When a community relies on an industry and it fails...What sector keeps your community alive?

a reply to: Asktheanimals


Relying on any help is like being in a cargo cut waiting for the drop. The basics are the main thing and are not hard to organise. Exept for one big glaring problem which is land usage. Some paid individual will tell you that you cant dig and grow there.

I know there are small communities making a go of it by becoming part of the local supply chain for the larger industries that are located in the larger cities.

This area of the midwest is forming a bio-corridor with a bio-industries strength between several larger bio-corps and two local unis and then two more further along one end of the interstate and another up the other end of the same interstate and another two more larger unis to the north.

All those laboratories are looking for local suppliers for their basic needs and some towns are stepping in to house those smaller businesses. My husband has been active auditing at some of those smaller bio-facilities in the region.

So, sometimes, it's a matter of being able to respond to what the big boys want and need and being able to set up smaller cottage industries to become suppliers that can keep your town going.

originally posted by: Cassi3l
a reply to: crayzeed

Don't mention her name...

I'd have said the "Pits" too, and the the Shipyards, and the Steelworks
all of their communities undone, people left with no hope, no future...

And then, yeah, people being conned into a astart up, using redundancy money

Just awful, awfull, awfull

The irony though, given the way the wind is turning
maybe it would be an idea to think about getting into growing weed

That was due to the Lima Declaration of 1975, signed by the previous government. The rest of the world saw how the USA was booming in the early 1970's. They wanted a slice of the pie. The Arab countries saw how their oil was being used to drive the economy, so they jacked up the prices causing an energy crisis.

After unification East Germany had to close down their manufacturing. You will find that just about every Western country has offshored manufacturing to China, especially if it polluted the environment.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
coming from West Texas, i know all about boom/bust economy.

The only answer is diversity. Its hard in the oil fields because they pay so damn much that no one can compete during a boom. I ran a call center employing mostly the wives and girlfriends of folks who ended up in the oilfield during the boom that we saw back in 2007. The ladies stopped working to account for the long shifts their significant others worked, and my call center closed down due to no employees.

But in a community lacking the boom/bust cycle, the only answer is diversity. And a solid economic development group that actively seeks industry.

That is the same in the NE of Scotland, Aberdeen. Main industries are tourism (Bed and Breakfasts, hotels), oil (about 10,000 jobs) and education (universities, colleges). Went to high school during the oil boom. A school that normally had 1200 students, had over 2000. Economy was booming back then. There was a big issue over the fact that oil worker contractors with no formal qualifications could earn 40K+ a year, while university graduates like teachers could only earn 25K. That kind of salary differential led to teachers going on strike, and ultimately ending up being priced out of the city and having to commute in by car for 10 miles in and out each day. Homes that used to cost £6000 in the 1960s, became £80K in the 1980's, and are now worth £210K+ now.

Oil workers had the best strategy of building up as much money as possible, then buying a large country house at the same time, which would be run as a B&B once he retired.

Agriculture.

Wheat. Peas (not near as much as it used to.) Grapes, for winemaking, and wine making. Some truck farming. Same as it's been for over a century, actually longer than that.

Some light industry. An aviation company, Cessna I think, wanted to come in here in late 90's, would have been around 1000, perhaps more, well paying jobs, but that sixty or seventy acres of wheat was much more important...

County commissioners axed it, Cessna said "So sad", and went else where. Didn't even look back. I was at that meeting, in the crowd, and there were some pissed off people. Myself, included.

Thanks for all the interesting replies folks, just what I was looking for. It's crazy how diverse industry is in even a small island like Britain, never mind the vastness of the US.
I've been watching youtubes about the decline of Detroit, it is fascinating and tragic...