How to tear down a factory

[Batgirl]

Demolition of the Delphi/former GM factory in my neck of the woods is going great guns but most people don't actually realize how far along it is.

Sure it's been mentioned in the papers. The strips of lawn haven't been mowed all season and there are a few backhoes sitting about. So most people have to realize on some level, maybe the future isn't so bright for this landmark and former backbone of the local economy that's been here for several generations now.

In fact, things still look pretty normal -- except my brother (among the tiny number of workers left there, who've been relocated to a distant, smaller part of the facility) told us the demolition is actually progressing rather quickly, you just can't see it unless you really slow down and look. Then you'll see there's something strange about the windows in those exterior brick walls -- there's daylight on the other side. That's because there's no roof. Also no rear wall. And from certain angles you can see the tops of the huge piles of rubble inside. This rubble is the remnants of the interior of the structure, ground to pieces and waiting to be hauled away on the trucks.

When they're done scooping out the insides and hauling it away, the day will come when all that's left to do is flip those exterior walls inward -- the bricks will break apart when they hit the ground, and then they'll be hauled away. This last step will be the easiest and quickest part of the whole process. But to a lot of the people who drive past it, it's going to seem so sudden. It's going to seem impossible that this huge factory could be there one day and gone the next.

Maybe I should be embarrassed by the heavy-handed symbolism of it all, of how our economy is like that hollowed out shell of a factory. And maybe it's my shoprat DNA but I just don't see how we can have a country that no longer makes stuff.

I know the "knowledge-based economy" is supposed to be our salvation, but how? It doesn't matter how much knowledge you acquire, someone else can also acquire that knowledge. The way business is done now, jobs flow to wherever people will work for the least amount of pay, period. That's going to be just as true of so-called "knowledge" jobs as it is for the manufactur of water pumps.

[hedgehog]

1. The factories and mills seemed as solid as the mountains, but they

can and do vanish without a trace. I'm with you on manufacturing. We're hearing that we should eat locally, buying food grown within 50 miles. How then does it make sense that my shoes come from china, my underwear from Central America, my jeans from Mexico and my t-shirt from Pakistan?

[Batgirl]

3. which brings up another question

with transportation costs going up, I've heard talk about food production might become more localized. Maybe more people will have agriculture-related jobs?

[hedgehog]

4. The problem with agriculture related jobs is that they pay squat.

People want cheap food. It's been that way forever. I live in an old farm house and when we were re-doing the upstairs, we found evidence that the rooms used for the hired hands had never been plastered. There was only the outside siding and several layers of newspapaers and old flour bags. And this was in upstate New York!

[annabanana]

2. I like your graphic, and I

agree with you. It's not just factories, either. They've done the same with the Federal Government. The eviceration of FEMA was the first demolition that came to light....

[Batgirl]

5. I hadn't thought about that but you're right

It's unnerving that things can seem sort of normal while rotting from within

[Stuart G]

6. Its real meaning is far more sinister...

it is the destruction of not just a factory, but millions of good jobs. Most were union jobs with benefits.

and.........someone said,........"They ain't coming back."

[Batgirl]

7. agreed, when the unions were strong, we all benefited nt