Not being a contrarian or an alarmist or anything, but its just something I've noticed every time I scroll the microsoft news sidebar on my computer. Every other article is something about a plant closure, or X company shutting down a location and laying off X number of people, etc.
I figure its just the media trying to make Trump and his tariffs look bad, especially since most of them are either smaller/regional businesses with aging equipment that refused to update and get with the times, older companies that have been going through the liquidation process since like 2018 and are just now finalizing it, or just complete crap companies making microgreens or some fake meat or something.
But it's just something I noticed and I was wondering if anyone else has noticed the same pattern.
Yes. Though there’s a plethora of factors at work.
A lot of companies way overhired during COVID for one. So some companies are just resuming normal staffing levels.
There’s been a couple decades of buyouts and over expansion due to the ease of access to Venture Capital that probably shouldn’t have happened. Now that the Boomers and Gen X are starting to retire and or prepare for retirement. They’re moving their retirement funds into less risky investments. Meaning Venture Capital is drying up rather quickly.
There’s the companies using AI and tech advances as an excuse to remove problem employees.
The past few decades of rampant outsourcing. Also mean many companies have supply chains stretching half the bloody world. So Tariffs are likely playing a part in their closure.
American Labor is generally just expensive anyway you slice it. Benefits, pay, holidays etc. It’s cheaper to either shift operations entirely. Or bring in Visa labor that works for pennies on the dollar. As a lot of companies are doing.
There’s also the fact they’re starting to crackdown on chemical and fillers used by American Companies to pad their profit margins. Which is eating into corporate bottom lines.
Unions keep asking for more in negotiations than Businesses can give. Supposing they get the deal they want. That usually means someone gets shafted somewhere.
There’s a few industries that are more less almost entirely dependent on illegals and immigrant labor. Because conditions suck so much even the dregs of American society would prefer being homeless than working there.So Deportations are negatively affecting them.
American Infrastructure is in the toilet. Costs keep going up as they continue to degrade. Which means Businesses are paying more for the same utilities. Upgrades and repairs that should have happened years ago. Didn’t. In fact many municipalities are losing more water due to leaks in pipes than Data Centers could consume.
While it’s difficult to tell due to immigration inflating things. Our population is declining. Less people buying and consuming things. Means less overall demand. Meaning less profits for Businesses.
There’s also the growing issue of Private Equity firms whose hallmark tactics are slashing staffing levels. Provide worse services at increased cost. Subsequently running the company into the ground so they can parse out the assets for even more profit.
There’s also the general fact. We’re pawns. Our jobs, and lives don’t have much meaning to the people who own these companies and firms. They’ll willingly layoff hundreds just to give their opposition bad press. Or make a point to the little people.
I don't really agree with the population decline but, but that's a whole other rabbit hole that has nothing to do with this conversation. From what I've gathered from my own research and from what people on here are saying, it appears to be a regional/industry specific thing. For example, in Texas, apparently a lot of NEW factories and plants are being opened in the steel industry and adjacent industries (automotive industry parts for example). These tend to be large hyperscale plants and factories as well, not small projects by any means. At the same time I've seen articles about a steel mill being shut down in St Louis and a car parts factory being shut down in rural TN this week. BUT the key part there is the mill was old and hadn't been updated in decades, and the car parts factory was in the same situation.
Venture capital doesn't really invest in a lot of these industries we're talking about (trades, blue collar stuff, etc.) They tend to go for more tech oriented stuff so that doesn't make sense in this scenario.
MY take on the matter is a combination of your first point (unwinding from the covid era over hiring) and shutting down old plants and factories where it makes more sense just to shut down and rebuild new than to try and rehab an aged, limited floorspace plant. For example a lot of auto parts makers I've seen doing this type of thing ARE shutting down older and smaller plants BUT they're also expanding on or building NEW plants in new locations closer to their assembly hubs.
As for the population thing, our population isn't really decreasing. I don't feel like getting into the argument again or explaining but to put it briefly, demographics and birthrate data are calculated wrong. The simplest method I can use to explain this is birth rates, birth rates in the US typically include ANY birthing age female. Including those in the 12-18 category. The exact same category we as a nation have done EVERYTHING in our power to prevent from getting pregnant since the 80s. And we've largely been successful with underage birthrates dropping by 90 something percent over that same time period. BUT including that LARGE category of women who we actively prevent (and with good reason) from having children in the birth rate statistics skews it horribly downward. If you adjust US birth rates for this factor, we're actually at like. 2.4 I think if I remember right. It's a little over replacement. Combine that with immigration (like it or net) and we're absolutely still growing population wise. It's not massive, but it's regulated and easy to handle growth.
Now if you wanna argue our population is shrinking somewhat from all the deportations I'm more inclined to agree, because it literally has shrunk somewhat. But at the same time I don't think there's been enough deportations to meaningfully effect the economy to this extent yet. Hopefully soon, but not yet.
Regardless, I've come to the conclusion this is a regionalized issue. Some are prospering massively (like Texas), while others are kind of getting crapped on because their infrastructure and equipment is so out of date its more cost effective to close shop and rebuild somewhere else (St Louis).
But my original question was whether or not this massive push in the media over coverage for this type of thing was a cabal type push to make Trump and his tariffs look bad, and I've come to the conclusion that, that's exactly what's going on. Some of this stuff has been going on since 2020 or 2018 at the earliest, but they're just NOW covering it to make Trump look bad.
Tell me about slavery again.