Boom Bust And Exodus Summary

“Boom, Bust & Exodus: The Rust Belt, the Maquilas, and a Tale of Two Cities” is a nonfiction book written by Chad Broughton, which discusses the lives affected by the relocation of a Maytag appliance plant from Illinois to Mexico. This account offers a more dialed in perspective of those impacted by globalization first hand, therefore allowing the consequences of these changes to be personified rather than statistical. This disquisitions main topics, however, will be the effects of globalization as well as the challenges it has created for both Americans and Mexicans, including those followed in the book. Globalization in the context of sociology is a multiplex of ideas and theories. It’s difficult to truly understand what globalization is

Political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson are mentioned in Boom, Bust & Exodus, with a quote saying, “There is more inequality among workers with the same level of skills (measured by age, education and literacy) in the United States than there is among all workers in some of the more equal rich nations.” This is because the elite of the United States have come to value their own businesses for their own financial gain by outsourcing workers in other countries, which then hurts blue collar workers within the U.S. and mistreats as well as underpays the outsourced workers. This is exactly what happens in Boom, Bust & Exodus, where workers of the Maytag appliance plant go out of work because of the company’s decision to move to Mexico for cheaper labour. The workers in Illinois were making approximately $15 an hour, but once the company moved to Mexico, their wages were set to $1.10 an hour. Globalization has deeply affected those in the lower-class, who may be considered as less educated or unskilled to low skilled workers. In the text of Boom, Bust & Exodus, Broughton states, “Rising inequality is less about education gaps than it is about those at the very top of the income distribution pulling away.” The income rates of those who are rich have exponentially increased over the last few decades, while the poor have only become poorer. According to our notes,

A house with “good rain protection”, “spray painted address” and “smooth concrete floors” is described as nicer than most. The consequence of cheap labour in order to provide cheaper prices for consumers has left these people struggling, working so hard while they cannot even afford a decent meal. This kind of housing would be considered very poor in America, and the fact that Lara is described to be nicer than most only shows that poverty is a life that is well-known to workers in urban areas. However, statistically we may not see this, because the poverty line has been set so low. Broughton states, “If Lara worked fifty weeks in a year, averaging 6.5 hours of overtime a year, he would earn about $3,000. The Lara Family , through Pablo’s sheer volume of work, lived above the official poverty line for urban dwellers.” This is an extreme contrast to the Illinois workers in the beginning of the book, who earned $15.10 an hour with benefits such as insurance and retirement. The book also mentions a peso crisis in 1994, and it worsened the wage gap because it allowed foreign companies to outsource and hire Mexicans workers for even