Oshkosh '06 Redux

I have friends who travel to China on a regular basis, and what they tell me
is common place pollution is, well, appalling.

True enough -- but at least they have jobs.

I was once again reminded of the horrendous situation in America's
industrial heartland this weekend, when I traveled to my hometown of
Racine, WI for my 30-year high school class reunion.

Once home to all kinds of heavy industry -- including what was once the
largest tractor plant in the WORLD -- Racine is now a nice,
no-longer-polluted city on the shores of no-longer-polluted Lake
Michigan -- and no one has a decent job. We over-flew the city's once
immense industrial infrastructure, and were stunned to find nothing but
large fields of grass. All the factories are simply gone -- and the
comfortable upper-middle class lifestyle that Racine once enjoyed is
gone, too.

Was this all due to the stingy anti-pollution laws our EPA imposed on
heavy industry in the 1960s and 70s? Of course not. But the rise of
EPA regulations and the decline of Racine's industrial infrastructure
is a straight-line correlation -- so be careful how proud you are of
our vaunted environmental laws. A LOT of hard-working folks have been
thrown into near-poverty at least partially because of them.

On the brighter side, Racine's citizens can now enjoy their beautiful
lakeshore, and are proud to show it off to all the Chicago-area
visitors who now provide them with slightly-above-minimum-wafe
employment in the tourist industry.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On 6 Aug 2006 21:03:07 -0700, "Jay Honeck" wrote:

I have friends who travel to China on a regular basis, and what they tell me
is common place pollution is, well, appalling.

True enough -- but at least they have jobs.

I was once again reminded of the horrendous situation in America's
industrial heartland this weekend, when I traveled to my hometown of
Racine, WI for my 30-year high school class reunion.

Once home to all kinds of heavy industry -- including what was once the
largest tractor plant in the WORLD -- Racine is now a nice,
no-longer-polluted city on the shores of no-longer-polluted Lake
Michigan -- and no one has a decent job. We over-flew the city's once
immense industrial infrastructure, and were stunned to find nothing but
large fields of grass. All the factories are simply gone -- and the
comfortable upper-middle class lifestyle that Racine once enjoyed is
gone, too.

Was this all due to the stingy anti-pollution laws our EPA imposed on
heavy industry in the 1960s and 70s? Of course not. But the rise of
EPA regulations and the decline of Racine's industrial infrastructure
is a straight-line correlation -- so be careful how proud you are of
our vaunted environmental laws. A LOT of hard-working folks have been
thrown into near-poverty at least partially because of them.

On the brighter side, Racine's citizens can now enjoy their beautiful
lakeshore, and are proud to show it off to all the Chicago-area
visitors who now provide them with slightly-above-minimum-wafe
employment in the tourist industry.

I'd less blame the EPA than note that Kubota wanted the worldwide
business, and Caterpillar, Cummins, Ingersol, etc couldn't get the
investment $$ from investors intoxicated on bubble money to match what
the Asians were doing in terms of quality and manufacturing efficiency
on what was essentially free money. Meanwhile, the parents of the
current young citizens of Racine did everything they could to protect
their jobs, salaries and pensions with no thought for what that would
do to the companies they worked for. Unfortunately, the multinationals
that buy most of the farm equipment look at capital costs and
maintenance costs and buy Kubotas or whatever.

The good news is what goes around comes around. Japan's bubble burst
years ago and Korea and Taiwan can't be far behind. Remarkably, for
all its corruption, some people in China seem to be looking at
long-term stability instead of get-rich-quick.

Don

"Jay Honeck" wrote

All the factories are simply gone -- and the
comfortable upper-middle class lifestyle that Racine once enjoyed is
gone, too.

Was this all due to the stingy anti-pollution laws our EPA imposed on
heavy industry in the 1960s and 70s? Of course not. But the rise of
EPA regulations and the decline of Racine's industrial infrastructure
is a straight-line correlation -- so be careful how proud you are of
our vaunted environmental laws. A LOT of hard-working folks have been
thrown into near-poverty at least partially because of them.

Oh, make no mistake; I'm none the too proud of our EPA or OSHA.

Lenoir NC, used to be called the furniture capital of the US. Layoffs have
been drastic, with most of the wood being shipped to China, where it is
assembled into furniture, and re-sold to the US.

