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E-book
Author Broughton, Chad, author.

Title Boom, bust, exodus : the Rust Belt, the maquilas, and a tale of two cities / Chad Broughton
Published New York : Oxford University Press, ©2015

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Description 1 online resource (399 pages) : illustrations
Contents Prologue -- Boom Days in the Appliance City -- Life in the Magic Valley -- A New Era for an American Classic -- The Red-headed Stepchild -- Padre Mike and Nafta Man -- Resist, Reinvent, Resent -- "Sin Maíz, No Hay País" -- "The End is HERE!" -- The Mike Allen Question -- Chiles, Coyotes, and Vanilla -- Frogs, Mules, and Life after Maytag -- "Esa es Mi Visión" -- Looking North from Barra de Cazones -- Getting Back to Work in the 'Burg -- Hojas, Blackberries, and the Tortilla King -- Treading Water in the Great Recession -- Little Detroit, El Cartel, and Aguamiel -- Epilogue
Summary "In 2002, the town of Galesburg, a slowly declining Rustbelt city of 34,000 in western Illinois, learned that it would soon lose its largest factory, a Maytag refrigerator plant that had anchored Galesburg's social and economic life for half a century. Workers at the plant earned $15.14 an hour, had good insurance, and were assured a solid retirement. In 2004, the plant was relocated to Reynosa, Mexico, where workers spent 13-hour days assembling refrigerators for $1.10 an hour. In Boom, Bust, Exodus, Broughton offers a look at the transition to a globalized economy, from the perspective of those who have felt its effects most. In today's highly commoditized world, we are increasingly divorced from the origins of the goods we consume; the human labor required to create our smart phones and hybrid cars is so far removed from the end product we need not even think about it. And yet, Broughton shows, the human cost behind the shifting currents of the global economy remains a reality. Broughton illuminates these complexities through a tale of two cities that have fared very differently in the global contest to woo or retain fickle capital. In Galesburg, the economy is a shadow of what it once was. Reynosa, in contrast, has become one of the exploding 'second-tier cities' of the developing world, thanks to the influx of foreign-owned, export-oriented maquiladoras. And yet even these distinctions cannot be finely drawn: families struggle to get by in Reynosa, and the city is beset by violence and a ruthless drug war. Those left behind in declining of Galesburg, meanwhile, do not see themselves as helpless victims: many have gone back to school, scramble from job to job, and have learned to adapt and even thrive. It is a downsized existence, but a full-sized life nonetheless"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Maytag Corporation -- Employees
SUBJECT Maytag Corporation fast
Subject Working class -- Illinois -- Galesburg
Working class -- Mexico -- Reynosa (Tamaulipas)
Offshore assembly industry -- Mexico -- Reynosa (Tamaulipas)
Globalization -- Social aspects -- Illinois -- Galesburg
Globalization -- Social aspects -- Mexico -- Reynosa (Tamaulipas)
HISTORY -- United States -- General.
HISTORY -- United States -- 20th Century.
HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- Midwest (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI)
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Economics -- General.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Reference.
Economic history
Employees
Globalization -- Social aspects
Offshore assembly industry
Social conditions
Working class
SUBJECT Galesburg (Ill.) -- Economic conditions
Reynosa (Tamaulipas, Mexico) -- Economic conditions
Galesburg (Ill.) -- Social conditions
Reynosa (Tamaulipas, Mexico) -- Social conditions
Subject Illinois -- Galesburg
Mexico -- Reynosa (Tamaulipas)
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2014008029
ISBN 9780199335961
0199335966
9781322247144
1322247145