A Rust Belt City’s Economic Struggle | Left Behind America (documentary) | FRONTLINE + ProPublica
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Published 2024-05-21
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When “Left Behind America” was released in 2018, the residents of Dayton, Ohio, were still fighting for economic revitalization a decade after the Great Recession. While many American cities and towns bounced back, economic recovery remained elusive for some small and mid-size cities like Dayton that were once hubs for innovation and manufacturing.
The film examined how part-time, low-wage work had become the new normal in Dayton rather than full-time work with benefits. As a result, many families struggled to survive. “The majority of people who come to our pantry work,” said Sunnie Lain, who helped run one of the city’s food pantries, in the documentary. And yet, she said, “we’ve got families watering down soup, and moms trying to figure out how to make a box of mac and cheese last two days.”
The documentary also explored how Dayton was hit hard by the opioid epidemic and how, despite the obstacles, many of its residents took matters into their own hands and focused not just on surviving, but thriving.
Left Behind America was a Middle America Productions Inc. film for WGBH/FRONTLINE in partnership with ProPublica. The producers were Paul Cadieux, Shimon Dotan and Nancy Guerin. The correspondent was Alec MacGillis. The senior producer was Frank Koughan. The executive producer of FRONTLINE was Raney Aronson-Rath.
Explore additional reporting on “Left Behind America” on our website:
www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/left-behind…
#Documentary #Ohio #EconomicCrisis #IncomeInequality #OpioidEpidemic
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FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Prologue
01:05 - Economic and Social Factors That Shaped Dayton, Ohio
09:09 - Struggles of Residents in West Dayton
12:19 - Why Dayton Was Among the U.S. Cities That Fell Behind Economically
19:36 - Tracing the Roots of the Opioid Epidemic in Dayton and Its Impact
32:18 - Exploring Immigrant Communities’ Efforts To Revitalize Dayton
35:25 - What Working Class Wages Meant in 2018
46:28 - Dayton’s Resolve to Rebuild Its Economy
52:00 - Credits
All Comments (21)
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I grew up in Dayton in the 1960s. My next-door neighbor graduated from high school and immediately got a job at General Motors making eight dollars an hour with full benefits which is equivalent to about $40 an hour today. All those jobs are gone now. General Motors, NCR, Frigidaire, etc. left And there’s nothing to replace them.
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I love these frontline documentaries. They always seem to do great journalism work. These documentaries also show how fragile life can be and help me to stay humble and grounded.
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What's really sad is things are much worse since this was filmed.
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I'm from CLE. I've tried to tell people for the last 2 decades. The future of the entire country is the same as the Rust Belt. We are close. In the coming decade AI and automation will put half the country out of work and on UBI to be forgotten. Drive through America in your car and you will see the blight of Detroit is now coast to coast in small towns, large cities and entire states.
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This is not just in Dayton. This will be 70% of North America. It's not that far off.
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It never ceases to amaze me how quickly we forget history. As soon as an individual, group or entity says “it’s not my problem,” it eventually becomes everyone’s problem. Drugs, housing, jobs, education, healthcare, etc. 🤦🏾♀️ 😔
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Before the recession, I was making a decent $28 an hour as a truck driver. After the recession and due to health issues, I was not able to drive trucks again. My old company called me back and offered me a manufacturing position at $11 an hour. I was told not to tell others how much I was making. Come to find out that people who were never let go from the plant took four pay cuts and now only making $9 an hour upon my return. I felt pretty fortunate after hearing that It was the hardest thing I've ever experienced. Thank God, the family owned a house that everyone was able to all move back in. Three of us brothers, our families, and parents moved back in. 18 of us(all extended families) were able to survive together until the economy picked up again. Experiencing this, it prompted me to go back to back to school for the next 5 years while working and now I am a building inspector, I'm hoping that things won't ever get as bad as it did in 2008. Central Valley California.
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I just left Akron, OH two weeks ago and I can attest it was a industrial hellscape. Homelessness and poverty everywhere.
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This is what "trickle down" economics get you.
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The FPL (Fed Poverty Level) has not been adjusted except for inflation since its inception in the 1960s. It was developed based on a food budget, which makes no sense given everyone's greatest expenditure is housing, and makes no allowance for geographic difference (i.e. living in NYC is far costlier than Dayton). Its current measurement - a family of 4 at about 24k - is homelessness, not poverty. But no president or their administration wants to be the one to tackle this head on because the USA would then have to confront that our actual poverty rate is far higher than what we like to claim. Conservatively, it would more than double - and for families of color, it would skyrocket. We are not a nation of affluence or well-being anymore. We are a nation of struggle. Upwards of 40-50% of us are low income (twice the poverty rate). Imagine how that would change if the calculations were adjusted for the reality of what it costs to live in this country.
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Note people, when they say shareholders, they aren't talking about us with a small holding, they are talking about the rich people with millions worth of shares.
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One of the best shows on tv today 2024
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What actually helps a society move forward is a SHARED VISION of growing a civilization among everyone. The upper crust doesn't see things this way.
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Dayton is one example of the results of NAFTA and the sell-out of the American work force.
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I've spent my life in manufacturing. I moved to Dayton, OH for a job at an automotive factory which employed around 1200 employees. Less than 2 years after moving there they announced they were closing the plant. It's all these folks who were impacted and no one cares. The jobs went to Mexico.
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this documentary was a real eye opener. Why do we have to be so judgemental towards peoples suffering
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Parts of some cities, like Phila., died when factories moved or closed. Other parts are just fine. It's a very strange to see a lot of wealth right next to such poverty.
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This was a very moving and well done documentary. Growing up in the Detroit area, and then moving to Benton Harbor, I easily made the connection of just how common this story is across former industrial communities. Bravo.
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I do not concider my self a republican. But this helps me understand how someone like trump came to power. Desperation. I get it.
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This is what happens when corporations prioritize profit over people. Just tragic and unforgivable.
