March 19, 2024
Image result for closed american steel companies
A shuttered American steel mill.

It’s ironic that Americans complain about having no jobs, and, or, that the jobs we have not paying enough, but we will readily side with the establishment and rail against any moves that are made to remedy that situation, be it getting tougher on illegal immigration, or placing tariffs on cheap products imported from countries where they’re produced with slave labor.

Just as illegal immigration drives down wages for citizens by flooding our labor market with illegal immigrants who are willing to work for a fraction of the minimum wage, so does importation of cheap goods drive our manufacturing companies out of business by making it impossible for them to be able to compete with the prizing.

It’s ironic that we would kick against moves that are being initiated as a way to solve these problems by bringing jobs back, and resuscitating our internal manufacturing industry. This can only be a win for us ordinary citizens, as opposed to what obtains right now where only corporations and their owners profit to the detriment of the rest of us, but we are inadvertently helping the corporations fight it by ignorantly siding with them.

President Donald Trump wants to put tariffs on cheap imported steel, which will help our steel industry here at home to be able to compete, which will mean jobs for our people, and of course, the establishment don’t want that to happen because it’ll cut into their obscene profits which they derive from using slave labor to manufacture abroad, and bringing here to sell.

We ignorantly support these greedy corporations because we want cheap products, but how long can we keep buying those products, no matter how cheap they become, if we have no job? I believe that it’s better for us that the products are made here by us. That way, we would not have to worry about being able to afford them because we would be the ones making them, which means we have jobs.

If we keep supporting the closures of our manufacturing plants here, and shipping the jobs overseas because we want cheap products, it won’t be very long before we find that we can’t afford even the cheap products that get imported. I don’t think you need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that people who have no jobs cannot afford anything, even if “anything” costs just a cent.

Examples of countries with predominantly consumer economies, which is what we’re slowly turning into, abound. You’ll find such countries in the third world, and the results are not very good. Many of such countries are in Africa and Asia, and you can truthfully refer to them as “shit-holes” without being disparaging. Of course, the people doing the importation, the few of them, make tons of money, but everybody else struggles to even put food on the table for themselves and their families.

America doesn’t want to become a predominantly consumer economy, because becoming that is a precursor to our becoming a “shit-hole” country. A consumer economy is an economy in which the buying and selling of consumer goods and services is the predominant economic activity. In such economies, manufacturing is very little to non existent, and the only jobs citizens  can do is trading, or buying and selling goods, in other words. We don’t need to be told that that is not a very practical, especially here in America where that business is already completely in the hand of corporations.

It’s quite clear that the trade deals we have were negotiated by our corporations who only had their own benefits and profits in mind. The interests of the masses was never a considered factor in the negotiation of these current trade deals, and the result is what we’re living today where these corporations keep declaring tens of billions of dollars in profit, and paying tens of millions of dollars in bonuses to their CEOs while millions of Americans are out of jobs and struggling to survive.

President Trump seems to truly understand that our country is fast headed towards becoming a “shit-hole” country, and apparently wants to do something about it which seems to be the reason for imposing these tariffs. We must stand with him, encouraging him to do so, instead of falling for the fear mongering of the establishment who clearly want to protect the current arrangement that has worked wonders for them, and made them rich beyond imagination.

Our country and our economy were a lot better when our factories and manufacturing plants were working. I’m sure that no one can dispute that assertion, so we must find a way to go back to that place, and renegotiating the current trade deals which have proved beyond reasonable doubt that they only work for a few people, will be a great place to start. President Trump has promised to do that, and placing tariffs on cheap product imports, as his administration is doing, is a good way to throw a spanner in the works of these trade deals, and force re-negotiations.

U.S. Steel, the benefactor of the latest tariffs, has completely closed nine of its major integrated mills as a direct result of cheap steel coming into the country unchecked. The Ohio Works and Macdonald Works in Youngstown, Ohio closed in 1980, The Duquesne Works in Duquesne, Pennsylvania and The Ensley Works in Ensley, Alabama closed in 1984, The Homestead Works in Homestead, Pennsylvania closed in 1986, The Duluth Works in Duluth, Minnesota and Geneva Steel in Vineyard, Utah closed in 1987, The South Chicago’s South Works closed in 1992, followed by The National Tube Works in Mckeesport, Pennsylvania closed in 2014

There is no doubt that the great American middle class was built by manufacturing jobs, but neoliberal and neoconservative policies that have been put in place by both political parties since 1980 has all but killed our manufacturing sector and that is the reason the middle class has almost completely disappeared.

I think we must all support our president on this matter, no matter how we feel about him as a person, or how we feel about his other policies. We don’t agree with others all the time, but that should not mean that we can’t agree with them when they’re right, or support them when they’re doing the right thing. This is a step in the right direction in the fight to recreate an economy that works for all of us, and not just for the top one percent.

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Newshound

I do what I do.