Calling a Code Red in the Rust Belt; governors in the nation's rust belt increasingly worried

Reuters ^ | 09-12-03

[dennisw]

Tariffs.

[dts32041]

Cut back spending, you know thinks like legislature sallaries and pensions, close government buildings like governor's mansions and legaslative buildings.

Cut taxes.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

The loss of our domestic manufacturing capability is a direct threat to our nation's security.

[Ronzo]

Nope, those jobs aint' comin back. Never. Not ever. And that's not a good thing.

It's too late to throw up a barrage of tarriffs. We undercut ourselves, and now we are paying for it.

I wish I could find some sort of "postive note" in all this, but everyone I know in manufacturing is either worried sick or looking for another line of work...like Wal-Mart greeter or landscape artist, which is about the only jobs left for blue-collar workers. (Well, there's the trades...they seem to be doing OK for the moment...)

But manufacturing isn't the only area that's shrinking irreversibly, same thing is happening on the tech & service sides now that big corporations have found out that India can do tech stuff as well as Americans, if not better, and it costs a whole lot less.

Yeah, this is one awesome recovery we're having....

[Uncle Miltie]

Does Willie Green really have two logons?

[viaveritasvita]

Being a Michigander, this makes me sick. All these crazy taxes and regulations and BS from Washington (NAFTA, H1B, outsourcing, China most favored trade nation!!!) is just suicide. Damn them!

[Tribune7]

Right to work would do wonders for some of these places.

[Brian S]

Does Willie Green really have two logons?

I know Wille Green on FR, I think of Wille Green as a friend of mine, I am no Willie Green...except in my dreams. :)

[Brian S]

Sorry Wille about the missing "I" in your name...damn foreign import keyboard. Really have to "smack" the ".... I" key... ;)

[mongrel]

I have a theory and I'll get blasted for this. But I think we're seeing just the beginning of a union and democrat organized media hype about losing jobs. And it looks like it's working.

I couldn't figure out why Democrats kept harping about the economy, when history tells us we will be in recovery by the time the election rolls around. But what I think they were/are banking on is that unemployment always lags behind a recovery. So now that the recovery starts, begin the incessant drumbeat of jobs, jobs, jobs and somehow make it look like it's Bush's fault. By picking up this theme and tying it to the overall economy, they make this claim stronger.

The reality is that NAFTA came courtesy of Clinton, and the current recession was as severe as it was because it was delayed by voodoo. The end of the Clinton boom years were propped up by accounting lies and dot-com hype.

The media is hyping a situation that has been slowly building for years as an opportune way to get a Republican out of office. Kind of like there was rampant homelessness during the Reagan-Bush I years, but it disappeared during the Clinton years. (Even though the numbers never changed.)

[MissAmericanPie]

Bout time someone became alarmed. Now the governors should think about making their states more business friendly.

[afraidfortherepublic]

But manufacturing isn't the only area that's shrinking irreversibly, same thing is happening on the tech & service sides now that big corporations have found out that India can do tech stuff as well as Americans, if not better, and it costs a whole lot less.

You are highly perceptive. Manufacturing is hurting, and the American standard of living will eventually be fatally wounded as a result. The large corporations are part of the problem because they are leading the charge to outsource overseas for cheap labor. I don't know what the answer is but I do know that I cannot continue to pay all kinds of insurance, environmental fees, benefits, etc. and still compete with government subsidized overseas manufacturing. Many of my customers are able to import a fully assembled product from overseas (and not just from Asia -- we're talking the Czech Republic and other parts of Europe) and have it delivered to their loading dock for less than the parts alone cost me. Technology that American companies spent years developing is copied and stolen and nothing done about it.

I heard from a local manufacturer last week that a Harley sub-assembly was outsourced to China without Harley knowing about it. They could not tell the difference on the final product, but Harley kicked up a fuss when they found out because they sell the concept of "American built" as part of their mystique. Most larger corporations would not quibble.

[dennisw]

Right to work would do wonders for some of these places...................


Get real! Right to work would do jack when a nation is being invaded by lowest cost foreign goods. Futile against the Chinese.

[ETERNAL WARMING]

The prospect of a jobless economic recovery has governors in the nation's rust belt increasingly worried that the thousands of manufacturing jobs lost during the recession and the tax revenues they generated are not coming back.


Last I heard they were parroting the "right to work state" mantra. How "successful" they all were. Dang fools. Everybody knows "Right to Work" is suicide for American workers.

[NewRomeTacitus]

There it is: the Clinton legacy. Give China everything it asks for and hope everything will turn out all right.
No, Man from Hope, you screwed the pooch. Allowing technology transfers under the aegis of the Department of Commerce was the equivilant of supplying Hitler with nuclear research during World War II. Now America degrades while other countries benefit from your Wilsonian actions.

Bill Clinton should not be immune to charges of high treason. Bush Sr., though, signed the GATT and NAFTA appeasements.

[RLK]

I couldn't figure out why Democrats kept harping about the economy, when history tells us we will be in recovery by the time the election rolls around.

-------------------------

It's good to see somebody is doing it. This nation is disintegrating and dissolving. There will be no substantial recovery.

[RLK]

Bill Clinton should not be immune to charges of high treason. Bush Sr., though, signed the GATT and NAFTA appeasements.

----------------------

The Bushs are overseeing the destruction of this nation.

[jimkress]

You want businesses to stay in the US? Stop taxing them. Taxes on business are a pass-through cost that does nothing but drive up prices. Eliminate business taxes, with a concomittant reduction in prices, and all will prosper.

[Ciexyz]

My city and state -- Pittsburgh and the State of PA -- can't wait to add more taxes to tax their way to prosperity. These people are clueless.