A Rough Ride for Schwinn

A Rough Ride for Schwinn

Today's model, which projects the rough look of a motorcycle, comes from China, where the average factory worker makes less than a dollar an hour. It is a symbol of a different sort -- an illustration of how global economic forces and the sometimes clumsy responses of U.S. companies transformed middle-class jobs into low-wage work both at home and abroad...

I grew up on a Schwinn, spending endless solitary hours riding and exploring the trails in the fields behing my house, fields that have now turned into a school and a dozen subdivisions. That was in the dirt-bike era of the `70s but I was strictly pedal-powered.

I'm still on a Schwinn now - a clunky old baby-blue three speed that I was given for free when a co-worker left town. In Iowa City I can get away with being quirky enough to ride a women's bike.

This is a good article, a sad tale of globalization captured in the demise of one company.