We have towns like that here, too, Shimrod... If you drive thru downtown Youngstown, Ohio, it's block after block of boarded up buildings where there used to be shops, department stores and restaurants... All empty since the Japanese stole our steel industry in the 80s and the "Jeanette Furnace" was closed down...

"With Jenny burnin'
things gonna be all right"

(from a song I wrote about Youngstown entitled "Youngstown Night...)

The theft of our steel industry is a prime example of what can happen when government has it's blinders on and refuses to participate pro-actively in the global economy... This is purdy much what we hear from Tea Bag Nation... They are ignorant of economic theory/practice and think simple solutions such a "free trade" will just magically fix everything... They blame the government when those approaches don't work, however, but are too darned stubborn in their ignorance to bother to learn how economies work and how little "free trade" exists in the real world of tax loopholes, subsidies, tariffs, currency manipulation, etc. ...

But like I have said many times, these people will seek out the very best doctor if they get cancer but are perfectly willing to turn the government over to angry people who don't understand economics any better than they do????

Go figure???

B~