An American Dream at risk: What happens to a small Nebraska town when 3,200 workers lose their jobs

From the article:

On a frigid day after Mass at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in rural Nebraska, worshippers shuffled into the basement and sat on folding chairs, their faces barely masking the fear gripping their town.

A pall hung over the room just as it hung over the holiday season in Lexington, Nebraska.

“Suddenly they tell us that there’s no more work. Your world closes in on you,” said Alejandra Gutierrez.

She and the others work at Tyson Foods’ beef plant are among the 3,200 people who will lose their jobs when Lexington’s biggest employer closes the plant next month after more than two decades of operation.

Hundreds of families may be forced to pack up and leave the town of 11,000, heading east to Omaha or Iowa, or south to the meatpacking towns of Kansas or beyond, causing spinoff layoffs in Lexington’s restaurants, barbershops, grocers, convenience stores and taco trucks.

Lexington’s population as of the 2020 census is 10,348. What really sucks for them is how exposed they are to bankruptcy. Those houses aren’t selling, and they’re going to be in foreclosure with all their equity lost.

I narrowly escaped a coal town with all my equity, and that town had the saving grace of being in a rapidly growing blue state. Nebraska is a red-state shit-hole that nobody wants to move to, people only move there because of an opportunity for “steady work” that just evaporated. That town is going to be a ghost town with retirees and minimal service workers, with dirt cheap properties for sale that nobody wants to buy.

This is a problem for any would-be retirees considering the area due to the lack of services, and obviously a problem for everyone stuck there who cannot hope to ever buy a house again due to the state of our national economy.

Ouch all around, highlighting the need for safety nets. Whether they voted red or blue, the social contract betrays folks like these far too much. The country’s already scorched enough as it is.

Leaving the politics to the side as Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Indiana’s Ball State University, said in the article this situation unfortunately represents a good research opportunity. 

One other thing I’ll point out from the article, while the stages of grief suck, the idea that “Tyson owes the community a debt” speaks to the naivety of people in our society. No company owes you a debt just like no politician owes you a debt. People give away their vote or time and believe in this myth that they are entitled to be treated as a human they are vs understanding that those politicians should be serving you and the companies will take without any checks and balances. That isn’t to say that the company is doing anything wrong, they’re doing exactly what a company does. 

74.3% of Dawson County voted for Trump, which is where Lexington, NE resides, so this what they voted for. If you continue to support Trump, MAGA and the GOP, you are voting against your own interests, it has not changed for the better part of 4+ decades.

Have no empathy for any of them, FAFO, when you get caught up in BS culture wars, this is the result.

It is only just starting, 2026 is going to so much worse, and Trump’s terrible economic policies and tariffs, we are looking at the worst recession in our lifetimes, possibly the first depression. This experiment is over, the United States will fall, because too many Americans voted for a 6 time bankrupt, dozens of failed businesses, pathological lying, malignant narcissist, reality show personality, that sexually assaulted women and raped kids.

These are the economic dominoes.

Those of us who are lucky to live in areas with many employers don’t often think about this, but when the economy slows, when exports slow, this is the really scary stuff.

Our current administration will point out that beef is now cheap, leaving out that we have an oversupply and that the producers will shut down operations like this to compensate. By next year, we will no longer have an oversupply, prices will rise, and we will have a town in ruins.

Did anyone read the article before they knee jerk blamed Trump? This is closing due to record low herd sizes, sizes that were put in motion before tariffs. Impregnating a cow, her pregnancy, and raising the cow for slaughter takes longer than people know. Beef prices are also very low so they can’t make a profit as easily on the beef they do process. And the lower herd sizes have been blamed on drought last year.

It’s complex and not just Orange Man Bad.