Yes, jobs that pay above minimum wage is what built the middle class, 40 years ago we paid what things actually cost to make without using slave labor.
There is no slave labor. That would be false.
The Chinese workers make a decent wage.
And if anybody truly believes that Apple uses slave labor and those same people go around making slanderous, false and dumb claims, why in the world would they continue to use any Apple products or even come to an Apple forum?
These people obviously have zero principles in addition to having a very loose relationship with the truth and facts.
Please watch the documentary "American Factory" don't worry it almost no subtitles. You should educate yourself to the differences to what American workers have compared to their direct counterparts in the same company's factory in China. I don't expect an apology from you but educating you would be my reward.
Perhaps the reasons you site are the same reasons American industry started becoming Asian industry 50 years ago.
100+ years ago America became the industrial center of the world by being the best and the cheapest. Now that title belongs to Asia -- and mostly to China. When and only when we can reclaim being the best and the cheapest will industry be returning here.
The type of industry you mentioned will never come back to the USA. Here's an example, I walked by a store on lower 5th Ave here in NYC, men's jeans were $15 a pair. When I entered the 7th grade in 1970 I recall buying a pair of pants in my small hometown's Main Street those pants were $15, Forty some years ago we bought things made by union workers, people I knew parent's were union workers, we all had what we needed to get by and be happy. Today consuming is non stop, the price of clothes, and other manufactured things are way below where they should be to encourage more consumption. The way this is done is to keep labor cost as low as possible and that is only possible in countries which are controlled by dictatorships like China. Every time you buy an Apple product a dictator gets his wings.
So can we assume you neither own nor use any Apple products? If you do, why? If not, why are you here? Very simple questions but I'm thinking you won't answer them. Or are you just a hypocrite who doesn't put their pocketbook where their ideology is?
First Mac was the 6100 Power Mac, bought new in I believe 94'. Most recent purchase, Apple Watch white ceramic series 5, 2019 iMac 3.7 ghz, owned various iPads and the original iPhone bought on launch day at the Soho Store in NYC. in 2007. Never owned a PC, or non Apple cell phone. I got my employer in the 90's to switch from PC's to Macs. Unlike so many of you I do not defend Apple's missteps and am openly critical of bad products and software because they are all a bunch of grownups who make tons of money and can handle it. I have also introduced many friends to Apple over the years including those "beleaguered years". I am openly politically progressive and would be a perfect fit with most people who run Apple. I also like to argue with people with libertarian ideas who I consider selfish, only concerned about money and self wealth. Proud New Yorker who speaks his mind and has super low tolerance for bullshit artist such as that low class street thug from Queens who scammed this country's country bumpkins into electing him as President. Any other questions?
So you don't mind a dictator getting his wings when you buy Apple products, or Chinese made clothing, or Chinese made appliances? Would you mind paying double for your Apple products if they were truly made in America by a unionized workforce? See, that's the trouble I have with your kind of attitude. You rage against capitalism for its so-called exploitation of workers yet you continue to participate in the very evil you rage against. Where's the line you won't cross? The arbitrary line between the rich and the middle class has been set at $250,000.00 by liberal politicians. If you make more than $250,000.00/yr you are part of the problem and you need to have your wealth confiscated and redistributed.
...
If you don't think that Chinese workers are not exploited you are being naive. Check out the documentary "American Factory" to understand the work "culture" differences between us and them. Then tell me that 72 hour work weeks should be acceptable for anyone.
....
There is, somewhere, a happy medium.
In the 70's we had unskilled laborers in a steel mill making $70K (in 1970's $!) with 13 weeks vacation, guaranteed job security and cadillac level healthcare and pensions. And, that was one of the contributing factors to losing our steel industry to Japan. (It wasn't the only factor, both management & government contributed as well. But it was a major one.)
Conversely, 70 years before that workers in the exact same physical mill were working 12 hour days 6 and 7 days a week at subsistence wages, no benefits and in highly dangerous, even deadly conditions.
Both extremes are wrong. Globalization is today widely criticized. But it does appear to be the great leveler because ultimately over the long run, like nature, the free market is always in charge.
