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Rust Belt
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The Rust Belt, sometimes called the Manufacturing 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 Minnesota, particularly the city of Duluth and the Iron Range.
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Encyclopedia
The Rust Belt, sometimes called the Manufacturing 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 Minnesota, particularly the city of Duluth and the Iron Range. Because the area's economy was defined by the steel industry and other heavy manufacturing, Minnesota – with its massive iron mining operations integral to steel – is often considered to be "where the Rust Belt begins". The area immediate to Lake Erie is considered to be the "hub" of the Rust Belt. 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 and Quebec in Canada.
Economic activity in the Rust Belt forms a significant part of the heavy industry and manufacturing sectors of the American economy. The term Rust Belt signified the collapse of the steel industry and the restructuring of industry, with the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in the region. Contraction of manufacturing jobs has dislocated many workers in this region, particularly in Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Syracuse, Duluth, Milwaukee, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Youngstown, Ohio, Erie, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Gary, Indiana, forcing the area — the focal point on the continent for the automobile industry — to diversify or decay. Emerging technologies in this region — including hydrogen fuel cell development, nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and wind power — may help revitalize the economy of affected communities.
Geographic definition
Although manufacturing exists nationwide, the region is roughly defined as comprising the northern sections of Illinois (particularly the South Side of Chicago), Indiana, and Ohio; eastern and northern Minnesota; southeastern and northwestern Wisconsin; the Lower Peninsula of Michigan; Western and Central New York, especially around Buffalo and Syracuse; Northern New Jersey and the outer boroughs of New York City; most of Pennsylvania; far western portion of the Maryland panhandle; 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 a manufacturing center, although the surrounding parts of Missouri and Illinois are not 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 Ontario cities such as Hamilton, St. Catharines, Sarnia and Windsor. Just to north, Toronto, despite a diverse concentration of manufacturing industries is not included because of its long held position as a finance, banking, media and transportation center within Canada.
History
The area emerged as a primary center of manufacturing and industry due to access to resources and its proximity to navigable waterways. Ready sources of coal lay 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 provided workers for expanding industries; and easy access to shipping on the Great Lakes, and to the East Coast, was possible via canals, and later railroads. The region was one of the first in the United States to build railroad service (i.e., the Allegheny Portage Railroad). Coal, iron ore and other raw materials were shipped in from surrounding regions to cities such as Pittsburgh, Gary, Buffalo, Cleveland, and Youngstown, Ohio, which became centers of the steel industry. Duluth, Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Toledo emerged as major ports on the Great Lakes and served as transportation hubs for the region with a proximity to railroad lines.
Outsourcing of 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 groups argue that trade with developing countries has resulted in stiff competition from countries such as China, India, and Brazil with much lower prevailing wages, forcing domestic wages to drift downward to compete.
However, some conservative and libertarian writers have argued that free trade creates more jobs than it destroys, and that the real cause of the problems in the Rust Belt states are their high state and local taxes, as well as their closed shop union policies.
Another likely (but less commonly discussed) cause has been the increased transportation integration and migratory patterns within the United States; 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 U.S. 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.
In the second half of the 20th century, many of the cities had an expansion in their suburban populations. Examples from the 2000 U.S. Census include Detroit, Flint, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Erie, Duluth, Niagara Falls, which is an important center for the chemical industry, Buffalo, Binghamton, Rochester, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Akron, Toledo, Syracuse, St. Louis (since 2002 has had slow population growth, about 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 Rust Belt states averaged around 2% net growth due do younger people, even as many of those in retirement age moved southward.
Because the politically pivotal states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin are in this region, presidential candidates have been asked to respond to the economic challenges of these communities.
See also
External links
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