College drop out blues

[Army grunt]

What Willl said is spot on..
Grunt

 

[MossRoad]

If I was working at a Walmart in Jersey, my personality wouldn't be a problem

Besides that, you should never be confrontational when carrying a sidearm LOL.

Moss, I agree, sometimes situations in areas really do suck. However, usually (and I could be wrong) if the "local" economy relies heavily upon one or two industries in that local area, when that industry takes a tank, so does that local area. Kind of like that everywhere.

Last year I spoke at a local trade college a couple times. Over half were over the age of 40 and there on some kind of grant from the goverment because they lost their job some kind of manufacturing. I did tell them that if they lose their job in the trade, the goverment wont be paying for them to go to school again.

Heck, Trane has closed good portion of their commercial manufacturing facilities down and moving to Mexico. Carrier makes their Payne equipment in Mexico. Lennox closed their one S.C facility down and moved to Mexico as well. Honeywell is made and shipped from Mexico. No industry is immune to cost cutting. However, sometimes it seems that because we as consumers want the best price, the manufacturers have to cut cost to make any money, so they move. I applied at Walmart because I needed a job. Know what though? I will do my best to stay out of that whoring China cheap but redneck he ll hole

South Bend and the surrounding ares used to have many industries. Studebaker, Bendix, Oliver, Ball Band (Uniroyal) to name a few. One by one they all went away. Tens of thousands of jobs. At its peak in the 40s, Studebaker employed 22,000 people. By 1963 when it closed it was down to 8,000. Bendix had 12,000. It was sold and broken up. I think it is Honeywell now and probably under 1000. Oliver tractors had many thousands working there. It was sold to White Farm Eq. and is long gone. Ball Band (red ball jet shoes, airplane fuel bladders, etc.) became Uniroyal. It took several thousand jobs, too.

My point is, this used to be a thriving community with great job diversity, not a one horse show. All of the different sectors went belly up or greatly reduced. When one major employer goes, it is hard on a community. When they all go, it is devastating.

 

[2manyrocks]

The RV industry took a major hit after the 73 oil embargo and apparently had recovered in the late 80's with cheap gas. The huge run up in gas prices in 2008 followed by the economic downturn has to have pounded RV sales into the ground.

When times are good, people don't pay attention to economics. Then when we get a nasty shock like this one, they start paying attention for a little bit.

 

[MossRoad]

South Bend and the surrounding ares used to have many industries. Studebaker, Bendix, Oliver, Ball Band (Uniroyal) to name a few. One by one they all went away. Tens of thousands of jobs. At its peak in the 40s, Studebaker employed 22,000 people. By 1963 when it closed it was down to 8,000. Bendix had 12,000. It was sold and broken up. I think it is Honeywell now and probably under 1000. Oliver tractors had many thousands working there. It was sold to White Farm Eq. and is long gone. Ball Band (red ball jet shoes, airplane fuel bladders, etc.) became Uniroyal. It took several thousand jobs, too.

My point is, this used to be a thriving community with great job diversity, not a one horse show. All of the different sectors went belly up or greatly reduced. When one major employer goes, it is hard on a community. When they all go, it is devastating.

And AM General just announced the Army has no plans to purchase any more Hummers after the current order is filled, so there goes some more jobs from our area. Coffin nails, I tell ya!

 

[riptides]

The scary part is look around, there is lots to do. Our infrastructure is decaying all around us, and private sector cannot figure out how to make a dime rebuilding it.

Too bad for us in the long haul.

 

[dave1949]

The scary part is look around, there is lots to do. Our infrastructure is decaying all around us, and private sector cannot figure out how to make a dime rebuilding it.

Too bad for us in the long haul.

So true and so sad. The small towns around here are talking about which roads to convert back to gravel because nobody can afford to keep paving them.


We were discussing the impact of unions on employers in the rust belt.
Here is a factoid from the US Labor Dept.:

In 2009 the full-time wage and salary workers who belonged to a union earned an average of $908/week (x52 = $47,216/yr).

For full-time non-union it was $710/week (x52 = $36,920/yr).

A difference of about 28%.

Nobody is getting rich at those averages.

Dave.