My home town was the largest textile city in the world 120 years ago. Children lost limbs in the weaving machines, my grandmother told me many years ago when she was a child the city's river changed color each day depending which color dye was used by the factories. By the 1950's textile companies started moving to southern states in the USA where people were even less educated and would work for even less money. By the time I was a teenager the empty century old mills were being demolished I knew I had to leave since there was no way to make a living wage if I remained. I can't speak of the steel industry but I assume competition was their undoing when war demolished Japan rebuilt its steel industry with more modern and efficient factories it gave the US some serious competition. Blaming workers wages on killing the industry is standard excuse for company owners. Globalization is the same formula but spread over continents rather than cities, states or regions within one country. Manufacturing jobs will continue to grow where modern factories are being built and supplied by a non-union, and with little options population.
Yeh, that was the main excuse -- along with "We taught them how to do it" or "They stole the technology".
The truth is that it was a team effort. To address your point: the mills were a hundred years old using hundred year old technology. Instead of investing in keeping them current they were wasting the money paying exorbitant wages and the rest went to exorbitant dividends to the stockholders (which is why I'm so opposed to Apple doing the same).
Another factor, as I mentioned were unskilled labor making exorbitant wages and benefits because their unions, while very much needed 100 years ago, had gained too much power. Every time they shut down a mill it lost more customers to Japan.
Another factor was bad management. Not only did they fail to invest their enormous profits to modernize the mills, but they stopped fighting the unions -- partly because every time the unions got a raise so did they. (and #MeToo!)
And finally, the EPA may have put the final nail in the coffin. At the time the rivers were black and slimy with polution. Nothing but some cat fish could live in them. And near the plants the air was literally almost unbreathable -- it smelled like an old man fart. But, when Pittsburghers saw the smoke belching from the stacks they would say: "Those are good paying jobs!"
But basically, Japan won because of hubris. We thought NOBODY could out compete US. We thought we were unbeatable. And, we got fat, lazy and sloppy while Japan was lean, hungry, smart and hard working. Unfortunately, I don't think we learned that lesson because today we are using the same excuses to blame China ("they stole it", etc., etc., etc....) while chanting USA! USA! USA!
Yes, jobs that pay above minimum wage is what built the middle class, 40 years ago we paid what things actually cost to make without using slave labor.
There is no slave labor. That would be false.
The Chinese workers make a decent wage.
And if anybody truly believes that Apple uses slave labor and those same people go around making slanderous, false and dumb claims, why in the world would they continue to use any Apple products or even come to an Apple forum?
These people obviously have zero principles in addition to having a very loose relationship with the truth and facts.
Please watch the documentary "American Factory" don't worry it almost no subtitles. You should educate yourself to the differences to what American workers have compared to their direct counterparts in the same company's factory in China. I don't expect an apology from you but educating you would be my reward.
Perhaps the reasons you site are the same reasons American industry started becoming Asian industry 50 years ago.
100+ years ago America became the industrial center of the world by being the best and the cheapest. Now that title belongs to Asia -- and mostly to China. When and only when we can reclaim being the best and the cheapest will industry be returning here.
The type of industry you mentioned will never come back to the USA. Here's an example, I walked by a store on lower 5th Ave here in NYC, men's jeans were $15 a pair. When I entered the 7th grade in 1970 I recall buying a pair of pants in my small hometown's Main Street those pants were $15, Forty some years ago we bought things made by union workers, people I knew parent's were union workers, we all had what we needed to get by and be happy. Today consuming is non stop, the price of clothes, and other manufactured things are way below where they should be to encourage more consumption. The way this is done is to keep labor cost as low as possible and that is only possible in countries which are controlled by dictatorships like China. Every time you buy an Apple product a dictator gets his wings.
So can we assume you neither own nor use any Apple products? If you do, why? If not, why are you here? Very simple questions but I'm thinking you won't answer them. Or are you just a hypocrite who doesn't put their pocketbook where their ideology is?
First Mac was the 6100 Power Mac, bought new in I believe 94'. Most recent purchase, Apple Watch white ceramic series 5, 2019 iMac 3.7 ghz, owned various iPads and the original iPhone bought on launch day at the Soho Store in NYC. in 2007. Never owned a PC, or non Apple cell phone. I got my employer in the 90's to switch from PC's to Macs. Unlike so many of you I do not defend Apple's missteps and am openly critical of bad products and software because they are all a bunch of grownups who make tons of money and can handle it. I have also introduced many friends to Apple over the years including those "beleaguered years". I am openly politically progressive and would be a perfect fit with most people who run Apple. I also like to argue with people with libertarian ideas who I consider selfish, only concerned about money and self wealth. Proud New Yorker who speaks his mind and has super low tolerance for bullshit artist such as that low class street thug from Queens who scammed this country's country bumpkins into electing him as President. Any other questions?
