When I was in my 20s, manufacturing plants were everywhere. However, in the 90s, they were being phased out and this was celebrated by the media. We are in the information age and we are an information society, Tom Brokaw would parrot.
I know longer recognize America without massive small town manufacturing.
This has been devastating.
“I know longer recognize America without massive small town manufacturing.”
Manufacturing provided a pathway to a middle class lifestyle for many poorAmericans with limited education. A high school graduate from a dirt poor farm family could go to work in a factory as an unskilled floor sweeper or material handler, be trained to run equipment and eventually rise into management Even the skilled labor jobs provided a middle class living. All it took was ambition, hard work, common sense and some intelligence. A manufacturing plant in a small town also generated middle class jobs in the local community where the workers spent their wages. Trickle down economics was real.
Drive through these towns off the interstate highways today and see the devastating economic impact of three decades of purposeful deindustrialization.