Progressive Wisconsin? State Marked by Empty Factories, Full Prisons

from In These Times:



Progressive Wisconsin? State Marked by Empty Factories, Full Prisons

Monday
April 5
3:12 pm

State has highest black male incarceration rate in country; twelve times the rate of white men.

By Roger Bybee


Wisconsin has long enjoyed a reputation as an enlightened, progressive state.

Its reputation goes back to the populist flavor of the state constitution, the strong movement for the abolition of slavery, the staunchly anti-corporate governor (and later senator) "Fighting Bob" LaFollette, the building of powerful labor and socialist movements, and one of the nation's very best university systems.

But a visit to my hometown of Racine for a meeting this week was a painful reminder of how the city and state are moving toward a very different model of society: the mass destruction of family-supporting jobs coupled with the mass incarceration of thousands of young men who grew up in deprived, disorganized neighborhoods shattered by de-industrialization.


GHOSTLY FACTORIES—AND A MASSIVE NEW JAIL

Unemployment in Racine is now 16.7%, reflecting both the toll of the Great Recession and the permanent loss of about 13,500 manufacturing jobs between 1979 and 2007, 42% of the city's industrial jobs. My hometown is filled with ghostly empty factories and vast empty, flat fields of brown grass where factories once turned out tractors, garden equipment, children's Golden Books, machine tools, auto parts, farm machinery, and on and on. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5774/progressive_wisconsin_state_marked_by_empty_factories_full_prisons/

I don't know why but I haven't.

I just saw it as a state full of white people.

In any case, the prison rate in this country is shameful.

also houses IL prisoners from the Chicago area. It makes money of Chicago area prisoners.--

Among midwestern cities it lead the way in developing a "Healthful" community. It once had one of the most extensive public parks and recreation departments in the entire midwest.

From 1915 or so until 1950, Milwaukee was leading centers of the Socialist Party, and enjoyed the benefit of a Socialist Party Mayor...

Now many of those public facilities are abandoned, and the functional facilities are being privatized by the Milwaukee Co. executive and very probably next governor.

Milwaukee is very diverse, for one. And Madison is a liberal heaven :)

I like diverse areas.

Why would a corporation or company want to do business in a "progressive" state when they can start or move to a more business friendly state?

I'm no businessman but if I was going to manufacture a product would I do business in a state that has or is:

Higher/Lower taxes?
Pro-Union/Anti-Union?
Right to Work state?
Pro-environment (strict regulations or lax controls)?
Etc.

This automatically puts a progressive state at a disadvantage when compared to say a Texas, Georgia, Alabama, etc. The disparity attracts business/manufacturing to the ones that are more profitable and easier to run a business in.

Then on a world scale countries such as China are more attractive for the very same reason when comparing countries as a whole, same thinking.