> The U.S. has been moving away from being a manufacturing economy since at least the mid-70's. Heavy industry like iron, steel, coal, etc. has especially been increasingly sourced "offshore" (i.e. overseas), so U.S. geographical regions traditionaly associated with those industries (read: Northeast) have suffered economic distress as plant after plant closed.
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Boring Post About Stuff I Think Is Fascinating:

When the steel industry suffered it's upheaval, Pennsylvania took a real beating. Steel was the computer industry of eighty years ago: it meant the future, and job security was guaranteed. When it went under, it took families and whole towns with it, including mine.

However, that was the mid-seventies, like you said. Philadelphia (and Pittsburgh) lost many of its oldest families when the steel mills closed, but would that still affect it now?

> koala"...and I'm living here in Allentown, where they've taken all the coal from the ground..."mom

You know that song was actually about Bethlehem, the town adjoined to Allentown? Billy Joel just thought that Allentown sounded better. Bethlehem is also the home of the JustBorn factory, where they make those Peeps. Maybe that's where all the steel workers went, they're all making chickens out of sugar.

The steel mills are still standing in Bethlehem, and they look really eerie.

---The sugar-covered beast slouching towards Bethlehem