Chris Briem offers good advice: Occasionally, it is a good thing to step away from the daily news and consider things like this narrated slide show of Centralia, PA.
I am not at all sure what Chris took from it, but it reminded me of this excellent (and recent) post from the Atlantic's James Fallows. It deals with manufacturing in China, and is sort of a teaser for a longer article in the magazine. I plan to get me a copy.
In short, the post is about how "China makes, the world takes." Which is a modern spin on Trenton, New Jersey's longstanding motto. Fallows has roots in Trenton, and offers a nice analysis of the way things are today, now that industry has left places like Trenton and gone to China. Where he lives now:
Other parts of the world are now in the booming, confident, “Makes - Takes” stage of development, most notably the Pearl River Delta region of southern China, which is the subject of my current article. The slogan on Trenton’s bridge can now be seen as campy, defiant, charming, retro, wistful — or as just about anything except “realistic” any more. Trenton, while not the richest city in America, is vastly richer than any place in China. Still, the slogan shows how important manufacturing is to an area’s, a nation’s, or a family’s sense of pride and purpose. Because the motto is so powerful, within my family, in evoking one industrial moment, I thought it particularly fitting for this new moment in China.
Vastly richer than any place in China. To the extent that is true (and I have no reason to think it's not) I think the same can probably be said of Pittsburgh.
I don't have anything to add, really. Except that I need to get a copy of the larger article.
Update: Speaking of narrated slide shows, check out this one, narrated by Fallows. Lots of great stuff about an "invented city." And even better, an answer to a great question: China ships all this stuff to the U.S. in giant containers. So what's in them on the way back? They aren't empty. Care to guess?
Scrap metal, plastics and high end manufacturing equipment
Posted by: jrdroll | June 19, 2007 at 02:42 PM