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The steel industry died a long time ago. My dad helped disassemble the corpse. It died because corporate profiteers offshored everything and stole the pensions.
by mydriasis 3y ago
The steel industry died a long time ago. My dad helped disassemble the corpse. It died because corporate profiteers offshored everything and stole the pensions.
- ETH_start 3y agoCorporate profiteers were expanding the steel industry throughout the late 19th and early 20th century. What changed in the 20th century is labor law that gave unions a monopoly over their employer's bargaining options. It predictably led to rent extraction, declining performance and unsustainable collective bargaining agreements.
- missedthecue 3y agoWhat is a "corporate profiteer"? Are you trying to ensure we don't confuse it with "corporate benevolence"? Corporations do what's economical. The Chinese have a very robust and growing steel sector, and it's all run by profiteers. When the US had a huge steel industry it was run by profiteers then as well. Today, turning iron ore into rolled steel isn't one of America's comparative advantages anymore. Even despite major protectionism. There are no evil bad guys here. It's the nature of economies as they grow and develop. The US was once good at low level manufacturing, now it's bad and uneconomical at that and better at more advanced engineered products and services.
- rayiner 3y agoSome comparative advantages are more useful than others. The country that’s the world leader in energy and industry can bomb the shit out of the country that’s the world leader in dating apps. (China and the US aren’t there yet, it the trajectory is apparent, unless it’s derailed by China’s demographic collapse.)