So you don't mind a dictator getting his wings when you buy Apple products, or Chinese made clothing, or Chinese made appliances? Would you mind paying double for your Apple products if they were truly made in America by a unionized workforce? See, that's the trouble I have with your kind of attitude. You rage against capitalism for its so-called exploitation of workers yet you continue to participate in the very evil you rage against. Where's the line you won't cross? The arbitrary line between the rich and the middle class has been set at $250,000.00 by liberal politicians. If you make more than $250,000.00/yr you are part of the problem and you need to have your wealth confiscated and redistributed.
...
If you don't think that Chinese workers are not exploited you are being naive. Check out the documentary "American Factory" to understand the work "culture" differences between us and them. Then tell me that 72 hour work weeks should be acceptable for anyone.
....
There is, somewhere, a happy medium.
In the 70's we had unskilled laborers in a steel mill making $70K (in 1970's $!) with 13 weeks vacation, guaranteed job security and cadillac level healthcare and pensions. And, that was one of the contributing factors to losing our steel industry to Japan. (It wasn't the only factor, both management & government contributed as well. But it was a major one.)
Conversely, 70 years before that workers in the exact same physical mill were working 12 hour days 6 and 7 days a week at subsistence wages, no benefits and in highly dangerous, even deadly conditions.
Both extremes are wrong. Globalization is today widely criticized. But it does appear to be the great leveler because ultimately over the long run, like nature, the free market is always in charge.
My home town was the largest textile city in the world 120 years ago. Children lost limbs in the weaving machines, my grandmother told me many years ago when she was a child the city's river changed color each day depending which color dye was used by the factories. By the 1950's textile companies started moving to southern states in the USA where people were even less educated and would work for even less money. By the time I was a teenager the empty century old mills were being demolished I knew I had to leave since there was no way to make a living wage if I remained. I can't speak of the steel industry but I assume competition was their undoing when war demolished Japan rebuilt its steel industry with more modern and efficient factories it gave the US some serious competition. Blaming workers wages on killing the industry is standard excuse for company owners. Globalization is the same formula but spread over continents rather than cities, states or regions within one country. Manufacturing jobs will continue to grow where modern factories are being built and supplied by a non-union, and with little options population.
Yeh, that was the main excuse -- along with "We taught them how to do it" or "They stole the technology".
The truth is that it was a team effort. To address your point: the mills were a hundred years old using hundred year old technology. Instead of investing in keeping them current they were wasting the money paying exorbitant wages and the rest went to exorbitant dividends to the stockholders (which is why I'm so opposed to Apple doing the same).
Another factor, as I mentioned were unskilled labor making exorbitant wages and benefits because their unions, while very much needed 100 years ago, had gained too much power. Every time they shut down a mill it lost more customers to Japan.
Another factor was bad management. Not only did they fail to invest their enormous profits to modernize the mills, but they stopped fighting the unions -- partly because every time the unions got a raise so did they. (and #MeToo!)
And finally, the EPA may have put the final nail in the coffin. At the time the rivers were black and slimy with polution. Nothing but some cat fish could live in them. And near the plants the air was literally almost unbreathable -- it smelled like an old man fart. But, when Pittsburghers saw the smoke belching from the stacks they would say: "Those are good paying jobs!"
But basically, Japan won because of hubris. We thought NOBODY could out compete US. We thought we were unbeatable. And, we got fat, lazy and sloppy while Japan was lean, hungry, smart and hard working. Unfortunately, I don't think we learned that lesson because today we are using the same excuses to blame China ("they stole it", etc., etc., etc....) while chanting USA! USA! USA!
"To address your point: the mills were a hundred years old using hundred year old technology. Instead of investing in keeping them current they were wasting the money paying exorbitant wages and the rest went to exorbitant dividends to the stockholders"
The mills were not companies that traded on the stock market, the wages were not exorbitant either. My parents in their 90's told me recently they were all temporary workers and worked double shifts when the opportunity arose to to offset the weeks where they worked less than 20 hours per week. The mills employed French Canadian immigrants many who spoke little to no English and were originally farmers. Your theory on why these mills closed is not accurate and is unfortunately widely accepted as history fact. It pains me to hear Americans attacking blue collar worker as being responsible for the flight of manufacturing in the USA while it was corporations looking for higher and higher profits as the reason. Who's side are you on, your neighbors or some faceless corporate management?
