The Fall of an American Rome

Sound Bite

This is the story of the de-industrialization of America, written by a Business professor with a background in steel company management who grew up in the city of Pittsburgh and loved its manufacturing environment.

The book is based on the facts and aims to avoid any partisan political viewpoint - which is not as difficult as it may seem, since both U.S. political parties support free trade economics. The story does not single out the union, the workers, management, politicians, or American voters and consumers, since there is plenty of blame to share. Even the economic policy of the country since 1945, which clearly must carry a large portion of the blame, was accepted for all the right reasons.

About the Book

The author considers US industrial policies that have shaped today's economic landscape and finds that, however well-intended, our polices have been misguided. Free trade was to promote world peace and democracy. No one foresaw the ancillary effects of the 1970s on the United States. Yet this approach has brought destruction upon our cities, workers, managers, and country.Dr. Skrabec writes - not to condemn or demonize any party to this debacle - but out of a love for American manufacturing and those once-robust cities such as Detroit, Toledo, Pittsburgh, Akron, and so many others, that drove the American economy to the top.

Introduction

In the 1980s I would experience firsthand one of the nation's largest steel mergers, and a few years later one of its largest bankruptcies. As the manufacturing base collapsed in America, I left industry to obtain a PhD in manufacturing. Initially, I hoped to help drive a manufacturing revolution with such programs as Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and ISO 9000. This type of program, while extremely helpful to industry, was unable to overcome the political and economic infrastructure in America today. We have a policy of de-industrialization, although no one refers to it that way. Instead we are told of a post-industrial strategy where information will be the source of jobs. Still, I believed manufacturing could be saved...