If you were POTUS, how would you fix the Rust Belt?

[Anonymous]

Conservative here – grew up in the Rust Belt in a working middle class home.

Trump pulled the perfect Jedi mind trick and people were so caught up in the fervor that many did not catch it – he clouded the issue. I was in my hometown a week after the election and a lot of people somehow thought that immigrants were taking the jobs THEY WANTED. These folks do want to pick apples or cut grass – they want the $25 dollar manufacturing jobs with benefits. They have a hard time understanding that the economy (and the lure of CHEAP labor overseas) makes those jobs obsolete. What they do know is that those manufacturing jobs (and the service industries derived from them) served as the foundation of the middle class in their cities. If you were a line worker at Ford or a brew worker at Miller, you were doing pretty well. However I do wonder whether people and corporations will actually want to make the sacrifices – because “fixing” the problem will require government market intervention on some levels. Here are a couple of observations.

1. The issue in many of these places is the lack of a consistent stable tax base. Relocating some government operations and giving a Federal incentive (in addition to state and local measures) for companies to move to certain areas and to hire and train local folks will help with this.
2. If you really want to get tough – even out the costs of manufacturing overseas through import tariffs or corporate level taxes. The issue is that folks may have to pay $800 for their iPhone – that’s the trade-off.
3. Many of these places will need a massive retooling away from typical Rust Belt jobs similar to what happened in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and is now starting to happen in Detroit. So invest in post HS education whether it be traditional college tuition or vocational education. Problem is that this does not solve the problem of the 45YO laid off line worker who would have to retrain.
4. As PP said, recognize that this is a bigger issue outside of the cities and requires a different mindset. Cities are a bit more organic and require less of a Federal touch. Focus outside of the cities.
5. Continue to give grads incentive through a bonus or student loan forgiveness to live and work in some of these areas – especially rural. The issue in many of these places is talent drain. Many kids head off to college and the big city and never come back and it is difficult to get folks to relocate to these areas.
6. Understand that is an issue that you cannot just throw money at. It is going to take a lot of cooperative work between the Feds and the state and local governments and it may requires Conservatives stepping away from a couple of their core planks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW Hamilton was pretty much okay with NYC being the seat of both finance and government.

The country was much different, geographically. Much smaller and no conception that much of it would be anything but rural.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Liberal pro-Hilary highly educated white collar working living in the rust belt, after some time all over east coast (and lots of international travel)....this thread is so clueless. The stereotyping is insane. Also, this isn't 'rust belt' versus east coast, it is urban v. rural....take a look at a blue/red map.

And what do I think it will take to fix this problem? We have a problem with wealth accumulation in this country. We need to invest in our working class, our poor and our middle class. The hollowing out isn't of the rust belt, it is off the middle class period. We need to re-invest in what has been abandon.

Sadly, the Republicans are the least likely to do this.

+1. Finally someone who makes some sense and has some idea what they are talking about (in stark contrast to the "shale" poster).

Yet they keep voting for Republicans.

I don't trust either party to face the problems cited in this thread. That's what happened in the election. It revealed a distrust of the 'establishment' on both sides

[Anonymous]

^me again. and I still don't trust an anti-establishment to address the issues. This is why you see a loss of hope, and desperation to give someone else a try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:... I would relocate most government agencies to the middle of the country to establish jobs with current federal workers willing to move and train locals for government jobs and the associated jobs that come with large employment centers.

Novel idea. There's no way the Founding Fathers ever wanted DC to become such a vulgar concentration of wealth. 7 of the top 10 richest counties!

+1.

Please identify the counties and metric used.

Media household income:

1 Loudoun County Virginia
$117,876
2 Fairfax County Virginia
$112,436
3 Howard County Maryland
$108,844
4 Hunterdon County New Jersey
$105,186
5 Arlington County Virginia
$100,474
6 Stafford County Virginia
$97,606
7 Putnam County New York
$96,223
8 Somerset County New Jersey
$95,825
9 Douglas County Colorado
$95,324
10 Morris County New Jersey
$95,294
11 Montgomery County Maryland
$94,965
12 Prince William County Virginia
$93,744

[Anonymous]

KS is not the rust belt, but it's an example of a failed economic policy by a conservative governor. It's a "what not to do" playbook:

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/national_world/2016/11/27/hard-times-for-kansas-as-economic-experiment-creates-gaping-budget-hole.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think there is a solution. I think if you look at the family trees of people trapped in the Rust Belt you'll find 200-plus years of uneducated poor people. The brief period of good income was an anomaly.

