Manufacturing Belt

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

The Manufacturing Belt, more commonly known as the Rust Belt, is an area in parts of the Northeastern United States, Mid-Atlantic States, and portions of the Upper Midwest. The region can be broadly defined as the region beginning west of the BosWash corridor and running west to eastern Wisconsin. The region extends southward to the beginnings of the coal mining regions of Appalachia, north to the Great Lakes and includes manufacturing regions of southern Ontario in Canada.

Economic activity in the Manufacturing Belt forms a significant part of the heavy industry and manufacturing sectors of the American economy. Contraction of manufacturing jobs has left many cities in this region in bad shape, forcing the area—the focal point on the continent for a recovering automobile industry—to diversify. Emerging technologies in this region (including hydrogen fuel cell development, nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information technology) have helped revitalize its economy.

Geographic definition

Although manufacturing exists nationwide, the region is roughly defined as comprising the northern sections of Indiana and Ohio; the Lower Peninsula of Michigan; New York, especially around Buffalo; New York City and Northern New Jersey; most of Pennsylvania; and the northern part of West Virginia, particularly the Northern Panhandle. Other cities such as Baltimore, Maryland, and Wilmington, Delaware which share important economic characteristics are sometimes included. Saint Louis, Missouri may be considered to be a manufacturing center, although the surrounding parts of Missouri and Illinois aren't part of the region.

Sometimes, the adjacent portions of the Canadian province of Ontario (particularly the southern and southwestern parts) are included as well, giving the concept an international dimension. This portion includes heavily industrial centers such as Hamilton, St. Catharines and Windsor.

History

The area emerged as a center of manufacturing and heavy industry because of its location. Ready sources of coal just to the south in West Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky as well as in western and northeastern Pennsylvania; an immigration-driven population boom in the late 19th century; and easy access to shipping on the Great Lakes, and to the East Coast via canals, and later railroads. The region was one of the first in the United States to see railroad service, with some of the earliest railroads such as the Allegheny Portage Railroad located within the region. Coal, iron ore and other raw materials were shipped in from surrounding regions to cities such as Pittsburgh and Gary, which became centers of the steel industry. Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, Detroit, and Toledo emerged as major ports on the Great Lakes and served as transportation hubs for the region with a proximity to railroad lines.

The decline in manufacturing jobs is a hotly debated topic in the region. One popular culprit has been globalization and the expansion of worldwide free trade agreements. Anti-globalization opponents argue that trade with developing countries has resulted in stiff competition from countries with much lower prevailing wages, forcing domestic wages to drift downward to compete. Another likely—but less commonly discussed—cause has been the increased transportation integration and migratory patterns within the United States, as proximity to energy sources has become less important and access to the booming populations and lower-wage labor markets of the Sunbelt has shifted a large share of new US manufacturing investment to these locations. A centuries-old trend to replace expensive labor with cheap technology has reduced the number of unskilled workers necessary to manufacture goods. Much of the manufacturing once done by workers is now done more efficiently by robots, reducing the total number of manufacturing jobs needed for a given level of output.

The decline of American manufacturing employment led to the moniker Rust Belt, emphasizing the abandonment of factories in the Northeast and Midwest. Despite the decline in overall manufacturing employment, manufacturing output in the USA rises steadily. Although there have been decreases in the output of tradeable goods since 2000 resulting in part from trade issues, the US remains one of the world's pre-eminent manufacturing areas. American manufacturing has moved away from labor-intensive processes (which are cheaper in low-wage countries) and toward high-value products and advanced robotized manufacturing. Despite its difficulties, the area is the center of the number one exporting region in the US.

In recent years, many inner city populations in the region have shifted to the suburbs. Examples from the 2000 U.S. Census include Detroit, Flint, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Erie, Niagara Falls, which is an important center for the chemical industry, Buffalo, Binghamton, Rochester, Akron, Toledo, Syracuse, St. Louis (since 2002 has had slow population growth [c.1000 per year]) and many more, despite revitalized downtown areas. Northern states have mounted a "Cool Cities" initiative to reverse the trend. The 2004 population estimate showed Manufacturing Belt states averaged around 2% net growth even as many of those in retirement age moved southward.

Some economists regard manufacturing as a wealth producing sector of an economy, whereas a service sector tends to be wealth consuming. Economists who favor a strong manufacturing base oppose outsourcing for the sake of labor arbitrage to obtain cheap labor as an example of absolute advantage which does not produce mutual gain, and not an example of comparative advantage which does. Emerging technologies have provided some new growth in advanced manufacturing employment opportunities in the Manufacturing Belt in the United States. Manufacturing provides important material support for national infrastructure and for national defense.

Notes

References

American Steel, Richard Preston (1991), Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-029604-X
Images of the Rust Belt, James Jeffery Higgins (1999), Kent State University Press. ISBN 0-87338-626-4
Industrial Sunset, Steven High (2003), University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-8528-8
Meyer, David R. "Midwestern Industrialization and the American Manufacturing Belt in the Nineteenth Century". Vol. 49, No. 4 (Dec., 1989) pp. 921-937. The Journal of Economic History, , JSTOR.
People and folks: gangs, crime, and the underclass in a rust- belt city, John Hagedorn and Perry Macon (1988), Lake View Press. ISBN 0-941702-21-9
Reorganizing the Rust Belt, Steven Henry Lopez (2004), University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23565-7
Revival in the rust belt, Daniel R. Denison and Stuart L. Hill (1987), University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-87944-322-7.

External links

Industrial Heartland photo