US pays a high social price for its shrinking manufacturing sector
US pays a high social price for its shrinking manufacturing sector
- There, declining economic vitality has had consequences far beyond dollars and cents. Aside from helping put Donald Trump in the White House, America’s shrinking manufacturing sector appears to have damaged social structures and health. Morbidity and even suicide rates have increased in parts of the US, especially in the so-called rust belt in the northeast of the country, where manufacturing has suffered. The US significantly cut barriers to trade with China in 2000, inviting waves of cheap goods that hit its heavily manufacturing-dependent regions hard. The number of manufacturing jobs fell three million to about 14 million in only a few years.
- There, declining economic vitality has had consequences far beyond dollars and cents. Aside from helping put Donald Trump in the White House, America’s shrinking manufacturing sector appears to have damaged social structures and health. Morbidity and even suicide rates have increased in parts of the US, especially in the so-called rust belt in the northeast of the country, where manufacturing has suffered. The US significantly cut barriers to trade with China in 2000, inviting waves of cheap goods that hit its heavily manufacturing-dependent regions hard. The number of manufacturing jobs fell three million to about 14 million in only a few years.