Great videos to remind us that things don't change much, they just keep coming back. The parallels today to 1973 are uncanny.

Steve

I live in Elkhart and worked in the RV industry after I graduated from high school. I went through the ups and downs for a few years and knew I had to do something else. I was fortunate enough to go to college and get a nursing degree. No industry can survive forever relying on "fun" as one of the industry's leaders ad says.

My company a Precision Machine Shop is located in Elkhart and recently we have been struggling to obtain work for our shop. Most of our customer’s orders have either diminished or vanished. The parts and tooling that we have made so successfully in the past just isn’t here anymore. We do work for most of the local shops and also have National customers but it’s the same story, every customer I go and visit has scaled back.

We currently have one third of the employees we had a year ago. Some of these people I have known for thirty plus years.

These men and women are hard working, honest taxpayers who don’t know what’s around the next corner. They don’t want a handout or a bail out, they want to work.

We are very upset by the bailout plans currently in progress, we fell this money is being thrown away to miss-managed Businesses and Financial concerns. We would much rather see this money go into Manufacturing of products in this country. That would put people to work then they pay taxes and purchase goods. I seriously doubt that the likes of AIG are going to be able to repay these “loans” or even pay any type of taxes.

The working man pays the bills, pure and simple.

First, in 73 Elkhart was much more diversified already, with several medical labs such as Miles and Whitehall, plus numerous band instrument facilities, major bank data centers, plus much more so that the percentage of RV workers relative to the total population was much less. Was it tough on the RV workers? Yes. But the city and county was nowhere near the hardship then as it is now. It is always good to try to attrack different types of companies, and the area did, but we were already diversified.

Not sure where Steve ended up, but I can assure you that if you live anwhere in the north, everyone has potholes , and yes, we all complain but realize is is just part of living in the north.

There are no parralells,This city is dying because all of the good times from supplying high priced FEMA trailers to the Katrina fiasco.

If Obama is so concerned why doesn't he give RV buyers a tax break like he did with GM-His appearance and feigned concern is just part 2 of his BS campaign

I worked in the RV industry after high school and I saw the up and downs over the years, I knew I had to do something different. I was fortunate enough to go back to college and get a nursing degree. I really don't think an industry can survive for long when it relies on "fun" .

Another example of how business failed to learn from the past. ala GM and Chrysler.

Folks:

Those were the days my friends, we thought they'd never end.....but, now we see we were wrong.

The mainstay industries of generations past are going, going, going.....gone, soon enough. The world knows this, you know this....still, we sit and hope and pray that things work out, and like this example, they did for awhile....another 36 years, kind of like the auto industry, same circumstances; same avoidance of clear facts.

Where is the preparedness for the obvious that was always just looming around the corner? Was it hiding it's head somewhere; was it having a beer down the street and laughing through the pain; was it still just hoping and praying that everything would be alright until we could get our retirement and get out of here? We can not cheat fate; and we can not cheat the inevitable conclusion that this type of industry is probably gone for good, between the lack of people who may really be able to afford to be involved financially, and the coming escalation of energy costs that will both add greatly to the cost to make these vehicles and more importantly to the cost to operate them.

This feels and looks like the downside that has been waiting in the wings for a few decades on this industry and all the other industries that are highly dependant on cheap energy.

All of the Elkharts of America: Re-think; Re-tool; Re-train; Re-invent yourselves. Do it yourself, don't wait for the gravy train, it's not stopping at Main Street anytime soon!

Good Luck!

Elkhart, like the rest of America, chose in the 1970s/1980s to suck the last few drops of blood out of the carcass rather than look ahead to the future beyond the end of their noses.

The carcass has been bled dry now and voodoo economics won't save the day this time. It'll take actual, real work and applied intelligence. I remain to be convinced that America will rise to the challenge.

I get a little impatient with the line that Elkhart County is too dependent on a single industry. Of the 900+ manufacturers in this county, only 8% make RVs, campers or trailers.

Granted, those companies have been the largest employers. Also, about half of the rest of the companies supply the RV industry in some form. Why wouldn't they supply the RV industry? It has been a thriving industry and a great customer base for them. Over the last few years many of the suppliers understood they needed to expand their customer base.

Our EDC believes half of the manufacturers are RV-related. It still leaves over 400 manufacturers that are doing something else.

Some of those companies are struggling too. THAT is why the country needs to pay attention to Elkhart.

It is not a single industry that is hurting us. We are being hurt by forces beyond our control.

Fortunately, we are not the kind of people who wait for a handout. We will find a solution. THAT is the other reason the rest of the country needs to pay attention to us.

Hopefully things will get better.

I would like to respond to HotCarNut, in that I wouldn't mind paying a "little" extra for something made in the USA. The problem is that to find an item made in China, and the same product made in the USA the cost difference is huge. For example a drill bit set of 25 pieces made in China $25, the same set made in the USA $45. That is $20 more, and that is on a small ticket item. That goes for everything across the board.

