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It would be great "creative destruction" if these plants could be replaced by another industry. What needs to happen is a company, or an industry, needs to spr

by csense 8y ago

It would be great "creative destruction" if these plants could be replaced by another industry. What needs to happen is a company, or an industry, needs to spring up that employs these thousands of displaced workers in places like Michigan and Ohio. HN'ers, what kind of entrepreneurial ideas spring to mind? I'm drawing a blank here.

toomuchtodo 8y ago
Wind turbine manufacturing. It takes ~500 workers to build a wind turbine. Close enough to the Midwest and East Coast (Ohio for inland, Michigan is on the Great Lakes if you want to ship out the Intercoastal for offshore wind on the East Coast) for transportation ease. Transition out anyone on the manufacturing line to PMs or turbine techs who want to get outside or relocate. To power all of the US with wind alone would take ~4 million turbines, not to mention repowering existing wind farms over time. That’s a lot of manufacturing left to be done, and it isn’t going out of style anytime soon.
DanHulton 8y ago
Marijuana. For an example, look at the Canadian town of Smiths Falls. The Hershey's chocolate factory closed in 2008. It was a painful loss for the town, a major industry just gone. Now "Tweed" a Marijuana growing company had taken over the space. They've been hiring at a tremendous rate, and even are planning an expansion to the factory, with even more jobs to come. Seriously, even the battered housing market is picking up again. It's not an opportunity that will last forever, but the companies that capitalize on it have to opportunity to make a mint and a whole pile of happy workers in the process.
- yanabinoid 8y ago
  It’s funny how people seem to think weed is such a great idea, but for so many reasons it’s a fantastically tacky answer to fill conversations with a somewhat boring non-controversy. A lot of people can’t handle marijuana. Still more just aren’t interested in it. Others get damaged by it, with the introduction of psychiatric complications, schizoid disorders in particular. And then, by far, the most common reality: the rest of the people who smoke themselves retarded, and never get off the couch anymore. So, yeah, smoking weed. Really cool and all, but too bad about all the assholes...

by csense 8y ago

toomuchtodo 8y ago

Wind turbine manufacturing. It takes ~500 workers to build a wind turbine. Close enough to the Midwest and East Coast (Ohio for inland, Michigan is on the Great Lakes if you want to ship out the Intercoastal for offshore wind on the East Coast) for transportation ease. Transition out anyone on the manufacturing line to PMs or turbine techs who want to get outside or relocate. To power all of the US with wind alone would take ~4 million turbines, not to mention repowering existing wind farms over time. That’s a lot of manufacturing left to be done, and it isn’t going out of style anytime soon.

DanHulton 8y ago

Marijuana. For an example, look at the Canadian town of Smiths Falls. The Hershey's chocolate factory closed in 2008. It was a painful loss for the town, a major industry just gone. Now "Tweed" a Marijuana growing company had taken over the space. They've been hiring at a tremendous rate, and even are planning an expansion to the factory, with even more jobs to come. Seriously, even the battered housing market is picking up again. It's not an opportunity that will last forever, but the companies that capitalize on it have to opportunity to make a mint and a whole pile of happy workers in the process.

yanabinoid 8y ago
It’s funny how people seem to think weed is such a great idea, but for so many reasons it’s a fantastically tacky answer to fill conversations with a somewhat boring non-controversy. A lot of people can’t handle marijuana. Still more just aren’t interested in it. Others get damaged by it, with the introduction of psychiatric complications, schizoid disorders in particular. And then, by far, the most common reality: the rest of the people who smoke themselves retarded, and never get off the couch anymore. So, yeah, smoking weed. Really cool and all, but too bad about all the assholes...