Yes, jobs that pay above minimum wage is what built the middle class, 40 years ago we paid what things actually cost to make without using slave labor.
There is no slave labor. That would be false.
The Chinese workers make a decent wage.
And if anybody truly believes that Apple uses slave labor and those same people go around making slanderous, false and dumb claims, why in the world would they continue to use any Apple products or even come to an Apple forum?
These people obviously have zero principles in addition to having a very loose relationship with the truth and facts.
Please watch the documentary "American Factory" don't worry it almost no subtitles. You should educate yourself to the differences to what American workers have compared to their direct counterparts in the same company's factory in China. I don't expect an apology from you but educating you would be my reward.
Perhaps the reasons you site are the same reasons American industry started becoming Asian industry 50 years ago.
100+ years ago America became the industrial center of the world by being the best and the cheapest. Now that title belongs to Asia -- and mostly to China. When and only when we can reclaim being the best and the cheapest will industry be returning here.
The type of industry you mentioned will never come back to the USA. Here's an example, I walked by a store on lower 5th Ave here in NYC, men's jeans were $15 a pair. When I entered the 7th grade in 1970 I recall buying a pair of pants in my small hometown's Main Street those pants were $15, Forty some years ago we bought things made by union workers, people I knew parent's were union workers, we all had what we needed to get by and be happy. Today consuming is non stop, the price of clothes, and other manufactured things are way below where they should be to encourage more consumption. The way this is done is to keep labor cost as low as possible and that is only possible in countries which are controlled by dictatorships like China. Every time you buy an Apple product a dictator gets his wings.
So can we assume you neither own nor use any Apple products? If you do, why? If not, why are you here? Very simple questions but I'm thinking you won't answer them. Or are you just a hypocrite who doesn't put their pocketbook where their ideology is?
First Mac was the 6100 Power Mac, bought new in I believe 94'. Most recent purchase, Apple Watch white ceramic series 5, 2019 iMac 3.7 ghz, owned various iPads and the original iPhone bought on launch day at the Soho Store in NYC. in 2007. Never owned a PC, or non Apple cell phone. I got my employer in the 90's to switch from PC's to Macs. Unlike so many of you I do not defend Apple's missteps and am openly critical of bad products and software because they are all a bunch of grownups who make tons of money and can handle it. I have also introduced many friends to Apple over the years including those "beleaguered years". I am openly politically progressive and would be a perfect fit with most people who run Apple. I also like to argue with people with libertarian ideas who I consider selfish, only concerned about money and self wealth. Proud New Yorker who speaks his mind and has super low tolerance for bullshit artist such as that low class street thug from Queens who scammed this country's country bumpkins into electing him as President. Any other questions?
So you don't mind a dictator getting his wings when you buy Apple products, or Chinese made clothing, or Chinese made appliances? Would you mind paying double for your Apple products if they were truly made in America by a unionized workforce? See, that's the trouble I have with your kind of attitude. You rage against capitalism for its so-called exploitation of workers yet you continue to participate in the very evil you rage against. Where's the line you won't cross? The arbitrary line between the rich and the middle class has been set at $250,000.00 by liberal politicians. If you make more than $250,000.00/yr you are part of the problem and you need to have your wealth confiscated and redistributed.
...
If you don't think that Chinese workers are not exploited you are being naive. Check out the documentary "American Factory" to understand the work "culture" differences between us and them. Then tell me that 72 hour work weeks should be acceptable for anyone.
....
There is, somewhere, a happy medium.
In the 70's we had unskilled laborers in a steel mill making $70K (in 1970's $!) with 13 weeks vacation, guaranteed job security and cadillac level healthcare and pensions. And, that was one of the contributing factors to losing our steel industry to Japan. (It wasn't the only factor, both management & government contributed as well. But it was a major one.)
Conversely, 70 years before that workers in the exact same physical mill were working 12 hour days 6 and 7 days a week at subsistence wages, no benefits and in highly dangerous, even deadly conditions.
Both extremes are wrong. Globalization is today widely criticized. But it does appear to be the great leveler because ultimately over the long run, like nature, the free market is always in charge.