Hmmm, let us know how your DCs' college apps fare for the University of Michigan....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:... I would relocate most government agencies to the middle of the country to establish jobs with current federal workers willing to move and train locals for government jobs and the associated jobs that come with large employment centers.

Novel idea. There's no way the Founding Fathers ever wanted DC to become such a vulgar concentration of wealth. 7 of the top 10 richest counties!

You think the geographic concentration of wealth is the problem? You people are idiots. The problem is that everyone in Congress (elected or employed) is just going to leave to make a million dollars as a lobbyist or corporate shill. It doesn't matter that they all live in DC or anywhere else in the county. The wealth is the problem, not physically where it is located. We don't have citizen legislators anymore, they are only in it for their own interests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Conservative here – grew up in the Rust Belt in a working middle class home.

Trump pulled the perfect Jedi mind trick and people were so caught up in the fervor that many did not catch it – he clouded the issue. I was in my hometown a week after the election and a lot of people somehow thought that immigrants were taking the jobs THEY WANTED. These folks do want to pick apples or cut grass – they want the $25 dollar manufacturing jobs with benefits. They have a hard time understanding that the economy (and the lure of CHEAP labor overseas) makes those jobs obsolete. What they do know is that those manufacturing jobs (and the service industries derived from them) served as the foundation of the middle class in their cities. If you were a line worker at Ford or a brew worker at Miller, you were doing pretty well. However I do wonder whether people and corporations will actually want to make the sacrifices – because “fixing” the problem will require government market intervention on some levels. Here are a couple of observations.

1. The issue in many of these places is the lack of a consistent stable tax base. Relocating some government operations and giving a Federal incentive (in addition to state and local measures) for companies to move to certain areas and to hire and train local folks will help with this.
2. If you really want to get tough – even out the costs of manufacturing overseas through import tariffs or corporate level taxes. The issue is that folks may have to pay $800 for their iPhone – that’s the trade-off.
3. Many of these places will need a massive retooling away from typical Rust Belt jobs similar to what happened in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and is now starting to happen in Detroit. So invest in post HS education whether it be traditional college tuition or vocational education. Problem is that this does not solve the problem of the 45YO laid off line worker who would have to retrain.
4. As PP said, recognize that this is a bigger issue outside of the cities and requires a different mindset. Cities are a bit more organic and require less of a Federal touch. Focus outside of the cities.
5. Continue to give grads incentive through a bonus or student loan forgiveness to live and work in some of these areas – especially rural. The issue in many of these places is talent drain. Many kids head off to college and the big city and never come back and it is difficult to get folks to relocate to these areas.
6. Understand that is an issue that you cannot just throw money at. It is going to take a lot of cooperative work between the Feds and the state and local governments and it may requires Conservatives stepping away from a couple of their core planks.

Wow, very impressive - this is a great range of ideas, not hanging it all on re-education. Appreciate if you describe why you consider yourself a conservative. I think of many of these proposals to be traditional Democratic Party planks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:... I would relocate most government agencies to the middle of the country to establish jobs with current federal workers willing to move and train locals for government jobs and the associated jobs that come with large employment centers.

Novel idea. There's no way the Founding Fathers ever wanted DC to become such a vulgar concentration of wealth. 7 of the top 10 richest counties!

You think the geographic concentration of wealth is the problem? You people are idiots. The problem is that everyone in Congress (elected or employed) is just going to leave to make a million dollars as a lobbyist or corporate shill. It doesn't matter that they all live in DC or anywhere else in the county. The wealth is the problem, not physically where it is located. We don't have citizen legislators anymore, they are only in it for their own interests.

