I was hinting in that direction. Coal and steel areas like the Ruhr have been transformed with much less sacrifices than, say, Michigan.I wonder why people never contrast and compare the American industrial experience to the German one. The latter somehow managed to thrive, while the US suffered - and it had little to do with tariffs for Germany, a lot to do with a leadership that made an active commitment, a national industrial policy if you will.
But that was not national industrial policy so much as it was regional: Northrhine-Westphalia's Social Democrats have achieved this with an expansion of education, public building and infrastructure, limited subsidies and let's not forget there was generally a cultural climate more conducive to social Plans for Job reductions etc. US political culture, we are told, is more pro-market... I wonder whether it really was around the Great Lakes and in the now Rust Belt in the late 60s...