I wonder if this one surprised anyone?

 

-- 36% were white (non-Hispanic), 22% were African American (non-Hispanic) and 10% were Hispanic

 

I actually thought the white would be higher, because there are more whites than African American/non-Hispanic.

I wonder if this one surprised anyone?

 

-- 36% were white (non-Hispanic), 22% were African American (non-Hispanic) and 10% were Hispanic

What would be the surprise in the number? Only thing I find odd is that is only 68% of recipients. That does not make sense to me and think something about that is incorrect.

What would be the surprise in the number? Only thing I find odd is that is only 68% of recipients. That does not make sense to me and think something about that is incorrect.

 

My thoughts as well.

What would be the surprise in the number? Only thing I find odd is that is only 68% of recipients. That does not make sense to me and think something about that is incorrect.

 

Well, I would think that from there it would be very watered down...some others that may have been on the list: Native-American, "Other"...the ubiquitous black hole of non-info.

I actually thought the white would be higher, because there are more whites than African American/non-Hispanic.

 

But when you read a lot of stuff out there, the propensity is to portay recepients of welfare as minorities.

It was passed January of 94. What would NAFTA have to do with jobs going to Asia? Have we had that many jobs move to Mexico? I haven't heard much about that. I would think that would be kind of risky for a company.

 

It's obvious the job loss accelerated after 1999, I just don't know how much was NAFTA related.

 

Then you need to come down to some textile towns and see my friend. Everyone of the aforementioned companies moved south and shut down operations here. Everyone of the aforementioned furnitures companies have moved production to China and the Far East. I have many friends who are still employed in the Main Offices of Bassett Furniture and Stanley here and they will tell you without hesitation the plants were closed and moved overseas because a $300 cost chair in the US plants could be produced and shipped from China to here for 1/3 the cost.

 

Textiles were the same way.

 

For generations, the southern part of Virginia was buoyed by vibrant textile and furniture industries. Martinsville was home to the world's largest nylon plant, opened by DuPont in 1941. Ginny Wray, the longtime editor of the Martinsville Bulletin, says the factory produced the country's first pantyhose; DuPont sent a pair to Eleanor Roosevelt as a gift. At its peak, DuPont employed about 4,500 people in Martinsville. The plant closed in 1998.

 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/2010/06/07/127538969/perriello-martinsville-house-race-election

 

As to Furniture:

 

Martinsville's decline from a secure working-class town to a fading industrial shell of16,000 people is a familiar story in scores of other American cities as the downside of globalization and trade policies takes a toll on the nation's manufacturing base.

 

Foreign competition, mainly from China, has trimmed more than 120,000 furniture industry jobs nationwide since 2000. That's about a third of the industry's U.S. workforce, said industry analyst Jerry Epperson

 

Nowhere, though, has the ax fallen harder than it has in Martinsville and surrounding Henry County, Va., where the stubborn gummy red clay soil has become a graveyard of idled and abandoned furniture factories.

 

Hooker Furniture closed its Martinsville plant last year, eliminating 280 jobs. Ten miles or so up the road in Bassett, Bassett Furniture Industries shuttered its fourth local plant in six years last June, eliminating another 280 jobs. About 250 more jobs were lost in December, when Stanley Furniture converted its Martinsville factory into a warehouse. The nearby Ridgeway Furniture plant down near the North Carolina border closed its doors the same month, eliminating 70 jobs.

 

The exodus of thousands of jobs in the furniture and apparel industries has left Martinsville, a town of 16,000 in southern Virginia, with the state's highest unemployment rate

 

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2008/04/10/33300/globalization-trade-and-recession.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

 

Trust me on this one 75center, NAFTA and Free Trade Act with China (who subsidizes there manufacturing in their system) all led to the demise of these industries in this country and IMO, led to the large spike of the unemployed/food stamp recepients. It's obvious your area wasn't built on these industries but for the hundreds of mill communities in the south, it has wreaked havoc on their local economies.

But when you read a lot of stuff out there, the propensity is to portay recepients of welfare as minorities.

But those numbers only show it as a percentage of who already receives. If 75% of America is white (not sure what the number is), then 75% of welfare recipients would be white. And according to your numbers, they are not. Minority groups do comprise the bulk of it.

 

I believe that is right. Neither of us are math majors so we could be totally off base here. :lol:

But those numbers only show it as a percentage of who already receives. If 75% of America is white (not sure what the number is), then 75% of welfare recipients would be white. And according to your numbers, they are not. Minority groups do comprise the bulk of it.

 

I believe that is right. Neither of us are math majors so we could be totally off base here. :lol:

 

True dat! :lol:

 

The way I took it, of the 100% of recepients who receive aid, the largest % was white. I didn't take it as a % of White Americans who receive benefits.