Well, the geographic concentration of wealth is also relevant. Wealth generates jobs in a range of "service" positions from contractors and plumbers to restaurant servers. The former can provide a "middle" working class income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First thing I would re-brand it by removing the liberal stink of calling part of our country the "rust belt" or "flyover country." After that I would relocate most government agencies to the middle of the country to establish jobs with current federal workers willing to move and train locals for government jobs and the associated jobs that come with large employment centers

Big shippers like Amazon would be stripped of local and state tax incentives that rob localities of much needed tax base to rebuild infrastructure and train locals for jobs

Get rid of teacher unions which cripple schools and expand teacher training programs so that smart people would return to the field and children would again learn math and reading

Provide incentives for people to marry (any one the want wherever they want) to stem the damage to children who do not have a parent in the house

Re institute the draft so that all 18-19 year old men and women would be in the military or do community service fir one year. Yes the Israeli model. Young men especially need the structure and service as a maturing process

Human beings want to be treated as humans

She who dreams the absurd achieves the impossible

Hmmm, have you considered that the "incentive" for people to marry may be jobs that pay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Conservative here – grew up in the Rust Belt in a working middle class home.

Trump pulled the perfect Jedi mind trick and people were so caught up in the fervor that many did not catch it – he clouded the issue. I was in my hometown a week after the election and a lot of people somehow thought that immigrants were taking the jobs THEY WANTED. These folks do want to pick apples or cut grass – they want the $25 dollar manufacturing jobs with benefits. They have a hard time understanding that the economy (and the lure of CHEAP labor overseas) makes those jobs obsolete. What they do know is that those manufacturing jobs (and the service industries derived from them) served as the foundation of the middle class in their cities. If you were a line worker at Ford or a brew worker at Miller, you were doing pretty well. However I do wonder whether people and corporations will actually want to make the sacrifices – because “fixing” the problem will require government market intervention on some levels. Here are a couple of observations.

1. The issue in many of these places is the lack of a consistent stable tax base. Relocating some government operations and giving a Federal incentive (in addition to state and local measures) for companies to move to certain areas and to hire and train local folks will help with this.
2. If you really want to get tough – even out the costs of manufacturing overseas through import tariffs or corporate level taxes. The issue is that folks may have to pay $800 for their iPhone – that’s the trade-off.
3. Many of these places will need a massive retooling away from typical Rust Belt jobs similar to what happened in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and is now starting to happen in Detroit. So invest in post HS education whether it be traditional college tuition or vocational education. Problem is that this does not solve the problem of the 45YO laid off line worker who would have to retrain.
4. As PP said, recognize that this is a bigger issue outside of the cities and requires a different mindset. Cities are a bit more organic and require less of a Federal touch. Focus outside of the cities.
5. Continue to give grads incentive through a bonus or student loan forgiveness to live and work in some of these areas – especially rural. The issue in many of these places is talent drain. Many kids head off to college and the big city and never come back and it is difficult to get folks to relocate to these areas.
6. Understand that is an issue that you cannot just throw money at. It is going to take a lot of cooperative work between the Feds and the state and local governments and it may requires Conservatives stepping away from a couple of their core planks.

Wow, very impressive - this is a great range of ideas, not hanging it all on re-education. Appreciate if you describe why you consider yourself a conservative. I think of many of these proposals to be traditional Democratic Party planks.

Well, I am a Conservative for many reasons that I do not want to get into here. But on this particular question of "fixing" the Rust Belt, I know firsthand how the priorities of working class Republicans differ from the Republican elites. I am also a pragmatist. I believe in letting the market work generally, but in some of these places, government effort is required to get them to a place where the market can function. A lot my fellow Conservatives do not embrace that - which is why I said it may require them to step away from the platform.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have all sorts of ideas, that will work. They are really good ones, but I am not going to share them.

Vote for me though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The most successful model I have seen in rust belt cities is to make the city center attractive for white collar industries, particularly IT and IS. If you have a decent city center, the low cost of living becomes an advantage in building companies up. This brings more money into the local economy and creates jobs in supporting industries.

But that does not help the blue collar worker to get the job they want to have. They need to find new skills to make a good living. It happened to blacksmiths, it happened to farmers, and it needs to happen for manufacturing. It will affect every major occupation over time. No industry is invulnerable to obsolescence.

A college degree related to a decent profession is pretty much a necessity now, give or take the occasional dropout who makes it big. So we need to make college affordable for them. And we are probably talking about the kids coming up, not the 45 year old who lost his career when the paper plant shut down.

Trump tried to provide them with new skills at Trump University. Don't your recall?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW Hamilton was pretty much okay with NYC being the seat of both finance and government.

The country was much different, geographically. Much smaller and no conception that much of it would be anything but rural.

Richer urban areas and poorer agricultural areas, with vast wealth disparities. That hasn't changed.