Another part of the problem is to make the drill bit set in the USA you need to pay a union machinist a good wage to make them. I am not against the union, but to live in this country, you can't make $6.50 per hour and live. On the same note a union worker can't pay $45 for a drill bit set making $20 an hour when his cost of living for the house, electricity and gas is $1400 per month. So what does he have to buy, the set made in China. He can't even afford to pay for his own brotherhood of union worker.

People can complain about this and that. The market itself is screwed up. In Michigan, they want to retrain everyone to be a scientist, or engineer. Not everyone can be those things. Our current governor can't see beyond the mole on her face. We need to manufacture things for less money, which means the unions will have to make concessions. Learn how to budget money better, and people as a whole need to learn to live on what they make instead of credit.

A wise person once told me that being an adult is being able to say no. Say no to keeping up with the Jones's, and live with what you make. Start a business, that is what makes this country great. My two cents.....

We've been sold out by our leaders and we have sat on our behinds and done nothing about it.  I don't mind helping the Chinese and the Indians have a better life but it has been at our expense the middle class.

  What did I hear the other day that 10 billion dollars from the financial sector went to lobby congress during the last five years!  No wonder everything has been deregulated. 

 The free trade mantra is alright with some regulations thrown in to protect the US and its people, but that doesn't happen.  We give it all away so some large multinational corporation can make more profits for the super rich who own most of the stock in this country.   I think the powers that be don't want a middle class in this country just the rich and the poor nothing else and they have been working towards that goal and it looks like their program is working.

  We no longer produce anything here so how can we create wealth?  Making bets on the financial sector,  we see what happened there. A few made billions and when the house of cards fell down we the working people bailed out the super rich when they couldn't get their money because the bank had gone bust.  Betting on something doesn't make wealth you have to add value to something basic and sell it for more to make wealth.

This country is in a downward spiral sold out by our leaders who for some reason always leave office  richer than they came in. They are not looking out for the betterment of the people but the betterment of themselves. 

 China will end up beiing the super power of the world because of greed running our government not the people.  So email your elected officials and let them know how you feel.

I'm sorry, but our WHOLE COUNTRY missed the boat since 1973! We've been a giant, lumbering sloth when it comes to alternate energy and a way to make life better for our kids and planet, since the oil shortage in the 70s, the first Earth Day and the beginning of recycling!!

I'm glad and blessed to be living in the US, but on the other hand, I'm so embarrassed by our inability to look to the future and out of the box! We've kept our head stuck in the sand for way too long, and now we are paying the price for it. Shame on us.

As a one-time neighboring resident who grew-up on the Granger/Elkhart border for 16 years, has a father who worked in Elkhart for 22 years (though he has been laid-off twice in last three months as of late) and as someone who has had more then a couple part-time jobs there myself while on summer break from the University of Notre Dame, Elkhart holds a special place in my heart. In high school, I played basketball for Penn and loved the hostile environment of playing Elkhart Central or Elkhart Memorial at the North Side Gym.

My wife, kids and I now live in Dallas and have been here for the last four years. We, along with the rest of the country, have closely monitored the cities story on the network news and through this website.

Instead of picking on the blue-collar cities population, which political party is at fault, whether leadership shouldn’t have put all their eggs in one basket with the RV business or why it’s getting all this attention in the first place when other cities are just as bad off, I would like to encourage recommending some productive dialogue amongst people who like a comeback story of an American small town.

Though I’m not an expert on city planning by any means (my opinions come from the limited research I have done on the internet about the problem of late), here is what I would like to say to their residents:

Here is what I see as your competitive advantages in Elkhart, Indiana:

1. The population workforce (both blue and white collar).

2. The production factories that have been used in the past for manufacturing.

3. The inexpensive cost of living and cost of running a business there.

4. The access to Chicago and Cleveland using the 80/90 toll way and rail system.

5. The wealth of knowledgeable academics from the nearby universities and colleges (University of Notre Dame, IUSB, Bethel, etc.).

To the Political Leadership of Elkhart

1. I hope that you have leveraged all of the publicity you have received around the country and brought together a think-tank panel of the greatest minds from the University of Notre Dame, IUSB, Bethel, local businessmen, local residence, urban planning consultants from Chicago and future business trend consultants to devise a plan on how cities with similar problems in the past have successfully turned their cities around and you can create a solid plan going forward.

2. I hope you have a plan to diversify your city and take it in a direction that will compete in the 21^st century. Winston-Salem is a great example of this. According to Fortune Small Business, “Winston-Salem for shifting our ‘economic focus from tobacco, textiles and furniture to biotech, supply-chain logistics and product distribution’ and for ‘broadening and better promoting’ our ‘culinary and arts scenes.’” (see link below)

3. I hope you have a plan that will make a thriving city in 5, 10, 20 years like Frisco, TX seems to have (see link below).

