Illinois Place Ranked Top 10 for Cities Destroyed by Outsourcing

I remember when this Illinois town was one of the better ones in the state. Unfortunately, you won't find many trying to make that case anymore as it's now ranked among the top 10 places in America that were destroyed by outsourcing jobs.

I am not the one that crunched the numbers on this, but 24/7 Wall St did. They ranked all the towns in America that have shrunk drastically due to jobs being moved elsewhere. Their case is strong for Galesburg, Illinois being the 9th worst in America for this notorious fact.

In the case of Galesburg, you can point directly at the decision of Maytag to close the plant there and move the jobs to Mexico. Tragic.

When Maytag left Galesburg, Illinois in 2004, 2,000 hard-working people lost their jobs and left. The town itself has now lost more than 7,000 residents from that time period 20 years ago. It's very sad to remember what Galesburg used to be compared to what it is now.

Here's a stunner of a statistic. The 24/7 Wall St article says those in Galesburg, Illinois that worked at the plant in 2004 were being paid more than $15 per hour. The same job in Mexico paid the equivalent of just over a dollar. Pathetic. 

I'm not genius (Editor's Note: understatement) or economic expert, but it seems like there should be something in place to prevent this type of move. It's a free economy so perhaps this is what you get. I guess I can't blame Maytag for moving to a place where you can pay your workers next to nothing, but I'd also wonder how much the quality of the products has suffered as a result. Hey, it's a fair question.