Unemployment on the Poor Side of Town

Pembroke, Illinois is the poorest town in Illinois.   Almost half the work force is unemployed.   Those who are working are working the relatively menial jobs at the gas station and snack shops.  According to  CBS Chicago,Channel 2,  this little town of 3,000 people, near the Indiana border, has been all but forgotten.

The city has closed two of its  three elementary schools and has dismissed its police force, all for lack of funds.   If there is a fire, the owners don’t rebuild the house.   The charred remains just sit there.

Nestle once had a factory there, and that factory employed 100 people.  But Nestle is gone,  probably offshore somewhere.  It’s more efficient, after all.

We can look at Pembroke and think of other towns that are maybe not in as bad shape but close enough.   The factories are quiet.  Production is limited at best.  The jobs that once made families feel whole are gone.  If any jobs replaced the better ones they are nominal service industry jobs, phone centers and the like.    People are strapped for cash and in debt.  There is really no way out for them.

One thinks of this country in the American century and then wonders what is in store in the decades to come.  Will there be more towns like Pembroke?   While we race and strain to support Wall street during this economic downturn, other than lip service, what are we giving to the places like Pembroke?  What can we give to them, besides more lip service that we try to pass off as hope?

Granted, we are in the recession and the economy is awful.   But a dire economy is in some ways the best time to reflect on how we got here and to reengage in ways that can afford most Americans a decent living.   Can the talk of innovation and how Americans are the hardest working people and actually do something to put them back to work again.

Pt them to work in places like Pembroke and the other small towns and rust belt cities that have been blighted in the last several decades.   As this is the holiday season, in a year where the recession will tighten up our purse strings and keep us from undergoing the gift buying frenzies of the previous years, maybe we should dispense with the rancor and get down to business.   Business in this case on Main Street.