4. Find out what needs to be done for businesses around the country to move to Elkhart, Indiana. Find there objections and solve the problem, so that it is not the case. Tax incentives, tax incentives, tax incentives!!! If you allow them to make more money then someplace else that they are currently at, they will come.

To the Residents of Elkhart:

1. Globalization is real and is only going to get worse for all blue-collar and some white-collar jobs (specifically in I.T.). With the rise of China and India’s economies, blue-collar work will continue you go over seas where costs are cheaper. The competitive advantages you will have as workers are in products that cost lots to ship after they are made and your education. A blue-collar lifestyle used to give you a middleclass way of life. In the 21^st century, this will no longer be the case as blue-collar job wages will stay the same while the cost of living will increase. The way to combat this is through education. In the 21^st century, the only way to have a middleclass lifestyle will be to have a college education.

2. I’ve heard residents say, “We were the first ones in and we’ll be the first ones out.” I would argue that if you don’t adapt and start making products that 21^st consumers want, this will be far from the truth. It is up to your residents to make the necessary changes to be competitive in the future. You can do it.

Alright, I’ll get off my soapbox now. The people of Elkhart, Indiana are great people. I wish them all the best and I’m pulling for the comeback story!!!

Why say "Past is Prologue" for Elkhart? Hve you looked at Detroit lately? We ignored all of the warning signs. If we had decided to make petroleum obsolete, starting in 1973, this mess never could have occurred.

We need to break up the oil companies so they cannot exert their political pressure on us anymore. There is nothing else to be said about it.

It's all part of the boom and bust cycle...before the economic crisis, Elkhart county was one of the fastest growing counties in Indiana due to the large number of jobs available (due to the RV industry, due to the bad dollar and people not wanting to travel overseas but rather in their own country). Now those jobs are gone, and the fact that a single industry supported the entire economy is now a bad thing instead of a good one because it's not a booming industry anymore (due to the credit crisis). I lived in Northern Indiana for most of my life and still consider it my home, and other industries even in the South Bend area are not doing very well due to the loss of income by its neighbors (and of course many in St. Joseph county worked in the RV industry as well). Besides the credit crisis it doesn't make any sense that the RV industry is going down because gas prices aren't that bad now, and international travel isn't still that popular due to the weak dollar. If Elkhart county would invest more in intelligent industry (such as biotechnology), they would be able to come out of their slump, provided that education (such as the expansion of Ivy Tech, Indiana's community college) would follow what the popular industries are, and making it more available to people who work all day in a factory (just like my mother and stepfather do)

The auto ind. gave the people what they wanted, so now we are paying for it again. WE never learn.

Justheb--you are right on the money! That is excellent advice that can be adapted to many towns. As someone who is living away from her small hometown and watching it slowly go under, your story and advice touched me and made my mind race with ideas! I'm glad the msnbc spotlight caught my eye and I gave this a read and I can't wait to talk to my mother about it.

Best of luck to all of you.

This video is quite bizarre. Why? Well, because I wasn't paying much attention to it and I thought it was from the present time and didn't realize it was from 1973 until I played it over a couple of time. Things sure don't change, do they?

I lived in Elkhart from 1969 to 2002. Al Craft trailer sales in this video sponsored my fastpitch softball team in the early 70's. This down turn will be much more difficult than the 1973 dip due to far less diversified industry. Back then staples like Miles laboratories(where I worked 25 yrs.), Whitehall labs, Adlake, and others provided thousands of well paying jobs to shore up the area. There were also mobile home giants like Richardsons and Skyline who were not affected by gas prices. Elkhart is a good rail hub and I am not sure why they could not have attracted higher tier businesses to the area. That should lie on the shoulders of politicians who perhaps were not capable. I left many friends and good acquaintances there who I hope can weather this challenge.

I thought the Mighty Obama went up there, gave a flowery speech, and fixed everything? I feel for the people of the town, but please don't wait for the government to make it better. It won't. Only you can. My prayers are with you.

Wow.. this economy is really going to the dogs.. I am trying anything I can to save money.. in fact, I just got into cooking to save money.. i save 800 bucks a month by cooking... my gf bought me this hilarious beginners cookbook called "Get in the Kitchen, BIT@HES!" (@!$%#cooks.com).. besides being hilarious.. really has some great starter recipes and food I never thought I could make myself.. check out the free recipes on the site... youll see.. plus.. i get the added bonus of my gf telling me to "get in the kitchen, Bit@H!".. have to say that's pretty hot...lol

It's all fine and good to say that we need to "retool for the 21st Century", but look at it this way. Every company and city in this country simply cannot transition from making physical products, like clothes and furniture and become service-oriented non-product businesses. We can't just "throw" our knowledge at each other and mail each other invoices, because we're not CREATING any wealth, just redistributing the existing money supply. This country has alot of good, hard-working people, but not everybody is suited to a white-collar job. Most of the manufacturing facilities have disappeared; aren't we creating a country where many people will NEVER find another job with a liveable income? Where are we headed? Comments, anyone?

thank you robin