Integration is not the Opposite of Segregation

[The Grand Nudger]

Well, that's true. By the time whites caught a cold, blacks would have pneumonia and befo whites got a headache blacks would have a stroke.

The final insult of african american history may be that enfranchisement came too little, too late.  

"They even took our crime...and then.....by the time we could take anything back, there was nothing left".  

But I'm not familiar with the decline of white communities. What are some examples of what you're talking about?

Rust belt communities stand out, but rural american communities have been in marked decline for even longer (something that, amusingly, the rust belts former glory helped to hurry along). Our most recent election is an example of those declining white communities lashing out at a convenient foe, not that it's going to help them in any way...but meh.

[Rhondazvous]

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Well, that's true. By the time whites caught a cold, blacks would have pneumonia and befo whites got a headache blacks would have a stroke.

The final insult of african american history may be that enfranchisement came too little, too late.  

"They even took our crime...and then.....by the time we could take anything back, there was nothing left".  

But I'm not familiar with the decline of white communities. What are some examples of what you're talking about?

Rust belt communities stand out, but rural american communities have been in marked decline for even longer (something that, amusingly, the rust belts former glory helped to hurry along).  Our most recent election is an example of those declining white communities lashing out at a convenient foe, not that it's going to help them in any way...but meh.

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Gee, just the name "Rust Belt" says it all. The ramifications of this decline isn't limited to that region. Without our industrial center, the nation itself cannot compete in a global market. That's the price we pay when we write people off just because they live in another region, compise another sector of society or belong to another group.

[The Grand Nudger]

We didn't outsource or divest because we wrote someone off...we did it because it makes financial sense to do so.  That's the problem, particular to the rust belt, for example.  The people took it personally, like someone had personally done this to them, personally written them off, they personify economic trends...and then lash out at whomever it is they associate with the personification. Mexicans....koreans...what have you.

[Autumnlicious]

The Rust Belt lost out to the bane of all industrial powerhouses: Shifting economics.

When it became clear there were cheaper, near-unregulated places and transport costs were rock bottom, the banks and the Captains of Industry set sail for new lands and left the ruins of an undiversified economy.

Oddly enough, the Rust Belts demise has more in common with the death of a resource economy than I'd expect. It was no more personal than a virus.

[Rhondazvous]

Then it’s clear what’s going on. And clear that nobody in power is offering the rust belt a viable solution. Trump makes them feel he’s on their side by blaming the same false culprits they blame—other ethnic groups, regulation, environmentalists, unions.

Starving people aren’t going to look past their immediate anger and imagine what it would be like to not have minimum wage and be paid just enough money that they can’t claim to be slaves. Open cans of deregulated food not knowing what they’re eating. Having a deathly sick child at home alone because your boss said show up or you’re fired and there’s no money for a doctor. Retirement? Fageddit.

Vote for me in 2020. I have a dream of reeducating people in the rust belt to work in an economy restructured around clean energy. They would work building the new infrastructure and solar plants. If they could watch the gauges in a coil factory, they can watch the gauges in a nuclear plant. They’re not so spoiled for choices that they wouldn’t take these jobs.

[The Grand Nudger]

That's the trouble, building an economy around any single thing will produce the same effect as it having been built around any other single thing.  Whether detroit built cars or solar panels, it would have failed as production of that item moved. There is no particular product immune to the forces that affect all manufacturing as a category of industry, just as there is no ethnic group immune to the same.

[Rhondazvous]

That's the trouble, building an economy around any single thing will produce the same effect as it having been built around any other single thing.  Whether detroit built cars or solar panels, it would have failed as production of that item moved.  There is no particular product immune to the forces that affect all manufacturing as a category of industry, just as there is no ethnic group immune to the same.

Would you say that it was the focus on one product? Or is it just that nothing is permanent and the economy has to be able to roll with the punches?

Spreading resources means no product is getting 100%. You don't get more pie by slicing it into many pieces. It's the same pie and it's not permanent so we'd still need a way to move forward when it goes to seed.

There is such a thing as a business cycle. This up and down cycle is expected. Conglomerates have a broader customer base but they're not immune to the cycle which is why they out source, leaving the community behind. What can a community do that would allow it to permanently remain wealthy?

[The Grand Nudger]

The person who could answer that'd be alot wealthier than you or I.