[raybbr]

The reason our steel industry went out of business is because labor was too expensive.

This pretty much proves that you don't know what you are talking about. Any chance to blame the unions.

The truth is that the major steel companies invited the Japanese, the Swiss and the Germans in to look at the new process of making steel called "continous casting". While we were using the original design and building more based on that design those countries built the next generation of design. They became more efficient. Instead of building and innovating that design the companies in this country continued using the old, more labor intensive design.

While the unions contributed to the decline of steel it was the companies themselves who both gave away the idea and refused to make improvements.

We must allow American big business to operate as efficiently as possible while we are in the transition stage of entering a world economy.

You are assuming they want to. To change the way a company operates costs money and that affects the bottom line so they keep the old equipment and continue to blame labor costs.

You should get your head out of the theory books and look at reality once in awhile.

[1rudeboy]

I interviewed with a U.S. Steel executive once. When I asked how he would respond to his company's long-term prospects in light of its unfunded pension liablities, foreign competition, etc., he smiled and said, "We are too big to fail."

I decided right there to work elsewhere.