True dat! :lol:

 

The way I took it, of the 100% of recepients who receive aid, the largest % was white. I didn't take it as a % of White Americans who receive benefits.

You were looking at it correctly, but they obviously would have the highest percentage since they dwarf the most heavily populated minority group.

You were looking at it correctly, but they obviously would have the highest percentage since they dwarf the most heavily populated minority group.

 

I guess to me the surprising thing is not that they're the largest, but that they are the largest by such a large margin. 14% is a pretty large discrepancy between the % of Whites and the next closest %. Again, this is my first look at the stats for recepients. But from the media, blogs, poster opinions of BGP, you would have thought there would be a much lower margin of discrepancy in the %.

Then you need to come down to some textile towns and see my friend. Everyone of the aforementioned companies moved south and shut down operations here. Everyone of the aforementioned furnitures companies have moved production to China and the Far East. I have many friends who are still employed in the Main Offices of Bassett Furniture and Stanley here and they will tell you without hesitation the plants were closed and moved overseas because a $300 cost chair in the US plants could be produced and shipped from China to here for 1/3 the cost.

 

Textiles were the same way.

 

For generations, the southern part of Virginia was buoyed by vibrant textile and furniture industries. Martinsville was home to the world's largest nylon plant, opened by DuPont in 1941. Ginny Wray, the longtime editor of the Martinsville Bulletin, says the factory produced the country's first pantyhose; DuPont sent a pair to Eleanor Roosevelt as a gift. At its peak, DuPont employed about 4,500 people in Martinsville. The plant closed in 1998.

 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/2010/06/07/127538969/perriello-martinsville-house-race-election

 

As to Furniture:

 

Martinsville's decline from a secure working-class town to a fading industrial shell of16,000 people is a familiar story in scores of other American cities as the downside of globalization and trade policies takes a toll on the nation's manufacturing base.

 

Foreign competition, mainly from China, has trimmed more than 120,000 furniture industry jobs nationwide since 2000. That's about a third of the industry's U.S. workforce, said industry analyst Jerry Epperson

 

Nowhere, though, has the ax fallen harder than it has in Martinsville and surrounding Henry County, Va., where the stubborn gummy red clay soil has become a graveyard of idled and abandoned furniture factories.

 

Hooker Furniture closed its Martinsville plant last year, eliminating 280 jobs. Ten miles or so up the road in Bassett, Bassett Furniture Industries shuttered its fourth local plant in six years last June, eliminating another 280 jobs. About 250 more jobs were lost in December, when Stanley Furniture converted its Martinsville factory into a warehouse. The nearby Ridgeway Furniture plant down near the North Carolina border closed its doors the same month, eliminating 70 jobs.

 

The exodus of thousands of jobs in the furniture and apparel industries has left Martinsville, a town of 16,000 in southern Virginia, with the state's highest unemployment rate

 

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2008/04/10/33300/globalization-trade-and-recession.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

 

Trust me on this one 75center, NAFTA and Free Trade Act with China (who subsidizes there manufacturing in their system) all led to the demise of these industries in this country and IMO, led to the large spike of the unemployed/food stamp recepients. It's obvious your area wasn't built on these industries but for the hundreds of mill communities in the south, it has wreaked havoc on their local economies.

 

 

I'm not debating the job loss, everyone understands they are leaving the country. I can understand China. Shoot, I worked for a company that moved jobs to Asia and reduced a part from $23 to under a dollar with the same quality. What you haven't yet explained to me is what NAFTA did to lose manufacturing jobs. I wasn't aware of jobs going to Mexico in large numbers due to NAFTA. Is that the case? I don't think they went to Canada but again, I'm not sure.

I guess to me the surprising thing is not that they're the largest, but that they are the largest by such a large margin. 14% is a pretty large discrepancy between the % of Whites and the next closest %. Again, this is my first look at the stats for recepients. But from the media, blogs, poster opinions of BGP, you would have thought there would be a much lower margin of discrepancy in the %.

 

Not large at all when you look at the discrepancy in the population percentages. Whites 64%, Hispanic/Latino 16%, black 12% So a 48% population discrepancy yields a 14% usage discrepancy.

I'm not debating the job loss, everyone understands they are leaving the country. I can understand China. Shoot, I worked for a company that moved jobs to Asia and reduced a part from $23 to under a dollar with the same quality. What you haven't yet explained to me is what NAFTA did to lose manufacturing jobs. I wasn't aware of jobs going to Mexico in large numbers due to NAFTA. Is that the case? I don't think they went to Canada but again, I'm not sure.

