I can't even imagine . . . . . .

[Stinky The Clown]

. . . . what it is like to live in an area with three major industries and have all three shut down tight because of a fuckup of historic proportions.

Tourism
Fishing
Oil Drilling

Hard working *people* went from economic security to desperation because of . . . . . what? Even today we don't know the full story of what happened. We may never know.

People. Individuals. No different from you or me.

Damn . . . . . .

[Mari333]

1. yes, and all at once. here in michigan it happened but it was slower

[jaxx]

2. Same here in IL, they went one at a time.

I feel so sorry for all the people on the Gulf who will struggle now to keep their families going while their jobs are lost for who knows how long.

[Mari333]

3. I used to live in IL. I remember. I just cannot seem to leave being by the Lake

[zipplewrath]

4. The rust belt

It was long, slow, and agonizing. It is difficult to drive around much of Michigan and see what has happened. The gulf coast has had it happen so much faster.

[lunatica]

5. This is going to have national repercussions

The possibility of millions suddenly being added to the unemployment rosters without even the possibility of finding jobs will make the economic failure so top heavy that it'll keel over like a sand castle being washed away by a wave. If the economy were in recovery it was tenuous at best. This just makes it much worse. All the jobs dependent on the Gulf are gone. It isn't just the fishermen. This is both figuratively and literally the food chain being destroyed. And there is no place to migrate to find jobs.

And the crude continues to gush which means death will overflow out of the Gulf as it must.

[Mari333]

6. and all the baby boomers retiring now

its like the perfect storm...kaboom

[scheming daemons]

7. Tourism and oil drilling will come back a lot sooner than the fishing

Once the aesthetics are cleaned up, the tourism will be back.

The drilling will be back even sooner.



But the fishing/shrimping.... that could be gone for decades.

[lpbk2713]

8. And citrus used to be a big part of the economy.

But the building boom that went bust turned the groves into gated communities and malls.
Now the local Florida grocery stores get their citrus from Brazil.