I live in the rust belt,, E. PA.. in my life time I have seen ALL the Sewing mills cols up and go over seas,, I have witnessed the Shoe factories all close up and leave why pay this Moms ( I have to be sexes because 95 5 of the employees were women in these jobs ) a little over mim wage when you can go to India of Malaysia or Costa Rico and pay one Hours wage for a Full Days work.. Then there Bethlehem steel.. over 16.000
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Well my "roots" are also in the coal regions of Penna... and that industry closed up decades ago and my grandmothers home (and the entire town) of Mt Carmel was purchased then bull dozed by the Federal Government because of underground mine fires...
My Dad left the area and went to work in the Baltimore Steel mills the day after he got out of high school
and today is 86, and without Health Insurance because the Bankruptcy court ruled that Bethlehem no longer had to pay for retires Health Insurance and his pension was reduced and that too may disapear...
Anyway I am now retired and the only bright spot to the loss of jobs in the many many small sewing factories that kept this region alive the last 20 years is that the real estate prices in most of those small towns are kind of depressed... well that statement is extremely understated ...below dirt cheap is a better way of putting it...!
Spent a few days a couple of years ago visiting and got into a conversation with a few locals about just how low the prices would go...(like an very nice home selling for $20,000 and taking 6 months to even get that price.)
The bright spot FOR ME...is that I have been looking at moving there in my retirement...the area is absolutely beautiful, the people are friendly, still plenty of deer to be had during deer season... the farmers are pretty much
used to snowmobiles flying across their back 40 and nobody causes any damage to anyones property...
NOW if they only had a "little" warmer climate ,,, lol BUT If I sell my home for 3-400,000 buy a nice home in one of those small towns for $20,000 put some of the balance into a good heating system for the $100,000 garage I could build and take my wife out every day for breakfast lunch and dinner I could "subsist" for more then a few years...
Wish I had some answers BUT the only jobs that are available are jobs in the service sector of the economy and
they pay extremely poorly...not much more then McDonalds...
Bob Griffiths
68 SS 396 Chevelle
64 & 72 Corvette RagTops
76 79 & 95 Corvette Coupes
