Not what it used to be:
(When) Defense Secretary Robert Gates decided to surge production of armored trucks for the Iraq counter-insurgency campaign in 2007, it was discovered there was only one steel plant in the nation producing steel of sufficient strength to meet military needs. That plant — the old Lukens Steel Company facility in Coatesville, Pennsylvania — had been bought by European steel giant Arcelor Mittal, and already had weapons makers waiting in line for the output its limited capacity could support. Other items needed for the Iraq-bound trucks also were in short supply, such as oversized tires. The Pentagon had to cobble together an ad hoc network of domestic and foreign suppliers in order to ramp up production of the needed trucks, suggesting that the industrial complex FDR once called “the arsenal of democracy” had become a rather fragile affair.
You probably know where America’s manufacturing capacity went.
Read the rest to find out what it means.
NO.
The trend was recognized by 1985, and obvious by 1995.
This is another demonstration of why pure free market economists are ignoramuses at best.
Pat Buchanan pointed this stuff out back in 2000. No one listens to him. After all he’s a raaaaacist and Anti-Semite.
When I read things like that I just want to throw up. Fortunately I have Barbancourt and a good sound system..
I think that it’s widely acknowledged that our government wastes a lot of money of stupid stuff, right? Such as for instance, we give hundreds of millions of dollars to people who foment trouble (Egypt / Palestinians / Pakistan and the list goes on). So, why not “waste” some money on something smart like having one or more strategic factories ready to roll out stuff like military-grade steel when we need it?? That kind of expense is wasted in the same fashion insurance payments are wasted when you never have a fire. Anyway, no international cobbling-togehter, no begging the Chinese to give us our factories back, yada yada. That’s my thinking on it. Probably could get the money to pay for it from taxing Warren Buffett as he’s begged to be taxed….maybe hit up his lib buddy Bill Gates, too, and sell of several of Charlie Rangel’s illegal apartments and vacation homes.
Try finding Milspec ballbearing made in the USA!
RBC Bearings, Ticker symbol BALL
errr, make that “ROLL”
Yep- my error
Life magazine ran a cover story in 1944 which showed the US Steel facility at East Mckeesport, PA, with the caption noting that in that year that single plant produced more steel than the rest of the world! Not so much these days…
But SteveC, those kind of sensible steps don’t buy votes. Hence they’re not done.
I agree totally with Pat Buchanan. There’s nothing wrong with free trade, if the playing field is a level one. But when you’ve got all of of the state-subsidized industries with lower labor costs (less regulation, lower pay, no unions), there’s no way our Gulliver companies ensnared by the bureaucratic Lilliputians can compete.
We’re in deep doo-doo if we ever have to fight a global conflict, likely with China. I don’t believe all of the horsepucky that we won’t collide with their interests someday. Unlike Great Britain after the War of 1812, we are not two peoples separated by a common language. They’ve pilfered our manufacturing base. We’ve helped them by turning into a debt-ridden vassal state about to implode.
Hey, we deserve it. We’re just not competitive enough. In fact, I bet those Chinese
slavesworkers at the Apple factories could do it better and faster, too, and they’re all very happy to do it, too, and our financiers deserve the right to maximize profits at our expense. If only our skilled labor, metallurgists, chemists, machinists, would work 100 hours a week and live in one room “apartments” with enough wages to buy some green leaves to put in their rice bowls, then we could be competitive with them, too.Oh, we’ve lost all that skilled labor already? All the experience gone? That giant sucking sound that Perot was mocked for hearing?
Let them eat Ipads.
And the thing is, a lot of this could have been prevented if we had a national industrial policy for critical industries. But too many people on one side of the political spectrum hate that idea cause it’s, like, socialist or something for the gov’t to get involved in the economy.
Tell that to the maintenance people when they can’t get certain parts cause the electronics are made overseas and China kinda leaned on the companies to “delay” filling orders.
How many F/A-18s and Destroyers and Submarines could we build in a year starting in 2013?
Our industrial base is nearly gone, not just the produciton lines, but the skilled workers to run them, and the suppliers of the basic materials needed, let alone the ability to mine and process raw materials.
However, we do have a surplus of people who pay no taxes and do no, or very little work.
Maybe we could export some of them, and throw in some lawyers and politicians too, for something we could actually use.
I fear the day when the first USN Nuclear Submarine rolls from a korean shipyard.
Our nation has unfortunately transitioned from a manufacturing economy, to a service economy.
Therefore in future conflicts, instead of fighting enemies with our manufactured tanks and bullets, we will be left to fight them with… bad service. [/snark]
How do you say, “Would you like fries with that?” in Mandarin?
“你想，薯条吗？”
I don’t know, but it’s apparently “Hope and Change” in Manchurian.
And super sized: “超大型”
hmmm….
ARCELORMITTAL SA LUXEMBOURG NY REGISTRY SH MT: NYSE
3.52% dividend
have to give that a closer look
Bluntly, it’s hard to blame industrialists for fleeing a country that has made dealing with the government a hellish experience and tilting the playing field steeply towards the unions. Government, in thrall to the left, has made it difficult in many states, including right-to-work states, to operate.
At the same time, the industrialists have tried to play both sides to try to get some protection instead of picking a side and insisting they listen. It was a serious mistake on their part, and now everyone pays.
One thing I realized with campaign contributions was some thinking I did when I was younger. I wondered how all of these corporate Wall Street types were giving all of this money to Democrats, who blast them any chance they get for their perceived crimes.
I realized that it wasn’t money spent to help them win. It was protection money, just like the local shopkeeper would pay to the neighborhood don. The consequences for not lowering one’s sails while passing through that part of the Hudson River was being blown on the rocks, or in the case of the Mafia, being beaten with a lead pipe.
Somehow, we’ve got to reverse this descent into a helpless Hell. I told my wife “we don’t make anything of value anymore. What is our economy based on? Whore-trading by Wall Street know-it-alls? McDonald’s? Starbucks? Designing iPods and iPads to be built in sweatshops in the Third World?”
We should’ve never let China into the WTO. We need to bring back tariffs on everything to protect our companies here. I’d pay more for some goods to ensure good jobs for Americans, not near-slave jobs for Chinese.
“They’re turning kids into slaves just to make cheaper sneakers. But what’s the real cost, ’cause the sneakers don’t seem that much cheaper.”
“Think About It”
Flight of the Conchords
“Flight of the Conchords”
LOL, another fan! Funny as hell show! (tho obviously not everyone’s cup of tea…so how come two geezers like us get it? Are we that warped?
)
My kids turned me onto it. I saw one episode, listened to one of their CDs (I’ve since upgraded to an iPod) and I was hooked. My favorite was the David Bowie episode. Amazing any group could do every phase of Bowie. Every phase. “Bowie in space…”
I laughed until I was blue in the face. And yes, we are warped.