American Steel Industry Sputtering

Re: the meme here, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich notes:

Just in time for the holidays, US Steel has announced 1,545 layoffs at two plants in Michigan. At the same time, five executives at US Steel received on average a compensation package of $4.8M last year, a 53 percent increase from 2017.  Trump promised to save the steel industry with tariffs and tax cuts. Instead, he has lined the pockets of wealthy executives and campaign donors. America has socialism for rich, harsh capitalism for everyone else.

I know I’ve said this before, but it’s only a matter of time until working class Trump supporters start to understand that they’ve been conned. Right now there are 1,545 families in and around Detroit that are wondering what happened, scrimping on Christmas gifts, and pondering how their breadwinners are going to find new careers in a beleaguered industry.

Eventually, some of them are going to stop scratching their heads and start pointing their fingers.

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One comment on “American Steel Industry Sputtering
  1. marcopolo says:

    Craig,

    The aging, inefficient and noncompetitive steel industry was about to become extinct under President Obama.

    President Trump’s tariff measures brought back investment and faith in the US steel industry. However, some Steel manufacturers just reopened shuttered plants and cashed in on the temporary high prices.

    These manufacturers will pay the price as those that invested in modernization instead of simply re-opening closed facilities will undercut the older inefficient plants.

    In every restructure of an industry there will be winners and losers. The main point to consider is thanks to the President’s action there still is a US steel industry which otherwise would have disappeared.

    No President can be personally responsible for the actions of individual businesses. It’s in the nature of free enterprise to have winners and losers. All any President or government can do is try to provide a level playing field and conducive environment to allow investment and industry to thrive in a competitive business market place.

    No President can deliver Utopia! It doesn’t help that at least half the media (including yourself) take delight in talking down the US economy just to harm a President you dislike.

    The US steel industry will start the prosper as US infrastructure restoration and replacement increases. This is the main market for US steel, bridges railways, pipelines, power lines, urban renewal and with greater volume comes export opportunities.

    Investment in such a large industry takes time, not months, to translate into action. Prior to President trump’s election it was an accepted fact in the investment community that US steel production was history and the only money to be made was from dismantling the industry in favour of cheap imports.

    It’s sad those 1,545 families have suffered just before Christmas, but under Obama they were on welfare! unlike you, I’m not gloating that these peoples misfortune will help you rant against the President.

    Who you should be blaming is decades of Democrats who cared more about the party bosses in the the Peoples Republic of China than workers in Detroit who jobs they exported.

    Ask Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein how she and her husband amassed a personal fortune of hundreds of million dollars?