Rust Belt
From Free net encyclopedia
The Rust Belt, formerly known as the Manufacturing Belt, is an area in the northeastern and upper midwestern United States, roughly between Chicago and New York City, whose economy was formerly based largely on heavy industry, manufacturing, and associated industries. This area is roughly defined as comprising the northern sections of Indiana and Ohio; the northeastern corner of Illinois; the Lower Peninsula of Michigan; the Lake Michigan shoreline of Wisconsin; western and central New York; at least the western half of Pennsylvania; and the northern part of West Virginia, especially that state's Northern Panhandle. Sometimes the adjacent portions of the Canadian province of Ontario (particularly the southern and southwestern parts) is included as well, giving the concept an international dimension.
Although Chicago is often included in the rust belt, it does not share the same characteristics as rust belt cities. Chicago is not only a primary manufacturing center, but also a leader in the financial, retail, and business services industries. Also, unlike rust belt cities, the last decade has shown population growth in Chicago. On the other end, New York City is not included, due to its primary purpose as being a financial and business center, but nearby cities in New Jersey such as Newark or Paterson often are included in the Rust Belt. So in essence, the Rust belt can broadly be defined as the region between New York City and Chicago.
With the expansion of worldwide free trade agreements in the 1960s, it became far cheaper to produce heavy industrial goods such as steel in third world countries and import them into the United States in addition to hiring cheap foreign labor. Beginning with the recession of 1969-71, a dreary pattern emerged: In that downturn and in the ones that followed, manufacturing jobs disappeared, to be replaced by much lower-paying positions (mostly in the service industry) when the economy recovered. As a result, the economy of Rust Belt states was devastated as one factory after another was driven out of business and closed down.
In recent years, the big city populations in the Rust Belt are decreasing. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Detroit, Flint, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Akron, Toledo, Syracuse, Youngstown, Milwaukee and many more are some of the fastest-shrinking big cities in the US, despite attempts to revitalize their downtown areas. In the 2004 population estimate, it showed that the Rust Belt states were the weakest in growth, averaging less than 2% for new growth, compared to the large percentage of new growth in the Sun Belt. The region is called the Frost Belt or the Snowbelt as a way to more directly contrast the term Sun Belt, which is the fastest growing region of the US.
The areas are so called because of the unused, rusting machinery left over from the industrial production days, the rusting infrastructure (such as old highway overpasses), and because the salt used to de-ice roads during the area's heavy winters tends to rust automobiles quickly. The term "Rust Belt" is a neologism created by analogy to Sun Belt, Grain Belt and Bible Belt.
See also
References
- American Steel, Richard Preston (1991), Prentice Hall. ISBN 013029604X
- Images of the Rust Belt, James Jeffery Higgins (1999), Kent State University Press. ISBN 0873386264
- Industrial Sunset, Steven High (2003), University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0802085288
- People and folks: gangs, crime, and the underclass in a rust- belt city, John Hagedorn and Perry Macon (1988), Lake View Press. ISBN 0941702219
- Reorganizing the Rust Belt, Steven Henry Lopez (2004), University of California Press. ISBN 0520235657
- Revival in the rust belt, Daniel R. Denison and Stuart L. Hill (1987), University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0879443227.
| "Belt" regions of the United States |
|---|
| Bible Belt | Black Belt | Corn Belt | Frost Belt | Grain Belt | Jello Belt | Rice Belt | Rust Belt | Sun Belt | Snowbelt |