by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
I know Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and I know it fairly well. It is a quiet, hard-working community of slightly over 17,000 individuals that is located just a hundred miles due east of my own town of West Plains. Jobs in Poplar Bluff are - just as they are in most places - the key to the community's survival.
Donald Trump's ill-conceived trade war is poised to have a monstrous effect of the town and people of Poplar Bluff. One of the area's largest employers (and the largest nail manufacturer in the United States), the Mid Continent Nail Corporation, announced layoffs of sixty people in June - due to Trump's 25% tariffs on imported steel - and the company has said that it may layoff 200 more people in July. In fact, it now looks as though Mid Continent may close down entirely - or move it's operation to Mexico - sometime after Labor Day.
And now that trade bomb is rippling across the local economy. SEMO Box Company in nearby Cape Girardeau, MO (Rush Limbaugh's hometown) makes the packaging for Mid Continent Nails. The box company has laid off four people as a result of the slowdown at the nail company. That's four more families missing paychecks that would have been used to put food on their tables and spur the local economy.
Sixty-four jobs are already gone thanks to our "stable genius" making brash decisions that affect far more than just the price of steel. Every one of those paychecks is important not only to the families they feed, but also to the many small town merchants and service providers who help to keep those families functioning. The loss of sixty-four jobs in rural Missouri will hobble the lives and incomes of far more than sixty-four families. And this month two hundred more jobs may be lost - and that impact will be devastating!
Add to that mix the crippled incomes of soybean farmers in this part of the state who have suddenly lost their biggest trading partner - China - thanks to Trump's trade war, and the income-loss nears being incalculable - at least by local standards. And add to that mix the fact that our local congressman, a Republican by the name of Jason Smith, is an unbridled cheerleader for Trump, and hope appears dim indeed.
Trade diplomacy, it would seem, takes more than just a ball cap, bad manners, and a Twitter account. Adding a dose or two of raw intellect and common sense to the process couldn't hurt, but those commodities appear to be in very short supply in the Trump administration.
Minuscule tax cuts aren't much comfort when your whole income gets flushed down the toilet!
Citizen Journalist
I know Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and I know it fairly well. It is a quiet, hard-working community of slightly over 17,000 individuals that is located just a hundred miles due east of my own town of West Plains. Jobs in Poplar Bluff are - just as they are in most places - the key to the community's survival.
Donald Trump's ill-conceived trade war is poised to have a monstrous effect of the town and people of Poplar Bluff. One of the area's largest employers (and the largest nail manufacturer in the United States), the Mid Continent Nail Corporation, announced layoffs of sixty people in June - due to Trump's 25% tariffs on imported steel - and the company has said that it may layoff 200 more people in July. In fact, it now looks as though Mid Continent may close down entirely - or move it's operation to Mexico - sometime after Labor Day.
And now that trade bomb is rippling across the local economy. SEMO Box Company in nearby Cape Girardeau, MO (Rush Limbaugh's hometown) makes the packaging for Mid Continent Nails. The box company has laid off four people as a result of the slowdown at the nail company. That's four more families missing paychecks that would have been used to put food on their tables and spur the local economy.
Sixty-four jobs are already gone thanks to our "stable genius" making brash decisions that affect far more than just the price of steel. Every one of those paychecks is important not only to the families they feed, but also to the many small town merchants and service providers who help to keep those families functioning. The loss of sixty-four jobs in rural Missouri will hobble the lives and incomes of far more than sixty-four families. And this month two hundred more jobs may be lost - and that impact will be devastating!
Add to that mix the crippled incomes of soybean farmers in this part of the state who have suddenly lost their biggest trading partner - China - thanks to Trump's trade war, and the income-loss nears being incalculable - at least by local standards. And add to that mix the fact that our local congressman, a Republican by the name of Jason Smith, is an unbridled cheerleader for Trump, and hope appears dim indeed.
Trade diplomacy, it would seem, takes more than just a ball cap, bad manners, and a Twitter account. Adding a dose or two of raw intellect and common sense to the process couldn't hurt, but those commodities appear to be in very short supply in the Trump administration.
Minuscule tax cuts aren't much comfort when your whole income gets flushed down the toilet!
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