11-16-2016, 01:53 PM
Michigan.............where men are men and sheep are nervous.
My town was featured on local and national news in the two days following the election.....because it is the model for what happened in "small towns across America." We are white, working class (according to U.S. Census data I am part of the 1% in my county educationally: I have a graduate degree) rural and definitely "post industrial". We are in the nether world between the Rust Belt and agricultural America. Ted Nugent is considered a hometown hero. Amway is considered an example of good Christian business practices and a stalwart employer through thick and thin.
What do these people even do to survive?
- Auto suppliers have gone away, reduced the work force and in all cases reduced their paid wages, so, people fight for these fewer jobs, at lower wages, with mandatory over time, and no union protection. All the appliance manufacturers have left for Sweden, Mexico or the far east, and will not likely return as they are owned overseas as well. Factory jobs are now few and far between, and not likely to return. I know a fellow who is an engineer for a local plant that makes plastic interior parts for the Big Three. He complains thusly, "They shipped these jobs to Mexico, where they can employ two Mexicans for $10/hr. each and the quality is poor. Many of the parts are rejected. Here at our plant, we can employ one guy for $20/hr. and his production is flawless! Trump will help bring those jobs back here and we will not have to worry about shitty parts from Mexico, and we can employ more Americans to make better products." While I would love to swallow his simplistic reasoning whole and believe more factory jobs will come about due to said logic, I cant buy it. The waste he is talking about is not really a factor. Those low skilled jobs will stay in Mexico, or, go elsewhere before they come back here. Even if they did come back here, they will only be at most 50% of what was originally exported.
- Agricultural work is still available, if you want to make $10/hr. with no benefits moving apples from storage to shipping. Really, we have a large migrant (mostly Mexican and Honduran) population that does the seasonal fruit and vegetable harvest. Grains are grown and harvested by increasingly fewer and fewer hands. Beef in Michigan is reduced to a hobby farming scale. Yea, some work in farming...if you want part time, seasonal, dangerous work.
- Self-employment. Fire wood; handy man; house cleaning; pet sitting; large animal pet sitting (farm sitting); Ebay; work from home rackets; licensed day cares; scrapping metals and a variety of other hand-to-mouth work occupies a lot of time and may help you make the bills, maybe. I know and use a lot of these types of services and when I talk to these people, they are quite proud of the fact that they are "small business" truly believing that they are part of that "backbone of the American economy" Whether this is just a mantra they tell themselves to keep from feeling like White Trash, or something they truly believe I am not sure. In most instances, at some point in the discussion they talk about finding steady work some day. Clearly what they are doing is a needs-based survival strategy rather than the fulfillment of some romantic dream.
- Crime. Poaching, drug trafficking, petty theft, food stamp fraud, public assistance fraud, disability fraud, etc. Yep. You want to find some professional welfare queens and fraudsters dwell? Don't think it is exclusive to the inner city. It is out in the country man. Out where everyone considered it a righteous strike against the big bad government. You got that right.
- The Government. County road commissions; the village; the city; the township; the state and even the federal government! Yep, with factory jobs and agricultural jobs stripped away, and little opportunity elsewhere in the economy, a goodly number of people in these communities work for the man! In my area we have five (5) prisons that employ corrections officers, clerks, etc. which amounts to a good number of jobs. Add in school bus drivers, and all local units of government and you have easily 1/3 of the workforce.
I'm from Ohio, and aside from the larger share of agricultural activity here in Michigan, Ohio's situation is much the same.
My town was featured on local and national news in the two days following the election.....because it is the model for what happened in "small towns across America." We are white, working class (according to U.S. Census data I am part of the 1% in my county educationally: I have a graduate degree) rural and definitely "post industrial". We are in the nether world between the Rust Belt and agricultural America. Ted Nugent is considered a hometown hero. Amway is considered an example of good Christian business practices and a stalwart employer through thick and thin.
What do these people even do to survive?
- Auto suppliers have gone away, reduced the work force and in all cases reduced their paid wages, so, people fight for these fewer jobs, at lower wages, with mandatory over time, and no union protection. All the appliance manufacturers have left for Sweden, Mexico or the far east, and will not likely return as they are owned overseas as well. Factory jobs are now few and far between, and not likely to return. I know a fellow who is an engineer for a local plant that makes plastic interior parts for the Big Three. He complains thusly, "They shipped these jobs to Mexico, where they can employ two Mexicans for $10/hr. each and the quality is poor. Many of the parts are rejected. Here at our plant, we can employ one guy for $20/hr. and his production is flawless! Trump will help bring those jobs back here and we will not have to worry about shitty parts from Mexico, and we can employ more Americans to make better products." While I would love to swallow his simplistic reasoning whole and believe more factory jobs will come about due to said logic, I cant buy it. The waste he is talking about is not really a factor. Those low skilled jobs will stay in Mexico, or, go elsewhere before they come back here. Even if they did come back here, they will only be at most 50% of what was originally exported.
- Agricultural work is still available, if you want to make $10/hr. with no benefits moving apples from storage to shipping. Really, we have a large migrant (mostly Mexican and Honduran) population that does the seasonal fruit and vegetable harvest. Grains are grown and harvested by increasingly fewer and fewer hands. Beef in Michigan is reduced to a hobby farming scale. Yea, some work in farming...if you want part time, seasonal, dangerous work.
- Self-employment. Fire wood; handy man; house cleaning; pet sitting; large animal pet sitting (farm sitting); Ebay; work from home rackets; licensed day cares; scrapping metals and a variety of other hand-to-mouth work occupies a lot of time and may help you make the bills, maybe. I know and use a lot of these types of services and when I talk to these people, they are quite proud of the fact that they are "small business" truly believing that they are part of that "backbone of the American economy" Whether this is just a mantra they tell themselves to keep from feeling like White Trash, or something they truly believe I am not sure. In most instances, at some point in the discussion they talk about finding steady work some day. Clearly what they are doing is a needs-based survival strategy rather than the fulfillment of some romantic dream.
- Crime. Poaching, drug trafficking, petty theft, food stamp fraud, public assistance fraud, disability fraud, etc. Yep. You want to find some professional welfare queens and fraudsters dwell? Don't think it is exclusive to the inner city. It is out in the country man. Out where everyone considered it a righteous strike against the big bad government. You got that right.
- The Government. County road commissions; the village; the city; the township; the state and even the federal government! Yep, with factory jobs and agricultural jobs stripped away, and little opportunity elsewhere in the economy, a goodly number of people in these communities work for the man! In my area we have five (5) prisons that employ corrections officers, clerks, etc. which amounts to a good number of jobs. Add in school bus drivers, and all local units of government and you have easily 1/3 of the workforce.
I'm from Ohio, and aside from the larger share of agricultural activity here in Michigan, Ohio's situation is much the same.
There was never any good old days
They are today, they are tomorrow
It's a stupid thing we say
Cursing tomorrow with sorrow
-- Eugene Hutz
They are today, they are tomorrow
It's a stupid thing we say
Cursing tomorrow with sorrow
-- Eugene Hutz