What happened to the Rust Belt?

What is the Rust Belt, and why is it Rusting? As it turns out, it's a combination of internal and external factors. I made this video in tandem with Mr. Beat, who made a video about the Sun Belt.

[douglaspeer]

I live in Pittsburgh, which has become something of an economic microcosm of America. After the collapse of industries in the area, Allegheny county and the city of Pittsburgh began to focus more on the service economy - especially healthcare, education, and technology. More wealth has poured into the local economy, but mostly just for those who could graduate into the middle class or move here. The suburbs of Allegheny county have grown steadily and have gotten more wealthy, but the city of Pittsburgh proper and the surrounding metro counties continue to shrink. The strange thing about the city of Pittsburgh is how gentrified its become, and many of the wealthiest neighborhoods are a stone's throw from the absolute poorest - which are also violent places under the radar. The outlying counties have some suburbs proper in their fringes, and rural areas have had some success by switching their economic focus to natural gas, but many of those small towns in those areas have gotten poorer and poorer and continue to shrink. With that said, Allegheny county has probably had the most success of any historically manufacturing based rust-belt economy in turning things around.

[jonver]

Indoor A/C also played a huge role. They could run factories in other places in the states which would’ve been too hot to consider Pre modern HVAC

[jlstout]

The rust belt needs to invest in making trade schools, and STEM (especially Engineering, and Technology) programs more affordable.

[dustywaxhead]

As someone from Southern California I hope you midwesterners and rust belters cam find propserity economically and spiritually. I know many jobs are moving to the sun belt (CA, TX, FL) making it tougher for those staying there. I could care less about difference in party lines, I just dont want media to fool us into pitting us "coastal elite" and "flyover americans". Truth is we want whats good for our families and communities. We need less political and social tribalism and more open dialogue.

[frankparise]

You failed to mentioned that a large chunk of the midwest's population couldn't move due economic reasons. Simply put, it's hard to move without the financial resources to do so.

[michaelwatson]

You missed an important factor in the change: education. The Europeans and Asians valued education, and strove to ensure a good education for all of its citizens. In the post World War 2 period, most of these countries ranged from poor to destitute, yet their children attended school, even if it was in a grass shack with a dirt floor. These efforts have borne great fruit for those countries. This is an important factor in the incredible recovery of the countries of those regions. These countries have and often surpassed the US. And education needs to be c9nsidered a factor in the process.

[kx]

The rust belt is where they pour salt on the roads. That is litterally what makes the rust belt the rust belt.

[joanblond]

I lived in Pittsburgh for 18 months during the late 80's. The people were incredibly intelligent and absolutely wonderful, but it was one of the most depressing experiences in my life. I still have my Pittsburgh dreams (which are always dark and grey). The people of Pittsburgh are doing everything they can to improve their city by emphasizing health care, education, and high tech. I admire Pittsburgh, but I just couldn't live there.

[MongoIndyleo]

This is such a simplification of facts that it feels dishonest. You didnt even mention how the economy of the US just shifted from goods-producing to service-producing.

[michellemarie]

People move to the sunbelt because of the weather, but people move to the rust belt despite the weather, I'd prefer living in someplace like Chicago VS a place like Houston TX, cities in the sunbelt aren't built like those in the rust belt, yeah sunbelt is different from California (and the entire west coast for that matter) with affordability and climate, BUT their cities are still spread out and not efficient with walkability or public transit, the only thing the sunbelt has is warm climate perfect for elderly or people who grow food cause it has longer growing season.

[Erie]

My city Cleveland never fully recovered but there is still some industry here like steel plants and ford and general motors plants. It also remains an important shipping hub linking the northeast to chicago

[battleshipsailor]

In 1993 NAFTA Was passed, which in a nutshell allowed corporations to move good paying jobs abroad.

[jonathanbowers]

The rust belt is more of a mixed bag than most people make it out to be. Sure you have horror stories like Flint and Gary, but you also have fast growing urban areas like Indianapolis and Columbus. Overall I would say that the Great Lakes Region is transitioning towards a knowledge and service economy based on a few successful cities and some with more managed declines. The cities that are floundering here tend to be those historically based on one industry (Detroit) or smaller in population (Dayton and Toledo). Overall I would say that things are pretty good for people who have degrees here and can handle the cold.

[lindatisue]

Blaming unions for the rust belt is wrong. Northern Europe have very strong unions, stronger than US unions in the 1970's. Consider what " tax cuts" have meant for industry. US infrastructure hasn't been up dated in more than thirty years, Malaysia and Thisland have better roads and rail than the US. Cut backs for public education, especially technical school, means that the is a vast pool of low skilled workers, that are really incompetent. Business have had to bear the burden of for profit health care costs, which means they have less money for capital machinery and investing in technology that would make them more productive.
Northern Europe has had some closed factories. Since their governments in invested in people instead of tax cuts and a military industrial complex, they have made the economic transition much better. They suffered far less from the 2008 economic crash, and recovered much faster. Part of this was due to unions demanding assistance for the population instead of the corporations.

[SwaggMos]

I hear this all the time about the Midwest dying but it's not really true because some of the fastest growing cities in the country are Minneapolis, Indianapolis Indiana Columbus Ohio, and even Grand Rapids Michigan.
The plant jobs been dead. Some cities in the Midwest have adjusted

[autopreneur]

Columbus and Indianapolis are growing. So are Cincinnati, Twin Cities, Omaha, and Kansas City. They're growing faster than some Southern ones, such as Memphis, Birmingham, and Jackson. Alabama (particularly Birmingham) is actually Rust Belt South.

[manofculture]

U.S. manufacturing jobs have declined, however, the U.S. manufacturing output has only increased since the '80s. The way to deal with automation job losses is to train people to take up the new and better jobs created by automation. If people in Asia can be trained to do those jobs then Americans can be trained for them as well.

[TheByTheSea]

two factors: at the time the bulk of the American population lived in the N.E. and upper Great Lakes, so all the factories were close to were tehre was demand. Today the Sunbelt continues to grow and there is need for construction material The South (just how many Home Depots are in Florida ? ), due to excessive demand national production is not enough, and today the bulk of materials are imported.Also these regions withe xpanding populations need to eat, and much produce is exported in.Most of all of this comes to the USA, by ships, even with expanding technology, it is beter to live by the coast, close to the ports

[skinnywizard]

I love how the world map doesn’t include Tasmania.

[billnotice]

Well you can t beat child and slave labor!!!