I live on the cusp of the midwest in Buffalo, so our town points both directions and it's easy to see the slow progression of the coasts into the center, and there is a difference. Yes, the Midwest is more pragmatic, and also slower, but in a sense the slower works better because they think ahead efficiently and don't crash.
The astonishing core of American businesses were all built through the forgotten small cities of NY that would be enormous anywhere else -- about 200,000 each -- and Ohio all the way to Chicago. I couldn't name them all. In the latest wave, every one of them was rolled up and the HQ moved to Connecticut and NYC where's it's "Cool" and "Status", and then predictably every one of them failed. Xerox, Kodak, etc come to mind. Why? Lost all roots with the customer, lost the ethos of no drama coming into work and working, inventing stuff but not being flashy about it, and keeping an eye on costs and prices. ...You know, stuff NORMAL companies do. How ACTUAL business works. And normal people who just want to go to the store and buy a pencil or a camera.
There's a lot more to the Midwest, but it's very subtle and I'd have to think long about how to express it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Re: A tangent, if I may ...
Date: 2024-09-05 09:48 am (UTC)The astonishing core of American businesses were all built through the forgotten small cities of NY that would be enormous anywhere else -- about 200,000 each -- and Ohio all the way to Chicago. I couldn't name them all. In the latest wave, every one of them was rolled up and the HQ moved to Connecticut and NYC where's it's "Cool" and "Status", and then predictably every one of them failed. Xerox, Kodak, etc come to mind. Why? Lost all roots with the customer, lost the ethos of no drama coming into work and working, inventing stuff but not being flashy about it, and keeping an eye on costs and prices. ...You know, stuff NORMAL companies do. How ACTUAL business works. And normal people who just want to go to the store and buy a pencil or a camera.
There's a lot more to the Midwest, but it's very subtle and I'd have to think long about how to express it.