Posted on 06/07/2012 7:41:15 PM PDT by moonshot925
I found some statistics for raw steel production in "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" by Paul Kennedy. Page 200, Table 15.
Any comparable chart for 2012?
I’d like to see it for 1943-1944
Do you have a point here? That is a very good book I will say.
@SnuffaBolshevik: I will make charts for 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010
@unkus: I have the data for 1943. I will make a chart.
Thanks, moonshot925.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2891876/posts?page=125#125
On the above thread I posted the following:
From other CATO Institute and other sources I found American production of steel for some years:
1939: 51.4 million tons
1946: 66.6 million tons
1998: 102 million tons (near peak)
2011: 95.6 million tons
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But then central_va posted the following:
Here are the stats I am pulling up: Link here.
1940: 37,400,000 MT
2009: 19,000,000 MT
Which shows how pathetic things are, mostly due to outsourcing. We couldn’t win a war of attrition.
*********************
But my figures were for “steel production” and central_va was for “pig iron”.
Obviously there must be a difference, but I’m not sure what. Is pig iron the raw material (that we now need to import) and steel is the “finished product”? And the other thread was about the WWII, and if we would be able to produce arms like we did back then.
The figure for Germany incudes all occupied territories under German control.
Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. Iron ore is mined and used to make pig iron which is used to make steel.
Thanks very much, moonshot.
Thanks - that is what I thought. (Iron ore mines in N. Minnesota were shut down a long time ago I think).
So even though based on the other thread, our steel production is still fairly high, but we have to import much of the raw materials to make it. Not the best situation if we have a protracted war and our enemy can embargo us.
Although I suppose if our enemy was that great, the war would have gone nuclear before it got to that point.
But then, it sure would be nice to have raw materials to rebuild with.
What’s your point in graphing 1920 and 1930 along with 1913 when both 1920 and 1930 we were in depressions!
Yes. American companies produce much steel, but might one ask as to where much of that “American” steel is produced?
The point is free trade has destroyed Americas manufacturing base to the point where we would be defenseless in a war of attrition. Steel is a bell whether to make that point. China produces more steel than the entire world COMBINED.
A nuclear war is very unlikely in a global conflict when all sides can deliver them. WWII being an example, Hitler had huge stockpiles of chemical weapons, the nukes of their day, that he never used, Even to the end.
Those figures prove NOTHING about Free Trade which is a boost to the consumer as any study of economics will show.
We don’t USE as much steel in products as we used to. Cars don’t have as much steel in them. Other products have replaced steel in a lot of things. Just as most products use less energy today they also use less metal.
America’s economy has always been one of innovation and creation of NEW industries. It becomes a loser when it gets the idea that old, obsolete industries should be protected. This drags down the overall growth rate because it leads to misallocation of resources and investment. It also means higher prices and less productivity even higher unemployment. Most critics of Free Trade have no idea what it is or what they are talking about.
Your post could have been written by a communist Chinese beaurocrat. I guess free traitors will never learn from history. Free traitors are tools of the globullist socialist.
Actually it could have been written by Thomas Jefferson, that old Red. You clearly know about globull stuff just not about economics. Why should people pay more for stuff made with resources which would more efficiently make other stuff?
Or have their taxes go to support inefficient/obsolete industries? I presume you are very unhappy we did not subsidize the Horse Blinder industry not to mention buggy manufacture. And there are hardly any domestic whale oil lamp manufacturers left.
Why should Americans’ economic choices be controlled by Big Government liberals like Obama rather than the Market? Freedom is maximized by Free Trade. When there is no free trade government becomes even MORE powerful.
What government is empowered to make decisions about which products are made here? What bureaucrat are you willing to rely on to make wise decisions in economics? The arguments against Free Trade are laughable, based on ignorance and 250 yrs out of date. There is not one which is credible or actually understands the realities of the world market in any aspect. It is like getting medical advice from a witch-doctor.
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