My home town was the largest textile city in the world 120 years ago. Children lost limbs in the weaving machines, my grandmother told me many years ago when she was a child the city's river changed color each day depending which color dye was used by the factories. By the 1950's textile companies started moving to southern states in the USA where people were even less educated and would work for even less money. By the time I was a teenager the empty century old mills were being demolished I knew I had to leave since there was no way to make a living wage if I remained. I can't speak of the steel industry but I assume competition was their undoing when war demolished Japan rebuilt its steel industry with more modern and efficient factories it gave the US some serious competition. Blaming workers wages on killing the industry is standard excuse for company owners. Globalization is the same formula but spread over continents rather than cities, states or regions within one country. Manufacturing jobs will continue to grow where modern factories are being built and supplied by a non-union, and with little options population.
Yeh, that was the main excuse -- along with "We taught them how to do it" or "They stole the technology".
The truth is that it was a team effort. To address your point: the mills were a hundred years old using hundred year old technology. Instead of investing in keeping them current they were wasting the money paying exorbitant wages and the rest went to exorbitant dividends to the stockholders (which is why I'm so opposed to Apple doing the same).
Another factor, as I mentioned were unskilled labor making exorbitant wages and benefits because their unions, while very much needed 100 years ago, had gained too much power. Every time they shut down a mill it lost more customers to Japan.
Another factor was bad management. Not only did they fail to invest their enormous profits to modernize the mills, but they stopped fighting the unions -- partly because every time the unions got a raise so did they. (and #MeToo!)
And finally, the EPA may have put the final nail in the coffin. At the time the rivers were black and slimy with polution. Nothing but some cat fish could live in them. And near the plants the air was literally almost unbreathable -- it smelled like an old man fart. But, when Pittsburghers saw the smoke belching from the stacks they would say: "Those are good paying jobs!"
But basically, Japan won because of hubris. We thought NOBODY could out compete US. We thought we were unbeatable. And, we got fat, lazy and sloppy while Japan was lean, hungry, smart and hard working. Unfortunately, I don't think we learned that lesson because today we are using the same excuses to blame China ("they stole it", etc., etc., etc....) while chanting USA! USA! USA!
"To address your point: the mills were a hundred years old using hundred year old technology. Instead of investing in keeping them current they were wasting the money paying exorbitant wages and the rest went to exorbitant dividends to the stockholders"
The mills were not companies that traded on the stock market, the wages were not exorbitant either. My parents in their 90's told me recently they were all temporary workers and worked double shifts when the opportunity arose to to offset the weeks where they worked less than 20 hours per week. The mills employed French Canadian immigrants many who spoke little to no English and were originally farmers. Your theory on why these mills closed is not accurate and is unfortunately widely accepted as history fact. It pains me to hear Americans attacking blue collar worker as being responsible for the flight of manufacturing in the USA while it was corporations looking for higher and higher profits as the reason. Who's side are you on, your neighbors or some faceless corporate management?
That was true -- 100 some years ago. The mills were privately owned (Jones & Laughlin, Carnegie Steel, etc...) and mostly staffed with immigrants -- although they were never part time, more like slaves. They weren't working 20 hour weeks, they were working 12 hour days 6 and 7 days a week in miserable, dangerous conditions at slave wages. If they objected, they were fired and new workers brought in -- even if they had to be imported from Europe.
But, by the 1970's all of that was long gone and Steel Companies almost entirely publicly held companies staffed with union workers.
I am sorry that the truth pains you. But, while the unions had rescued blue collar workers from those intolerable conditions, by the latter quarter of the 20th century the unions were practically corporations in themselves run by professionals and they abused the near monopoly power they had. At the whim of a union executive they could shut down the American steel industry -- and they did on a pretty regular basis. As a result, they garnered wages and benefits far exceeding their actual value as workers.
But, as I said, that was only part of the problem. The demise of the American Steel Industry was a team effort between unions, management, shareholders and government. Each had a hand in the failure.
And, I am on nobody's "side". My grandfather was a union executive and my dad a union worker while, as an accountant and analyst, I got to see the how the other side works as well.
... I am on the side of reality. Part of what I learned as an analyst was that ideology and wishful thinking doesn't cut it. Ultimately, the free market always wins. Always. And, for the past 50 years, that market has been a global one.
A few maybe had it right in the recent trade negotiations with Mexico: instead of trying to protect our industries, they insisted on raising labor conditions in Mexico. That has a chance of working -- even though, ultimately, it will come down to evening the two out.
