03-30-2009, 05:53 PM
swampy, those jobs left the "industrial North" years ago in most cases to go to the South. We made our adjustments years ago in most cases and areas. My hometown used to have a population of nearly 60K, 40 years later it is closer to 45K. Now the jobs are leaving the South, right to work state or not. You can continue living with your delusion that it means anything to the companies if you want, but it doesn't. The companies that left my area even took large cuts in productivity moving operations out chasing the lower labor cost, but in many cases the clincher was local and state tax and other incentives to locate there. Eventually they regained the productivity, but by automating processes that used to require skilled operators. Now they pay someone $10-12 an hour where they used to pay a more skilled person the equivalent of $18-20.