By — P. J. Tobia P. J. Tobia Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/every-working-age-person-town-disappeared Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter What if every working age person in your town disappeared? World Apr 15, 2015 5:00 AM EDT Imagine if you woke up one day and all of the working-age men and women in your town were gone. They’d disappeared practically overnight. How would that change your town’s culture, its lifestyle — your life? http://www.pbs.org/newshour/app/uploads/2015/04/What-if-every-working-age-person-in-your-town-disappeared_1.mp3 » Subscribe in iTunes » Subscribe using RSS Now imagine that everybody is back in your town, but all of the commerce has disappeared. There are no stores, no offices, no places to work. How would that change your life? That first scenario, the one where everybody disappears, is exactly what happened in towns all across Mexico starting in the late 90s. Meanwhile, the second scenario, in which entire towns go out of business was playing out all across the central United States. And get this: both happened for the exact same reason. This is the story of what happened when the U.S. all but stopped making things on a big industrial scale. It’s about how that manufacturing moved south to Mexico, where factories hum day and night. You can subscribe to Shortwave podcast in iTunes or using the RSS feed. By — P. J. Tobia P. J. Tobia P.J. Tobia is a Foreign Affairs Producer at PBS NewsHour, covering the Middle East and North Africa. He is also the host and producer of the foreign affairs podcast "Shortwave." Prior to this Tobia spent two years in Afghanistan covering Afghan politics, life and the U.S.-led war. @PJTobia
Imagine if you woke up one day and all of the working-age men and women in your town were gone. They’d disappeared practically overnight. How would that change your town’s culture, its lifestyle — your life? http://www.pbs.org/newshour/app/uploads/2015/04/What-if-every-working-age-person-in-your-town-disappeared_1.mp3 » Subscribe in iTunes » Subscribe using RSS Now imagine that everybody is back in your town, but all of the commerce has disappeared. There are no stores, no offices, no places to work. How would that change your life? That first scenario, the one where everybody disappears, is exactly what happened in towns all across Mexico starting in the late 90s. Meanwhile, the second scenario, in which entire towns go out of business was playing out all across the central United States. And get this: both happened for the exact same reason. This is the story of what happened when the U.S. all but stopped making things on a big industrial scale. It’s about how that manufacturing moved south to Mexico, where factories hum day and night. You can subscribe to Shortwave podcast in iTunes or using the RSS feed.