Living In The Past

Micheline Maynard thinks Rust Belt cities are making a mistake in pinning hopes on recovering manufacturing:

In northern Minnesota, iron ore has made a comeback. In Youngstown, Ohio, a new $650 million steel plant is under construction.
The Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce has launched a new effort called MICHauto, devoted to “promoting, retaining and growing” Michigan’s auto industry.
But I'm concerned that this “renaissance” may ultimately do more harm than good to the future of our industrial cities and states.
Let me explain. Although I grew up in Michigan, I do not come from an automotive family. My father’s family hailed from Massachusetts, and he worked on the finance staff at American Airlines, which brought him to Detroit in 1947. So, I’ve spent a lifetime as an outsider, watching what the car business has meant, and done, to Michigan.
What I’ve observed is more than just an economic impact. The automobile industry has had a psychic and a cultural impact as well, as have steel and mining on the places where they’ve dominated. That is why my alarm bells are going off at the absolute joy at these industries’ nascent revival, and the emphasis that’s being put on rebuilding them.
“They’re chasing after what once was,” says Kevin Boyle, historian at Ohio State University. “It’s understandable.”
For the better part of a century, Boyle explains, industrial production was woven into the moral fiber of states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan and cities like Buffalo, Cleveland, and Detroit. Says Boyle: “People worked with their hands; they put in a hard day’s work; they made things.  People drew enormous pride from that fact. It defined who they were and how they felt about their place in the world.”

She points out that there are many fewer new jobs than those that were lost, and the starting pay is much lower.  The thing is, so many people didn't go to college, because you could get a very good paying job with a high school education.  Once those jobs disappeared, folks had a really hard time finding a new job.  These folks can benefit from the new manufacturing jobs, while other folks can train to be CNC operators who will supply those factories with parts.  You can't expect to get enough manufacturing jobs to replace the old ones, but the new incomes will provide work for other people in non-manufacturing fields.  I think it makes sense to not put all your eggs in one basket, but I'm not concerned that manufacturing jobs are returning.  I welcome the trend.