Reindustrialisation – A Generational Project :USA Needs A Long Term Approach
rajiv upadhyay
Reindustrialisation – A Generational Project :USA Needs A Long Term Approach
Shubhranshu
Loss of manufacturing in a country is not only shutting down of factories. Its repercussions are far deeper and wider. Factories are run over by nature, machines and assembly lines jam up, corrode, rust and crumble and can never be revived. Industrial towns are abandoned; one only has to look at the fate that befell once celebrated industrial cities of USA – Detroit, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and many more, where populations have declined to half or a third of their peak. People move out to seek other avenues of earning. Shops and restaurants, schools and colleges, town halls and parks, hospitals and offices, car dealerships and cab companies, all shut down. The loss of jobs is several times larger than just those of shop floor workers. All this is only because some unknown city across the ocean can sell cars and steel, televisions and toys a few percent cheaper.
What is worse is that the very backbone of the affected industry is broken. Skilled workers, who could make the finest cars and implements, toys and gadgets scatter, never to come back together under one roof to recreate the magic. The entire supply-chains, which typically come from the Medium and Small Industries (MSMEs), dry up since the bulk buyer has downed its shutters. MSMEs are the major job creators in any country and economy. Shutting down of these smaller units is devastating though not as spectacular as that of a car company. The latter’s loss of business is a subject of headlines and debates but not of the feeder small industries even though the impact on jobs and livelihood of workers of these MSMEs is far bigger. Entire capital is wiped out and bankruptcies are more common among MSMEs. Their employees often have lower levels of social security and entire families are driven to penury.
What Happens When a Car Factory Shuts Down?
