For years the backbone of
the American economy has
been the strength of the middle
class, with the manufacturing
industry providing
much of the income to those
households.
Bristol Tank and Welding
Company was no exception,
employing 39 employees at
its peak during the 1990’s.
That number would dwindle
down to only two by the time
the plant closed in early
2009.
Created in a small warehouse
on Monroe street in
Bristol Borough by Daniel
Marseglia in 1949, the company
began producing basement
oil tanks for home
heating systems. By 1975 the
company had expanded to a
four acre facility in Middletown
and broadened their
outfit to include larger basement
tanks, reaching customers
from Connecticut to
Virginia.
yet as the new millennium
began, the business took a
turn for the worse. By 2007
outside competition had
swallowed up much of the
company’s clients, causing
orders to dry up and leaving
management no choice, but
to layoff employees.
Vito Marseglia, who took
over ownership from his father
in 1976, pointed the
blame at what he recognized
as failed government policies
like the north American Free
Trade Agreement. nAFTA,
which promoted free trade
between the U.s., Canada
and Mexico, allowed businesses
from outside the U.s.
to sell their products without
the threat of tariffs to diminish
their returns.
This has allowed competition
from the north to come
into the country and undercut
local businesses like Bristol
Tank, according to
Marseglia.
“That’s what killed us. We
couldn’t compete with the
Canadian’s tank companies,” he said.
some years after nAFTA
was enacted, Marseglia paid
a visit to a manufacturing
plant in Canada and was
blown away by the new technology
used in producing the
tanks. Thanks to government
subsidies the Canadian companies
were able to produce
tanks at a rate one every five
minutes, he said.
Bristol Tank couldn’t keep
up and Marseglia points
some of the blame to the lack
of support from local officials.
After repeated attempts
he was rebuffed by former
Pa. Rep. Patrick Murphy and
former sen. Arlen specter for
funds to help sustain and
grow his business.
Unfortunately for
Marseglia, there was no
money for small business
coming from the government.
“Our government doesn’t
seem to care,” he said, questioning
their motivation to
limit the influences of outside
companies. “All you need is
common sense, and the government
doesn’t have any of
it.”
examples like Bristol Tank
are just a microcosm of the
struggling manufacturing industry
across Bucks County
and throughout Pennsylvania.
Between 2000 and 2010, the
manufacturing industry has
witnessed approximately 200
companies close their doors
resulting in the loss of almost
12,000 jobs in Bucks, according
to a U.s. Department of
Commerce report at censtats.
census.gov.
These numbers are magnified
throughout the state, as
companies have shed over
250,000 jobs and closed shop
at nearly 2,600 locations, according
to the report.
And the future outlooks
don’t look much better.
employment in the Advanced
Materials & Diversified
Manufacturing industry
cluster is expected to decrease
by six percent between
2011 and 2021, according to
buckscounty.org.
For a variety of reasons the
national outlook for the middle-
class gets even more
complicated and for many
onlookers the outlook even
bleaker.
American middle-income
workers have taken a beating
in recent years, with what the
Pew Research Center has recently
called “the lost decade
of the middle class.”
“since 2000, the middle
class has shrunk in size,
fallen backward in income
and wealth and shed some,
but by no means all of its
characteristic faith in the future,”
according to an Aug.
22 Pew Research Center
study.
A staggering “85 percent of
self-described middle-class
adults say it is more difficult
now than it was a decade ago
for middle-class people to
maintain their standard of living,”
according to the Pew
survey of 1,287 adults who
describe themselves as middle
class.
These discouraging figures
throughout the nation may be
due to a “shift in the corporate
culture,” according to
Jack Ready, Bucks associate
economics professor.
This shift began sometime
in the 1970’s and has steadily
increased, Ready said.
in 1970 the total earnings of
middle-income aggregate
households consisted of 62
percent of all earnings in the
U.s., compare that to just 54
percent in 2010. in comparison,
upper-income aggregate
household income has raised
from 29 percent to 46 percent
the same time frame, according
to the Pew study.
Ready correlates this as a
redistribution of earnings,
with the working class coming
up short. “it’s not going
to the workers like it usually
does,” Ready said, referring
to the shared revenue that
used to allow the middle
class to prosper.
in this year alone, the top 20
percent of earners in the U.s.
received over 51 percent of
the profits, according to
Ready.
“People used to be the most
valuable asset,” he said, referring
to the idolization of
the dollar over the employee.
now workers face uncertainties
as businesses look to
cut costs to long-term employees
to rid themselves of
high salaries, high insurance
premiums and benefits.
in the past, businesses
would nurture employees, allowing
them to grow and
eventually retire with the
company. Ready estimates
that workers in the current
and future economy will face
between seven to eight major
job changes in their life time.
This has put a disproportionate
amount of stress on
middle-income workers, due
to the threat of layoffs and
underemployment, while
wreaking havoc on a consumer
based economy. The
two main culprits: less job
security and wages not keeping
up with inflation, according
to Ready.
Of the 2,508 people surveyed
in an Aug. 31 Pew
study, nearly four out of five,
86 percent, stated that a secure
job was a middle class
requirement.
Unfortunately, in an economy
that has been slow to recover
from the great
Recession, the number of
those considered middleclass
may continue to fall.