8/28/2023 0 Comments Rust belt americana![]() You paint a beautiful picture of the woof and warp of the Rust Belt economy. Some pockets of the Rust Belt felt the old ways would win out after the storm passed others realized they needed to change processes and technologies and work forces and moved to get globally competitive. Chinese are getting there as well in some heavy-industrial areas. Next thing you know, the Japanese and Koreans are making great affordable cars and we're buying steel from them. Their industries matured, and, as this happened, the strong developed blind spots. The Rust Belt (whether it was steel, automotive or other industrial) ruled the global manufacturing for decades. There is a unique evolution going on in that part of the country, but at least it's finally occurring. I drove through Janesville, wondering: Why is this man still in office? byīenji, an elegiac piece, my friend. It is the best hope, and the last resort. It's the cornerstone of the community's middle-class, the glue that holds local society intact, and the mark of aspiration for every kid in every local high school. To stand responsibly for a Rust Belt city, a Congressman must understand that the Big Factory is the local economy's lifeblood. His principled vote defied a basic political truth: that an honorable Congressman's first job is to keep open, come hell or high water, the Big Factory in his district. ![]() In 2009, Ryan voted against the GM bailout, out of conviction, and out of his own experience as a scion of Janesville's small upper-crust. In 2009, one of Congress's rising stars, Rep. ![]() General Motors closed its Janesville plant in 2009. ![]() Rockford, one of the pillars of the Rust Belt, had a half-dozen smokestack giants - now, not so much. Case and Johnson Wax are still there, fundamental and fearsome. In Kenosha, American Motors once reigned, until it died. In Beloit, the Fairbanks Morse empire was once so mighty that its semi-pro football team beat the Green Bay Packers. When I was driving I-90 last week, I passed towns with similar stories. When I lived around there, I had neighbors whose lives hung on the day-to-day, year-to-year, life-or-death sustenance and suspense that emanated from that Big Plant in Belvidere. When the Belvidere plant goes on annual hiatus to retool for the next year's models, a swath of America holds its breath, wondering if this “temporary” layoff will be two weeks, or two months, or maybe this is the year we all knew would come eventually, when Detroit (or Washington, or God) decides Belvidere just ain't worth the trouble anymore. When things go sour for Chrysler, they go sour for Boone County, for Rockford, for thousands of paycheck-to-paycheck workers in that 100-mile radius, for everyone who's vulnerable to every little tremor in the fortunes of the Big Plant in Belvidere. Once hired, at UAW wages, you can support a family (especially if the wife works), buy a double-wide, put the kids in parochial school, maybe even get a boat.īut here's the rub: The Belvidere plant has a dark side, its shadow touching every hamlet within its ambit, every school board, every mom-and-pop tool-and-die outfit, every restaurant and watering hole. If you screw up in school, or your rock band breaks up, Belvidere is there for you, holding out the chance of a decent living. I realized how it shaped the dreams of its employees' children, who were expected - if they worked hard in school - to go on to something better than their blue-collar parents.īy the same token, the Belvidere plant still serves, for the working stiffs of Boone County and beyond, as the big fallback. I saw how the presence of the Big Factory was both source and hindrance for community prosperity. But I didn't fully appreciate the immense power of the Big Factory in a Rust Belt town until I lived, during college and afterwards, in Rockford and Beloit, Wis.
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