America's fastest dying cities

[kandrathe]

When I lived in Italy, there was a monthly strike by workers at a steel plant that had been closed for a decade, and whose heavy equipment was being shipped to China monthly, on ships that pulled into Pozzuoli harbor.

Americans aren't the only fools in the global market.

Occhi

Yes, a local strike is meaningless in a global market. At the other end of the spectrum, how many open H1B visas does the US have to import foreign white collar workers? The US is pretty well known for brain drain in science and engineering. There are some exceptions, like embryonic cell biology, and nuclear physics. Much of the problems in Ohio, Michigan, and the exa-burbs of Chicago are due to a lack of diversification in their economies. In my locality, Minnesota, our government has conciously recruited diverse industries to offset the losses of northern Minnesota iron mining shut down. Minnesota could be a real "economic Mecca" if it weren't for the unusually high corporate taxes here that tempt companies to relocate. We have most everything else a burgeoning company would need to be successful. Our cold winters and hot summers scare away the faint of heart, and gold brickers. BTW, Arizona and Nevada are #1 and #2 for state growth in GDP, which mirrors their population growth.

For our international friends, I like this map. :) I guess it has some inaccuracies, but it punctuates the sheer size of the US economy.