I am not 100 years old and do not speak of that distant past, my parents worked in mills for a several years during the early mid 1950's. Hours were unpredictable and these were NOT union shops. I can only speak of my experience and what the two generations that preceded me have told me. Being from New England, steel production did not exist here, I cannot speak of with confidence or deny workers in steel mils had 6 weeks vacation, that is what people in Scandinavia have today which I am certain.
The Reagan presidency broke the back of American unions and began the widening wealth gap which we have today. I can only assume that laws which kept manufacturers in the US were changed in favor of the industry's owners. I am a business owner and know that one must always keep an eye on the competition and time to time re-invest in my business to keep up or give it an advantage over my competitors. I think the US was riding a high from the post war years while Europe and Japan rebuilt their industries into something superior to what existed here in the 70s and 80's. When I was a kid in the 60's to say something was "made in Japan" meant it was junk because it was a cheap knock off of poor quality. By 1980, Sony was on top of the world and Japanese culture and design was there too.
I grew up in Pittsburgh in the 50's and still live here today. I don't know what mills they worked in but they weren't the major mills here that lined the Mon River. There were a few downturns (especially in the early 50's as we wound down from the war) which they might have been aluding to but not many and not long or severe. Generally things were going fairly strong until Japan started beating us on steel, cars and electronic in the 70's. But, the 60's and 70's were the heights of the union's powers -- and they exploited them.
Reagan was in the 80's and he was certainly anti-union but he didn't have much effect. His claim to fame was blocking the air traffic controllers from striking -- which was a major deal back then. By the time he was elected Japan was making major inroads into steel, cars and electronics. So Reagan, and after him Bush, tried protective tariffs to save our industries but, like Trump's they didn't do much of anything.
It wasn't that Reagan changed a lot while he was in office. I think that instead he legitimized anti-union free market conservatism and set the stage for those who came later where the serious damage was done.
It was really Bill Clinton in the 90's who initiated globalization. But that was a response to the decimation of our basic industries and the failure of tariffs to protect them. By that time, our basic industries had already been mangled and destroyed by global competition. So globalization like NAFTA was a response rather than the cause (as its often portrayed).
And I agree - your memory is correct: In the 60's Japan was known for cheap transistor radios. Then in the 70's for little Datsuns that rusted out in a couple years. But by the 80's & 90's their steel, cars and electronics were more than a match for ours. Actually they became the gold standard and Detroit responded by (trying to) make "world class cars" -- but they were junkier than the ones they had made before! (at least the ones I bought!)
Thank you for informing me on steel industry, it was a much larger and more important industry than textile and survived much longer into the 20th century.
The mills where I grew up were most from the 19th century, some maybe as old as 1870 other came later. By the early 70's they were completely empty save for one or two. My hometown took drastic efforts to bring in more industry but demolishing the mills and the beautiful brick houses where many of the workers lived. These were modest small houses but I had a friend that lived in one and it was very British factory town in scale and style. Later in the 70's my uncle became mayor and he asked me what would I do with the mills and at that time I was studying art in Boston. I suggested he make them in to artists studio's and see if he could get restaurants to rent the lower floors which had a direct view of the city's river. Nothing liked that ever happened however it had begun in bigger cities like New York and the neighborhood of Soho (where Apple opened it's first store here) became the most important center for art in the world in the 70's and 80's.
The biggest problem small cities face in the post industrial America is vision. The best way to solve a problem often is to travel to places with a similar history and industry and see how they solved their problems and try to apply similar solutions to your city or town. I'm not saying it is an easy thing to do but people and cities these days often come to a point where they need to re-invent themselves to survive.
Thank you for informing me on steel industry, it was a much larger and more important industry than textile and survived much longer into the 20th century.
The mills where I grew up were most from the 19th century, some maybe as old as 1870 other came later. By the early 70's they were completely empty save for one or two. My hometown took drastic efforts to bring in more industry but demolishing the mills and the beautiful brick houses where many of the workers lived. These were modest small houses but I had a friend that lived in one and it was very British factory town in scale and style. Later in the 70's my uncle became mayor and he asked me what would I do with the mills and at that time I was studying art in Boston. I suggested he make them in to artists studio's and see if he could get restaurants to rent the lower floors which had a direct view of the city's river. Nothing liked that ever happened however it had begun in bigger cities like New York and the neighborhood of Soho (where Apple opened it's first store here) became the most important center for art in the world in the 70's and 80's.
