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I really wish the Rust belt would give up their dream of recapturing a large manufacturing base and focus on educating their populace for the 21st century. Imag

I really wish the Rust belt would give up their dream of recapturing a large manufacturing base and focus on educating their populace for the 21st century. Imagine if that subsidy money was used in education. It's pretty clear that mass manufacturing is a race to the bottom (China is now facing competition from Vietnam), and high tech manufacturing (Germany) will not provide the amount of jobs needed to offset the ones lost over the past 40 years. While manufacturing should always be a component of any mixed economy, many of those jobs are not coming back and we need to retool our workforce. A highly educated workforce is the best way out.

cmrdporcupine 8y ago
For that matter most of the rust belt states have very fertile soils and plenty of fresh water and historically were great temperate agriculture power houses before much of that agriculture moved to the year-round-climate cheap-labor zone of California. Now picture the world 20 years from now when drought and depleted aquifers make California not as viable for intense food production as it is now. Suddenly the east/northeast/midwest around the great lakes look pretty damn attractive.
geodel 8y ago
> Imagine if that subsidy money was used in education It is not the money that is lying around with government, ready to be spent. It is something that government could have collected if factories were built and they paid all the taxes. And I am not sure, they are getting built without squeezing governments on taxes.