Rust belt americana series#

Some of that sort of thing is actually disallowed under trade pacts - why should it be allowed for states? It's taken decades to build an economy of downward mobility. What conventions, regulations, and laws enable corporations to make states compete against each other for their investment? Some of that should simply be outlawed. The point is that there is a larger picture. I don't enjoy making careless arguments and there are a number of 'ifs' in the above paragraph. And one consequence of that could be a slow down in the industrializing of Mississippi. If industrial jobs in Mississippi are in fact a part of a national race to the bottom and if that race is destructive to the larger good then the race itself should be stopped. I keep telling myself I won't do this any more, but I wrote right back to the woman who sent the message:Īs to your question - should the people in Mississippi stay poor? I would suggest taking a serious look at the answer 'yes'.

Rust belt americana series#

I would like your series a lot more if you addressed this. It would fundamentally undermine the whole American experiment. Yet continuing on this path would be tragic. There are no signs of a turnaround for most in this economy - it is only getting worse. Perhaps what is in process is the lasting destruction of American broad based prosperity, thanks in no small part to rise of Southern political values. The great cities of the North have been hollowed out just as they were beginning to provide a haven for lower class families, not to mention the overall starvation of the middle class.' Undermining and destroying unions has been a signature part of that strategy and it has been very successful.

'The theme that I find missing in your series is any recognition that the Southern states have been in a continuing economic war with the Northern manufacturing base for at least since the Civil Rights Act. I wasn't satisfied by your reply to this comment : (The best thing about the Dixiecrats is that there were less effective nationally when stranded within the Democratic Party than they are today, when they control Republican ideology and the Supreme Court. They suck on the federal tit whilst fanning resentment of the poor, among many (many!) other political sins. I think the South should be quarantined, politically and economically.

I do not support federal funds in order to develop this political cesspool into an influential center of the American economy. To be honest my chief reaction to reading this piece was to wish that TVA funding was quickly and permanently yanked. So forgive me if Joe Max Higgins does not seem charming. The American people have suffered serious economic harm as a result. The deindustrialization of the North cannot be separated from the success of Southern style politics and ideologies over the last 40 years. I know the economic decline of Rust Belt cities to be deeply imprinted with American racism as well as the relentless and devastatingly effective rightwing campaign against unionization. I understand the impact of abandonment, wholesale and profound, that has infected the Rust Belt in the post war era. I grew up with the decades of desolation and loss. In fact they were slaveowners who left the South to industrialize the North - and they were very successful at it, probably even a factor in the victory of the North over the South in the Civil War.īut I grew up in a different time - the time of decline of industry. In your most recent entry in the 'Lo and Behold, Industry in Mississippi' series, you asked for feedback and so here is a little exploration of my vexed relation to your work and perspectives.įirst off, I'm a native of a Rust Belt city and much of my family originally migrated here from the South. You prick my despair about the country, in fact. I read it avidly and yet I find myself alienated. I have an odd relationship with your blog.