cities have a somewhat smaller sphere than Chicago but serve some of the same purposes. They may also be identified with a specific industry as Detroit is, though Detroit would be a major subregional metropolis in any case because of its position on a strategic isthmus alongside the major waterway of the continent. St. Louis is the major gateway city for the midcontinent. The next level in the hierarchy include major industrial cities and Great Lakes ports, including Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Buffalo, and sectional gateway cities including Cincinnati, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Kansas City. The fourth level includes cities with major intrastate influence, such as Rochester, Columbus, Dayton, Nashville, and Omaha. Levels after this would show succeeding groupings of smaller urban centers with smaller and smaller fields of influence.
3. Locate and read several newspaper or magazine articles that discuss why the American manufacturing industry is losing market shares to foreign competition. Why is this happening and what can the United States do about it?
A survey of several articles on the subject shows the belief that market share is being lost first because many foreign manufacturers have lower costs, especially with reference to labor, and this was one of the arguments raised in the recent NAFTA debate. Free trade with a developing country like Mexico is a particular concern to America's organized labor and environmentalist groups that believe that Mexico's laws in these areas are too weak and poorly enforced. Mexican workers receive low wages partly because they are deprived of rights they would have in the U.S. Manufacturers have lower costs because they are do not have to live by environmental standards many see as costly. Unions predict that this will mean job and wage cuts in the U.S. as companies move south to Mexico, while environmentalists fear that NAFTA will both undermine American laws and also devastate t...