- The role of foreign competition In the loss of Rust Belt Jobs, the political debate about American manufacturing was exaggerated, according to MiddleBari Gary Winslett College, who instead indicated a competition between the states, that is, the rise of the southern states as favorable places to the status of factories.
Politicians from both sides of the corridor ignored some “uncomfortable facts” because the rust belt has bleeding manufacturing functions over the years, according to Professor of Midelbury Gary Winslet.
In particular, the narration highlighted that China, Mexico and other countries have grown their functions through commercial deals at the expense of the United States
Winslet wrote in a Washington Post For example Wednesday. “The problem is that it is incorrect – and it leads to some terrible political decisions.”
Certainly, manufacturing workers in the United States in the United States have been declining for decades. After the peak to nearly 20 million in 1979, it was 12.8 million last month, according to Ministry of Labor data collected by Fed St. Louis Fed. As a share of total non -agricultural workers, Manufacturing functions have decreased since 1953 With the development of the economy to more growth directed towards service.
At the same time, separate Research from the Institute of Economic Policy It has shown that the United States lost more than 5 million jobs in manufacturing from 1998 to 2021, as the trade deficit in goods with China, Japan, Mexico, the European Union and other deeper countries became deeper.
But Winslet sees factors closer to the home.
“A large part of the story: Interstate”, wrote. “The decline in the manufacture of a rust belt is not primarily related to the functions that go to Mexico. It is related to the jobs that go to Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.”
Quoted from data from World Trade OrganizationHe said that the rust belt represents nearly half of all American manufacturing exports in 1970 for less than a quarter of the south. Today, those areas have turned places.
In fact, the state of Alabama, which produces more than a million cars annually, is the automatic exporting country No. 1, after there is no factory for one cars since 1992.
Winslett attributed the role of reflection to the conditions in the southern states that are more suitable for business, including the laws of the right to work, the cheapest electricity, more housing construction, low taxes and easier permits.
He added that immigration also helped the south, which now has more immigrants than any other part of the country while the Middle West has the lowest number.
In addition, automation has also contributed to the low manufacturing employment, as Winslett indicated, which means that the reformulation of factories today will not produce a significant increase in jobs.
“But even in the calculation of this technological transformation, it is more continuous competition between countries than globalization, which has reshaped American manufacturing, which created uncomfortable facts that none of the parties want to recognize,” he explained.
For example, Republicans, like President Donald Trump, were defined as a key to restore the jobs of the rust belt factory, without admitting the jobs that went to the south.
On the other hand, Democrats prefer to blame globalization instead of competition between states and will not recognize the abolition of restrictions, the right -wing laws, and low energy costs, Winslet said.
He concluded to his saying: “Both sides are preferred to be simple, whether China or greed companies.” “But what is required is not more warm huge about the way things are used to or a scapegoat in globalization. It is a clear way to understand why companies Alabama choose Ohayu and that adopt the options made by the southern states.”
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
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