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You have touched on the MAJOR problem. Twenty to 40 years ago we had thousands of men that knew how to make steel in open hearth furnaces and in bessemer converters. Now if we had open hearths and bessemer converters we don’t have anyone that knows how to operate them, but some old geezers. And ditto for most other items. Where is a foundry that can cast complicated shapes. Of course the air is cleaner now...... . There are many pessimistic conclusions which can be formulated as to the deindustrialization of the US. Have our enemies won after all??

A couple of years ago I left a job. I just up and left. I had a skill that I could use to make a small business. I perform and function and create a product that is specialized. I’ve grown the business from a hobby to a six figure income.

My brother, also a senior production manager, lost his job about a year later. He looked for work like a fiend. I collected. Eight months later he finally found a job that paid him less.

Learn a skill. Even if it is for a hobby. You never know when you can lean on that skill to buy food for your family. No kidding. Make something. You wont be sorry.

"Now if we had open hearths and bessemer converters we don’t have anyone that knows how to operate them, but some old geezers."

I resemble that remark. ;-)

We had no choice but to join the union after our probationary new-hire periods. Then we were required to sign statements (issued by management) swearing like pagans that we were not communists.

The pay was low, contrary to the propaganda that's been produced over the past 30 years or so (less than $4 per hour to $7-8 or so for most). It was our youth and healthy appearances that made managers so mad. They were an extremely vain and volatile lot. They hated their own neighbors (us Americans).

They wanted to use communist slave labor to fund the military buildups that we're seeing in communist countries, and they've nearly gotten what they asked for (although the nukes haven't arrived just yet). The PLA (Chinese) now have quite a few mobile nuclear missiles that will hit anywhere in the USA within 200 or 300 meters of chosen targets.