MANUFACTURING BELT

The 'Manufacturing Belt', often referred to as the 'Rust Belt', is an area in parts of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States of America. The region can be broadly defined as the region beginning west of the BosWash corridor and running west to eastern Wisconsin. The region extends southward to the beginnings of the coal mining regions of Appalachia, north to the Great Lakes and includes manufacturing regions of southern Ontario in Canada.
Economic activity in the Manufacturing Belt forms a significant part of the heavy industry and manufacturing sectors of the American economy. However, outsourcing of manufacturing jobs has left many cities in this region in particularly bad shape, forcing the area — the focal point on the continent for a recovering automobile industry — to diversify. Emerging technologies in this region include hydrogen fuel cell development, nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognotechnology. The region is an important source of engineering jobs.

Contents

Geographic Definition

History

See also

Notes

References

External links

Geographic Definition

Although manufacturing exists nationwide, the region is roughly defined as comprising the northern sections of Indiana and Ohio; the southern Lower Peninsula of Michigan; the Lake Michigan shoreline of Wisconsin, especially around Milwaukee; Chicago/northeastern Illinois; upstate New York, especially around Buffalo; New York City and Northern New Jersey; most of Pennsylvania; and the northern part of West Virginia, particularly the Northern Panhandle. Other cities such as Baltimore, Maryland, and Wilmington, Delaware which share important economic characteristics are sometimes included. Saint Louis, Missouri may be considered to a manufacturing center, although the surrounding parts of Missouri and Illinois aren't part of the region.^[1]
Sometimes, the adjacent portions of the Canadian province of Ontario (particularly the southern and southwestern parts) are included as well, giving the concept an international dimension. This portion includes heavily industrial centers such as Hamilton, St. Catharines and Windsor.

History

The area emerged as a center of manufacturing and heavy industry because of its location. Ready sources of coal just to the south in West Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky as well as in western and northeastern Pennsylvania; an immigration-driven population boom in the late 19th century; and easy access to shipping on the Great Lakes, and to the East Coast via canals, and later railroads. The region was one of the first in the United States to see railroad service, with some of the earliest railroads such as the Allegheny Portage Railroad located within the region. Coal, iron ore and other raw materials were shipped in from surrounding regions to cities such as Pittsburgh, which became a center of the steel industry. Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, Detroit, and Toledo emerged as major ports on the Great Lakes and served as transportation hubs for the region with a proximity to railroad lines.
Since the 1960s, globalization and the expansion of worldwide free trade agreements have been less favorable to U.S. workers. More trade with developing countries has resulted in stiff competition from countries with much lower prevailing wages. Beginning with the recession of 1970-71, manufacturing jobs started declining in the United States as production moved overseas. More new domestic job growth has tended to be in the service sector although new types of manufacturing jobs have emerged.
The decline of American manufacturing employment led to the moniker 'Rust Belt', emphasizing the abandonment of factories in the Northeast and Midwest. Despite the decline in overall manufacturing employment, manufacturing output in the USA rises steadily. Although there have been decreases in the output of tradeable goods since 2000 resulting in part from trade issues, the US remains one of the world's pre-eminent manufacturing areas. American manufacturing has moved away from labor-intensive processes (which are cheaper in low-wage countries) and toward high-value products and advanced robotized manufacturing. Despite its difficulities, the area is the center of the number one exporting region in the US.
The economic shift has resulted in a growing trade deficit with China (starting in 1985) and other Asian nations such as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. There has been some domestic political opposition to these developments in the United States, including anti-globalization protests. Free trade opponents decry the more difficult economic conditions which are created for American workers while benefiting foreign workers. Some supporters of free trade criticize the lack of labor and environmental standards in low-wage developing countries as unfair competition and harmful to foreign workers and residents. There has also been considerable criticism by U.S. business leaders and government officials of the Chinese government's policy of pegging its currency to the dollar at rates which make Chinese exports cheaper than a market-based exchange rate would.
In recent years, many inner city populations in the region have shifted to the suburbs. Examples from the 2000 U.S. Census include Detroit, Flint, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Erie, Niagara Falls, which is an important center for the chemical industry, Buffalo, Binghamton, Rochester, Akron, Toledo, Syracuse, St. Louis (since 2002 has had slow population growth [c.1000 per year]) and many more, despite revitalized downtown areas.^[2] Northern states have mounted a ''"Cool Cities"'' initiative to reverse the trend. The 2004 population estimate showed Manufacturing Belt states averaged around 2% net growth even as many of those in retirement age moved southward.
Economists generally regard manufacturing as a wealth producing sector of an economy, whereas a service sector tends to be wealth consuming. ^[3][4] Economists who favor a strong manufacturing base oppose outsourcing for the sake of labor arbitrage to obtain cheap labor as an example of absolute advantage which does not produce mutual gain, and not an example of comparative advantage which does.^[5] Emerging technologies have provided some new growth in advanced manufacturing employment opportunities in the Manufacturing Belt in the United States. Manufacturing provides important material support for national infrastructure and for national defense.

See also

★ ChiPitts

★ Economy of the United States

★ Henry Ford

★ The Foundry

Notes

1. St Louis Escapes Its Rust-Belt Past. NPR, All Things Considered, May 17 2006. Accessed November 15 2006.
2. Incorporated Places of 100,000 or More, Ranked by Percent Population Change: 1990-2000 US Census Bureau, Census 2000. Accessed November 162006.
3. No Light at the End of the Tunnel
4. Monetarism Is Not Enough
5. America is losing

References

★ ''American Steel'', Richard Preston (1991), Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-029604-X

★ ''Images of the Rust Belt'', James Jeffery Higgins (1999), Kent State University Press. ISBN 0-87338-626-4

★ ''Industrial Sunset'', Steven High (2003), University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-8528-8

★ ''People and folks: gangs, crime, and the underclass in a rust- belt city'', John Hagedorn and Perry Macon (1988), Lake View Press. ISBN 0-941702-21-9

★ ''Reorganizing the Rust Belt'', Steven Henry Lopez (2004), University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23565-7

★ ''Revival in the rust belt'', Daniel R. Denison and Stuart L. Hill (1987), University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-87944-322-7.

External links

★ Rust Belt Pictures