Rust Belt
The Manufacturing Belt, sometimes nicknamed the Rust Belt (emphasizing the negative aspects of the decline of manufacturing and of urban decay), 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 with 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.
Its economic activity forms a significant part of the heavy industry and manufacturing sectors of the American economy. The Midwest region of the United States has a higher employment to population ratio (the number of people employed as a percent of the population) than the Northeast, the South, or the Sun Belt states. [1] It is also the focal point on the continent for the automobile industry. 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.
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; 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.[2] Cities that focus on service industries and government are usually excluded due to insignificant manufacturing activity and fewer engineering jobs in these areas. Examples include Boston, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C..[citation needed]
Sometimes, but not always, 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, all of which share some characteristics of manufacturing centers across the border.[citation needed]
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, and Detroit 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. New domestic job growth has tended to be in the service sector.
The deline of American manufacturing led to the moniker Rust Belt, emphasizing the abandonment of factories in the Northeast and Midwest. Despite the decline in absolute production, the manufacturing belt is still one of the world's major 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. Other types of advanced manufacturing have emerged in these states such as biotech, nanotech, infotech, and cognotech.
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 benefitting 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, Buffalo, Binghamton, Rochester, Akron, Toledo, Syracuse, St. Louis and many more, despite revitalized downtown areas.[3] Northern states have mounted a "Cool Cities" initiative to reverse the trend. The 2004 population estimate showed Rust Belt states averaged less than 2% new growth.
The region is sometimes called the Frost Belt or the Snowbelt as a way to more directly contrast the term Sun Belt.
See also
Notes
- ^ Bureau of Labor Statistics
- ^ St Louis Escapes Its Rust-Belt Past. NPR, All Things Considered, May 17 2006. Accessed November 15 2006.
- ^ Incorporated Places of 100,000 or More, Ranked by Percent Population Change: 1990-2000 US Census Bureau, Census 2000. Accessed November 162006.
- American Steel, Richard Preston (1991), Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-029604-X
References
- 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.