Part 2/10:
However, this golden age gradually faded. The speaker recalls how factories that once employed thousands gradually shuttered or downsized. The transition was stark: communities that thrived on manufacturing income faced disinvestment, and the social fabric began to fray. The rise of automation, outsourcing, and globalization, especially after the early 2000s, contributed to this decline, leaving behind a scarred landscape in Ohio and across America's Rust Belt.