Why The Manufacturing Belt Turned Into The Rust Belt And How It Is Slowly Making Its Comeback
The Rust Belt which has also been called the Manufacturing Belt are various states in the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic and the Upper Midwest. The Fox Valley area is included in this area where a Fox Valley handyman operates his Fox Valley bathroom remodeling. This entire area got that name for the various types of manufacturing plants that were sprinkled throughout especially in the steel industry. A lot of this happened in Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana and upper parts of New York. The factories are located near lakes in the region. The term, Rust Belt became well known in the 1970′s when the industry declined and many factories were closed. Rusted gates are the only thing remaining from these buildings.
This region became the main area for industry and manufacturing because it was close to navigable waters and access to various resources. There was an enormous population explosion that occurred bringing a lot of immigrants to these areas for work and using the rivers, lakes and the railroad proved to be all good for shipping purposes. Things for a long time flourished in these states that were connected to the manufacturing belt.
Some of the problems started occurring when other countries such as China were able to produce things for a lot less by paying their workers much lower pay . This produced huge competition for the US and we were not able to produce the same things for such a small amount as China could. This started outsourcing where companies started to pay people in other countries to do the work for less than US workers could. The outsourcing work overseas have resulted in jobs lost for American workers.
Free trade has caused the factories to {struggle financially|have financial difficulties in this region. Companies in industry learned that steel could be made for a great deal less in third world countries than in the US so they started to get it from there rather than in this country. By getting the supplies via free trade from other countries it has totally changed the supply and demand element. With little supply of steel here in the US, there is little demand for it either and the cycle goes on to where we must rely on other countries for certain products. This also, has caused struggles on this region.
Many people have also been leaving the bigger metropolitan areas that are in this region like Chicago, Duluth, Philadelphia, Buffalo and Pittsburgh deciding to go out into the suburbs where it is more affordable than in these downtown cities. This has made less work and jobs in the cities and more employment in the suburbs that have no relation to industry as it had always been before. This rust belt region has recently risen in jobs since 2008 with some new industries happening. They are dealing with biotechnology information technology and hydrogen cell development in addition to some other newer businesses. This has been a great boost for this region and the people here are hopeful that it will prosper again like it did prior to the 1970′s.
