions, more taxes, and more strangling regulations. Not one of those blue states has emulated the success formula demonstrated in the south.
Midwestern job loss isn’t something to celebrate. We need strong manufacturing jobs in those states too (I’m in Tennessee).
There are plenty of opportunities to pick up Midwestern voters here. Indiana for example is more red than is Alabama or Tennessee. (Ok Tennessee is skewed by the Memphis “gimme-dats” or Nashville elites’ “What to do about the little people?”)
“Today, Alabama is the No. 1 auto-exporting state, producing more than 1 million vehicles a year. “
manufacturing jobs fleeing the northern blue states and settling in southern red states has been going on steadily for at least three quarters of a century, including textile manufacturing and shoe manufacturing, both of which subsequently moved on to china, unfortunately ... even steel making has moved south ... lately it’s been autos and firearms manufacturing ...
“But I imagine there are still some advantages that rust belt states have, such as proximity to the raw materials needed for heavy industry.”
much U.S. steel-making has already moved to the south decades ago .. For example, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Nucor is the largest steel producer in the United States and a significant recycler of scrap metal.
two of the biggest low-energy ore-to-steel smelters utilizing the DRI process have been built in Louisiana and Mississippi ...
almost all the new auto manufacturing plants built by and being expanded by Toyta, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercede-Bentz and BMW are located in southern states ...
The Blue staters aren’t workers. They’re protesters who want the taxpayers to pay for everything for them. They assimilated the illegal alien way of life in America. The land of the big piñata!
| State | Statehouse Control by Party | Governor by Party | Congress |
|---|---|---|---|
| TX* | Republican (Senate: 19R-12D, House: 86R-64D) | Republican (Greg Abbott) | 27R-13D |
| FL* | Republican (Senate: 28R-12D, House: 85R-35D) | Republican (Ron DeSantis) | 21R-7D |
| GA* | Republican (Senate: 33R-23D, House: 99R-81D) | Republican (Brian Kemp) | 9R-5D |
| AZ | Republican (Senate: 16R-14D, House: 31R-29D) | Democrat (Katie Hobbs) | 6R-3D |
| UT* | Republican (Senate: 23R-6D, House: 61R-14D) | Republican (Spencer Cox) | 4R-0D |
| WI | Republican (Senate: 22R-11D, House: 64R-35D) | Democrat (Tony Evers) | 5R-3D |
| MI* | Democrat (Senate: 20D-18R, House: 56D-54R) | Democrat (Gretchen Whitmer) | 7D-6R |
| OH* | Republican (Senate: 26R-7D, House: 67R-32D) | Republican (Mike DeWine) | 11R-5D |
| NY* | Democrat (Senate: 42D-21R, House: 102D-48R) | Democrat (Kathy Hochul) | 16D-10R |
| WA* | Democrat (Senate: 29D-20R, House: 58D-40R) | Democrat (Jay Inslee) | 8D-2R |
* Indicates a one-party state (trifecta: one party controls both statehouse chambers and the governorship).
I think so. Michigan, Ohio, etc. are union states. Labor costs tend to be cheaper in southern states. Most, if not all of them are right to work states. State income tax is also an issue. Florida, for example has no state income tax as well as a relatively low sales tax. Gas tends to be cheaper in southern states as well.
Anyone who’s driven through South Carolina will immediately notice a significant drop in gas prices compared to neighboring states. They have lower gasoline taxes which is probably the main reason. All these factors bring the cost of living down which, in addition to right to work laws, allows companies to hire employees for less.
I wasn’t familiar with DRI. Just did a little reading on it. The only disadvantage I see mentioned is scalability. Aside from that, it’s more energy efficient and has lower start-up costs than traditional blast furnace plants.
https://smithgroup.ae/blog/f/exploring-the-pros-and-cons-of-implementing-direct-reduced-iron
What advantages do you see for those industries to be located there, rather than close to their end users in the Sun Belt?
Well, for some industries, like steel manufacturing, it helps to be close to sources of iron ore which are plentiful in the Great lakes region, rather than shipping them south, which can be expensive. For scrap metal mills, that’s less of an issue.
Float it down the Mississippi in that case. It’s still cheaper than dealing with any more blue state nonsense in manufacture than you have to.
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