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No Mexican left behind
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | Monday, November 1, 2004 | editorial

Posted on 11/01/2004 8:50:08 AM PST by Willie Green

Publicly financed incentives of $50 million got Lazarus and Lord & Taylor to the center city but did not keep them.

These are but a slice of the loser's strategy -- using public "investments" and "incentives" in an attempt to stimulate markets that already have signaled their desperate weakness.

Instead, aren't investments into strength the smart business strategy?

Pittsburgh is not unique. In Galesburg, Ill., officials trusted that a smorgasbord of tax breaks coupled with union concessions would save the Maytag refrigerator factory. Maytag closed in September, costing the city 1,600 jobs. Maytag is moving the work to a plant in Mexico, where labor is so damned cheap.

(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; Mexico
KEYWORDS: employment; globalism; manufacturing; nafta; subsidies; thebusheconomy; trade; wagesandbenefits
When value-added manufacturing jobs leave a region,
even government subsidized retail services flop.
1 posted on 11/01/2004 8:50:09 AM PST by Willie Green
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To: neutrino; gubamyster

ping


2 posted on 11/01/2004 8:52:45 AM PST by Willie Green (Hawkins/Tonnelson in 2004!!!)
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To: Willie Green

The northern unionized states still have not faced the fact that nobody is going to pay union wages for producing its products.

These states still cling onto the notion that America will automatically default back to the way it was 40-50 years ago. And these are the same leaders who call themselves "progressives".

I talk to older steel mill workers all the time. They'll give lipservice to actual change, but you don't have to listen too long to hear them saying "
Until they wake up and realize the present situation, they are doomed to decine slowly into oblivion.


3 posted on 11/01/2004 9:13:00 AM PST by wrathof59 (semper ubi sub ubi)
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To: wrathof59

>>>"The northern unionized states still have not faced the fact that nobody is going to pay union wages for producing its products."

I agree.

Time-warp-Northern-union-states-locked-in-downward-spiral bump

Hoppy


4 posted on 11/01/2004 9:22:29 AM PST by Hop A Long Cassidy
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To: Hop A Long Cassidy

So long as there are a sizable but decreasing number of union jobs paying 35-50 grand a year, the rest of the states populations will be reluctant to act.

There is very little manufacturing left in the Chicagoland/ NW Indiana region and every year a few more thousand go by the wayside.

In the Chicago downtown and immediate surrounding area, Mayor Daley loved the small factory to yuppie loft conversion boom 15-20 years ago. Now reality has taken place., all those factory jobs are gone forever.

Last year Fannie Mae, a very popular candy store with many locations, went BK and shudderred a west side manufacturing plant, laying off a few hundred unionized workers. Last week I read where they will reopen about 40 locations, with the candy being produced in the new owners Ohio Plant. And the old Chicago union boss of the laid off workers proudly states "They still have to deal with us, we'll take them to court before they open any store?"

Who in the hell would want the headache?, these unions are a bunch of @ssholes.


5 posted on 11/01/2004 9:38:21 AM PST by wrathof59 (semper ubi sub ubi)
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To: Hop A Long Cassidy; wrathof59
You two are the ones who are stuck in a time warp.
Organized labor representation of our blue collar workforce peaked back in the '50s and has been in decline ever since. Unions now represent only 16% of our factory workers while membership of government employees (including teachers) has skyrocketed to over 40%.

Get your heads out of your butts.
The liberals haven't controlled the blue collar demographic since Reagan won them over in his landslide victories. The 'Rats abandoned them in favor of the enviro-whackos and all the other Hollyweird politically correct issues. It's shameful that Dubya and the GOP have rejected Ronald Reagan's leadership with this hard-working constituency. Their global commitment to slave wages only empowers twits like Kerry.

6 posted on 11/01/2004 9:51:10 AM PST by Willie Green (Hawkins/Tonnelson in 2004!!!)
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To: wrathof59

Bite me swill eater!


7 posted on 11/01/2004 10:00:51 AM PST by Just_de_facts
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To: wrathof59

it is not jsut the workers. managers still think they live in the protected environment too.


8 posted on 11/01/2004 2:43:53 PM PST by q_an_a
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