Now, we are trying to reinvent ourselves into a high tech and retirement and
tourism community. I fear we will be a ghost town, before it is all over.
--
Jim in NC

You're in Lenoir? We regularly used to load trucks from Lenoir... Conover
Chair company if I recall correctly. We also used to load other furniture
company trucks from Hickory Chair and Broyhill... but as you say the
furniture industry in NC has been devastated. We haven't seen a Broyhill
truck around here in years and I think they closed their Midwest factory
return center in Minnesota. We also used to load trucks from Comscope, the
cabling company. During the days of huge commercial building expansion,
Comscope used to ship 2 semi loads of cable to Minneapolis every week. But
that industry has died also.

As for the EPA, there's a special place in hell reserved for them. Did
anybody else read the proposal to shoot sulfur missiles into the atmosphere
to add "natural contaminants" to the atmosphere to reduce the intensity of
the sun and global warming??!! Hello? Ok, we've made the air TOO clean and
now we need pollution to give us a break from the sun?

For years and years the EPA hounded our local paper mills to reduce sulfur
emissions. Cries of acid rain rang from every backwoods hobo and car
dealership in the upper midwest. We, farmers, now have to ADD sulfur to our
fertilizer program to maintain proper soil fertility. Now somebody seems to
think they went too far and they want to add sulfur to the atmosphere. gees
make up my mind so I don't think I'm the one that is crazy.

Jim

"Jim Burns" wrote in message
...
[...]
As for the EPA, there's a special place in hell reserved for them.

Seem to me, pretty much everyone has a special place in hell reserved for
them. You probably have your assigned seat too.

Did
anybody else read the proposal to shoot sulfur missiles into the
atmosphere
to add "natural contaminants" to the atmosphere to reduce the intensity of
the sun and global warming??!!

What's that got to do with the EPA? I presume you're talking about the
comment made by a well-respected German scientist (and Nobel laureate), Paul
Crutzen. It's all over the right-wing agenda press, taken out of context as
usual. But it's not the EPA proposing it.

Hello? Ok, we've made the air TOO clean and
now we need pollution to give us a break from the sun?

As Crutzen specifically points out, it's simply an idea for *consideration*
as a *last resort* to address the *failure* of society to address global
warming *now*.

In other words, if we ignore the problem to the point where we basically
either allow our inaction to cause the planet to bake itself to death or we
do something drastic like pollute the atmosphere enough to provide some
shade, then the answer may well be to pollute the atmosphere enough to
provide some shade.

Ironically, it's the very people pretending that this suggestion is intended
as a "something we can do right now" idea that may well force us into doing
something so drastic in the future. The longer people insist on believing
that we have nothing to worry about and that global warming is just a big
hoax, the more likely it will be that drastic solutions such as
intentionally polluting our atmosphere will be required.

The idea you're talking about in no way undermines the legitimacy of
environmental science. But I do see how it's just the thing that Dittoheads
(or whatever today's equivalent is...I find it hard to believe that anyone
is still taking Limbaugh seriously) would grab onto in their perpetual quest
to argue against rational thought.

For years and years the EPA hounded our local paper mills to reduce sulfur
emissions. Cries of acid rain rang from every backwoods hobo and car
dealership in the upper midwest.

As well they should. Sulfuric acid raining down on us is bad for a variety
of reasons.

We, farmers, now have to ADD sulfur to our
fertilizer program to maintain proper soil fertility.

It's true, sulfur is an important trace element for living things, including
plants. Sulfuric acid is still bad for living things, and stopping man-made
acid rain is NOT why soil becomes (or in many cases, always has been)
sulfur-deficient.

Now somebody seems to
think they went too far and they want to add sulfur to the atmosphere.
gees
make up my mind so I don't think I'm the one that is crazy.

If you think that:

* adding sulfur to the atmosphere is being suggested as a front-line
answer to global warming

* industry should be intentionally emitting sulfur into the atmosphere

* sulfuric acid rain is a legitimate solution to sulfur-deficient soils

* the lack of sulfuric acid rain is the *cause* of sulfur-deficient
soils

Then yes...you are crazy. Or maybe an idiot. But for the moment, let's
just go with crazy...it somehow seems less offensive.

Pete

"Jim Burns" wrote

You're in Lenoir?

Yep.

We regularly used to load trucks from Lenoir... Conover
Chair company if I recall correctly. We also used to load other furniture
company trucks from Hickory Chair and Broyhill...

I think Hickory Chair has closed up shop, or almost closed. Hickory is the
next town over, and is about twice the size of Lenoir.

Broyhill and Bernhart are two giants, and have their headquarters here.
They both are closing plants about every 6 months, about 1200 employees at a
whack.

But as you say the
furniture industry in NC has been devastated. We haven't seen a Broyhill
truck around here in years and I think they closed their Midwest factory
return center in Minnesota. We also used to load trucks from Comscope,
the
cabling company. During the days of huge commercial building expansion,
Comscope used to ship 2 semi loads of cable to Minneapolis every week.
But
that industry has died also.

