Gary Winslett: The American dream didn’t die

Middlebury professor Gary Winslett argues the South—not China—poached the Rust Belt’s manufacturing base by out-competing it on policy.

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Why did the Rust Belt really lose its manufacturing base? Middlebury College political scientist Gary Winslett has a provocative answer: It wasn't China or robots. It was Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, and Florida. In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Winslett argued that the South's pro-growth policies—not foreign competition or automation—were the real drivers behind the industrial shift. That makes for an uncomfortable narrative in a political environment where both parties have a stake in telling more convenient stories about trade and globalization.

Winslett explains how factors like Right to Work laws, housing construction, regulatory efficiency, and immigration made the South more attractive to manufacturers. The conversation moves beyond nostalgia for lost factories and asks whether the American dream now lies in places like Nashville and Raleigh—and whether we're too busy looking backward to notice.

Chapters:
00:00 What really happened to Rust Belt jobs?
05:11 The politics of manufacturing decline
10:22 Nostalgia and the rise of southern manufacturing
15:20 Unionization, right to work, and labor policy
20:43 How immigration and housing fueled Southern growth
26:02 Why the Rust Belt didn't adapt
32:21 Permitting, regulation, and business friendliness
38:36 Trade deficits and service exports
44:05 The myth of manufacturing as America's future
50:01 Remote work and the class divide
56:26 Upward mobility and bipartisan economic failure