 

The textiles industry moved to Central America and Mexico. Below is a list of companies that have relocated. The bolded represent plants and multi-site plants that were within a 45 mile radius of my home:

 

Companies Relocated to Mexico Since NAFTA

 

20th Century Plastics; 3 Day Blinds; Aalfs Manufacturing; Acer Peripherals; Advance Transformer; Alcoa Fujikura; Allied Signal; Amana; American Olean Tile; American Standard; Ametek; AMP; Amphenol; Anchor Glass Container; Anvil Knitwear; Autoliv

 

[Page: H6000] GPO's PDF

ASP; AZT Sewing; Bali Company, Inc.; Bassett Furniture Industries; Batts; and Bayer Corp./Medsep.

BMW; Borg Warner Automotive; Breed Technologies; Brunswick Bicycles; Burlington Industries; Capital Mercury Apparel; Canon Business Machines; Casio Manufacturing; C-Corps Electronics; Champion Products; Chrysler; Clothes Connection; Commemorative Brands; Cross Creek Apparel; Daewoo; Dayco Products; Dean Foods Vegetable Company; Dyersburg Fabrics; Dixon Ticonderoga; and Eastman.

 

Eaton Corporation; Kodak/Verbatim; Eberhard-Faber; Eli Lilly Corporation; Emerson Electric; Ericsson; Exide; Federal Mogul; Fisher-Price; Fiskars; Flexel; Ford; Foster Grant; Fruit of the Loom Corporation; General Electric; JVC; General Motors; Gerber Childrenswear; Haggar Clothing; and Hamilton Beach-Proctor-Silex.

 

Hasbro; Henry I. Seigel; Hershey Chocolate; Hewlett Packard; Hitachi Home Electronics; Honda; Honeywell, Inc.; House of Perfection; Household Perfection; Hughes Aircraft; Hyundai Precision America; IBM; Ithaca Industries; Jeanerette Mills; John Deere; Johnson Controls; Kellogg Company; Kemet Electronics; and KLH Industries.

 

Kodak Polychrome Graphics; Lee Apparel; Levi Strauss; Lexington Fabrics; Mallinckrodt; Martin Mills; Master Lock; MatsuWord Filter ViolationWord Filter ViolationWord Filter ViolationWord Filter Violationa; Mattel; Maytag; Maxell Corporation; McCulloch Corp.; Medtronic; Mercedes Benz; Mitsubishi Electronics Corp; Monon Corp.; Motorola; Nissan; and Nokia.

 

Oneita Industries; Oshkosh B'Gosh; Oxford Industries; Parker Habbifin; Philips; Pioneer Speakers; PL Industries; Plaid Clothing; Ransom Industries; Regency Packing Company; Russell Corporation; Samsonite Corporation; Samsung; Sanyo North America; Sara Lee; Scientific Atlantica; Seton Company; Siemens; Singer Furniture; Smith Corona; and SMTC Manufacturing.

 

Spangler Candy; Sola optical; Solectron Corporation; Sony Electronics; Square D; Stanley Works; Stony Creek Knitting Mills; Strick Corporation; Stroh Brewery; Sun Apparel; Sunbeam; Texas Instruments; Thomas and Betts; Tiffany; and Toshiba.

 

Tri-Con Industries; Trinity Industries; TRW, Tultex Corporation; Tyco Electronics; United State Leather; United Technologies; Automotive; Vanity Fair Intimates; VF; VW; Walls Industries; Weiser Lock; Westinghouse; Wilkins Industries; William Carter; Woolrich; Wrangler; Xerox; and Zenith.

 

http://www.kaptur.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=247&Itemid=51

 

 

The government saw this coming and actually enacted a government funded program called NAFTA transitional adjustment assistance. Many people I know have taken advantage of this to go back to school but many were/are too old to retool themselves or lack the skill to do so.

 

Here's an interview with Kim Adkins concerning the demise of Tultex (a company that declared bankruptcy here and moved all operations outside the borders):

 

She attributed Tultex’s demise to several reasons. One was not being able to compete well with companies who, under the North American Free Trade Agreement, moved production to nations where the costs of doing business — such as paying employees — were less.

 

http://www.martinsvillebulletin.com/article.cfm?ID=21612

 

Trust me, it's there if you dig for it or are familiar with Textiles in this country.

Didn't realize Mexico was such a destination. I knew about Asia.

Didn't realize Mexico was such a destination. I knew about Asia.

 

Mexico has benefitted greatly from NAFTA. Although from my experiences, some businesses that had moved production to Mexico have been re-thinking that decision as of late. Low wages are there, but production and quality control have been problems. For the factories right across the Texas border, the drug wars and corruption have been a problem in varying degrees.

 

There is no doubt that global free trade is responsible for the manufacturing job losses. Fortunately, some US manufacturers have figured out/are able to compete against the low wage advantage found over seas through the use of technology. Unfortunately, not every manufacturing process can take advantage of technology to become more effecient and more profitable. Those that can't or don't will go the way of buggy manufacturers. Stinks if your community depended on buggy manufacturers but inevitable nonetheless. Some communities suffer with changes, others benefit.