> Everyone knows what happened in Detroit and Milwaukee and
> St Louis and other blighted cities, but do people actually
> stop and think about what really happened?
I don't think it's limited to those areas, that's just where it's just really obvious because they were hit the hardest. There are so many areas of the country where manufacturing was a good, steady job.
On a positive note, I work for a startup that's been sitting at two different tech incubators in the past year, and it's clear to me that advancements in technology will continue to create jobs.
Many of the jobs in factories weren't low-skilled. I think our perception is skewed because we have more power in our pockets than a Cray in 1994. The knowledge worker is the new machinist. Machinists were the skilled workers who could fix machines. Knowledge workers can write software to keep business processes running, administer systems and networks to keep them running.
What is the next wave of highly skilled worker going to be? Will the rise in MOOCs redefine what a highly skilled worker is?
You're right that many of the jobs were skilled labor. But like I mentioned, when the factories closed down, skilled labor moved out of town. They had the ability to do that because they had money and their skills were not readily available in the marketplace. Unskilled labor doesn't have that advantage.
The idea is that blighted cities, no matter where they are, need to fix the unskilled labor problem before they can truly solve the downward slump.
I don't think it's limited to those areas, that's just where it's just really obvious because they were hit the hardest. There are so many areas of the country where manufacturing was a good, steady job.
On a positive note, I work for a startup that's been sitting at two different tech incubators in the past year, and it's clear to me that advancements in technology will continue to create jobs.
Many of the jobs in factories weren't low-skilled. I think our perception is skewed because we have more power in our pockets than a Cray in 1994. The knowledge worker is the new machinist. Machinists were the skilled workers who could fix machines. Knowledge workers can write software to keep business processes running, administer systems and networks to keep them running.
What is the next wave of highly skilled worker going to be? Will the rise in MOOCs redefine what a highly skilled worker is?