Yep, Comscope has closed plants, and are half the size they used to be.
They are headquartered in Hickory. (HKY) That was where the F-86 went down,
off of an aborted takeoff, right before OSH. Pity. A real class guy and a
really fine plane. It was one of the best Sabers I have ever seen.
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:

"Jim Burns" wrote

You're in Lenoir?

Yep.

Hey, Jim, my mother used to live in Lenoir up until three years ago when
she moved to Hickory.

At her recommendation I flew down one weekend in 1996 and toured the
showroom of Blowing Rock Furniture store, then bought some Thomasville and
Broyhill products and had them shipped northward to NY. The savings was
close to 50% over our local furniture stores, even considering the two
hundred dollar shipping charges tacked on.

I hear that these types of savings are no longer possible, perhaps due to
the fact that all of those companies are in the process of relocating?

Speaking of Hickory, that is a nice GA airport there. Too bad about the
airport losing the commercial flights, but it looks as if someone invested
some money into the FBO there. When I flew down in May this year to visit
my mother, the FBO looked brand new and very clean.


--
Peter

"Peter R." wrote

Hey, Jim, my mother used to live in Lenoir up until three years ago when
she moved to Hickory.

Small world.

At her recommendation I flew down one weekend in 1996 and toured the
showroom of Blowing Rock Furniture store, then bought some Thomasville and
Broyhill products and had them shipped northward to NY. The savings was
close to 50% over our local furniture stores, even considering the two
hundred dollar shipping charges tacked on.

I hear that these types of savings are no longer possible, perhaps due to
the fact that all of those companies are in the process of relocating?

Far as I know, you can still get the big deals. Anyone furnishing a neaw
house would be well advised to come and buy, then ship, for BIG savings.

Speaking of Hickory, that is a nice GA airport there. Too bad about the
airport losing the commercial flights, but it looks as if someone invested
some money into the FBO there. When I flew down in May this year to visit
my mother, the FBO looked brand new and very clean.

I don't know why we could not make the commercial flights go. We had
service, then lost it for a few years, got it back and it flopped. I think
it was one of those things, where they did not have enough flights to make
it convienient to go places, with enough diversity, so nobody used it for
anything.

Yep, the new FBO is a beautiful complex. It was needed; the old place was a
hole.
--
Jim in NC

In article ,
"Morgans" wrote:

Yep, the new FBO is a beautiful complex. It was needed; the old place was a
hole.

By "the old place", do you mean the one down over the hill in the
northwest (?) corner?

Where is the new one?

Could you take some pictures and post them to
alt.binaries.pictures.aviation?

Yep... Know right where Hickory is. We still ship into Hickory, mostly
smaller companies. Sometimes we deal with L&M Produce which also has
warehouses in Raleigh. We used to ship into Taylorsville also, that's where
the Broyhill trucks used to deliver for us, but the place in Taylorsville is
kind of shaky these days. How many times I tried to get the Broyhill
traffic manager to sell me some furniture at discounted prices and leave it
on the trucks for me... no dice. ;(

We recently picked up a customer south of Hickory, just across the VA border
in Cana, VA. They take about a semi load per week. In fact, they were here
this morning and bought a few Angus bulls.

It's amazing how many Wisconsin potatoes the small towns surrounding your
local area use. Thanks!

Jim

"Morgans" wrote in message
...

"Jim Burns" wrote

You're in Lenoir?

Yep.

We regularly used to load trucks from Lenoir... Conover
Chair company if I recall correctly. We also used to load other
furniture
company trucks from Hickory Chair and Broyhill...

I think Hickory Chair has closed up shop, or almost closed. Hickory is the
next town over, and is about twice the size of Lenoir.

Broyhill and Bernhart are two giants, and have their headquarters here.
They both are closing plants about every 6 months, about 1200 employees at
a
whack.

But as you say the
furniture industry in NC has been devastated. We haven't seen a Broyhill
truck around here in years and I think they closed their Midwest factory
return center in Minnesota. We also used to load trucks from Comscope,
the
cabling company. During the days of huge commercial building expansion,
Comscope used to ship 2 semi loads of cable to Minneapolis every week.
But
that industry has died also.

Yep, Comscope has closed plants, and are half the size they used to be.
They are headquartered in Hickory. (HKY) That was where the F-86 went
down,
off of an aborted takeoff, right before OSH. Pity. A real class guy and
a
really fine plane. It was one of the best Sabers I have ever seen.
--
Jim in NC