The biggest problem small cities face in the post industrial America is vision. The best way to solve a problem often is to travel to places with a similar history and industry and see how they solved their problems and try to apply similar solutions to your city or town. I'm not saying it is an easy thing to do but people and cities these days often come to a point where they need to re-invent themselves to survive.
Yes, that is true... Progress and innovation keep moving and it is important for both towns as well as entire countries to re-invent themselves to survive. I think Pittsburgh did a fairly good job of that -- leveraging its technical expertise deriving from high end schools like Carnegie Mellon. But, as it re-invented itself it had an aversion to the old and tore down much of the grand architecture from that golden age. Fortunately there are still remnants of it left for the people to explore and treasure. One of those is Clayton the home of Henry Clay Frick who, even though being one of the richest men in the world, never built a mansion and bought used cars! Eventually though, after Morgan turned Carnegie Steel into U.S. Steel he moved to New York City leaving Clayton intact - art work and all. And, his daughter Helen kept it exactly as it was 100 years ago and turned it into a public museum. It is a fascinating place to visit and learn about the man and that period.
Something I think you would enjoy reading is a book called "Homestead -- the Glory and Tragedy of an American Steel Town" by William Serrin. It is a well researched book about the birth, life and demise of Carnegie Steel and its main mill in the little town of Homestead on the Mon River a few miles south of Pittsburgh. It is less about the company than it is about the people who ran it and worked in it and is also a good portrayal of the struggles of the workers to survive conditions that some might call horrifying by today's standards.
Comments
To address your point: the mills were a hundred years old using hundred year old technology. Instead of investing in keeping them current they were wasting the money paying exorbitant wages and the rest went to exorbitant dividends to the stockholders (which is why I'm so opposed to Apple doing the same).
The mills were not companies that traded on the stock market, the wages were not exorbitant either. My parents in their 90's told me recently they were all temporary workers and worked double shifts when the opportunity arose to to offset the weeks where they worked less than 20 hours per week. The mills employed French Canadian immigrants many who spoke little to no English and were originally farmers. Your theory on why these mills closed is not accurate and is unfortunately widely accepted as history fact. It pains me to hear Americans attacking blue collar worker as being responsible for the flight of manufacturing in the USA while it was corporations looking for higher and higher profits as the reason. Who's side are you on, your neighbors or some faceless corporate management?
But, as I said, that was only part of the problem. The demise of the American Steel Industry was a team effort between unions, management, shareholders and government. Each had a hand in the failure.
A few maybe had it right in the recent trade negotiations with Mexico: instead of trying to protect our industries, they insisted on raising labor conditions in Mexico. That has a chance of working -- even though, ultimately, it will come down to evening the two out.
The Reagan presidency broke the back of American unions and began the widening wealth gap which we have today. I can only assume that laws which kept manufacturers in the US were changed in favor of the industry's owners. I am a business owner and know that one must always keep an eye on the competition and time to time re-invest in my business to keep up or give it an advantage over my competitors. I think the US was riding a high from the post war years while Europe and Japan rebuilt their industries into something superior to what existed here in the 70s and 80's. When I was a kid in the 60's to say something was "made in Japan" meant it was junk because it was a cheap knock off of poor quality. By 1980, Sony was on top of the world and Japanese culture and design was there too.
It wasn't that Reagan changed a lot while he was in office. I think that instead he legitimized anti-union free market conservatism and set the stage for those who came later where the serious damage was done.
The mills where I grew up were most from the 19th century, some maybe as old as 1870 other came later. By the early 70's they were completely empty save for one or two. My hometown took drastic efforts to bring in more industry but demolishing the mills and the beautiful brick houses where many of the workers lived. These were modest small houses but I had a friend that lived in one and it was very British factory town in scale and style. Later in the 70's my uncle became mayor and he asked me what would I do with the mills and at that time I was studying art in Boston. I suggested he make them in to artists studio's and see if he could get restaurants to rent the lower floors which had a direct view of the city's river. Nothing liked that ever happened however it had begun in bigger cities like New York and the neighborhood of Soho (where Apple opened it's first store here) became the most important center for art in the world in the 70's and 80's.
The biggest problem small cities face in the post industrial America is vision. The best way to solve a problem often is to travel to places with a similar history and industry and see how they solved their problems and try to apply similar solutions to your city or town. I'm not saying it is an easy thing to do but people and cities these days often come to a point where they need to re-invent themselves to survive.