The day that destroyed the working class and sowed the seeds of Trump

New York Post ^ | September 16, 2017 | Salena Zito

[MilesVeritatis]

CAMPBELL, Ohio — Forty years ago, on Sept. 19, thousands of men walked into the Campbell Works of Youngstown Sheet and Tube along the Mahoning River before the early shift.

Like every fall morning, they were armed with lunch pails and hard hats; the only worry on their minds was the upcoming Pittsburgh Steelers game on “Monday Night Football.” The only arguing you heard was whether quarterback Terry Bradshaw had fully recovered from the dramatic hit he took from a Cleveland Browns player the season before.

It was just before 7 a.m., and the fog that had settled over the river was beginning to lift. As the sun began to streak through the mist, the men made their way into the labyrinth of buildings where they worked.

In the next hour, their lives would change forever.

From then on, this date in 1977 would be known as Black Monday in the Steel Valley, which stretches from Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio eastward toward Pittsburgh. It is the date when Youngstown Sheet and Tube abruptly furloughed 5,000 workers in one day.

The bleeding never stopped.

[cba123]

It needs to be said, listened to, and acted upon by our government:

BUY AMERICAN.

We have been selling out America (both parties) for the entire last generation.

[central_va]

All of those "displaced" workers became brain surgeons and software engineers. So it all worked out ok.

Besides all of that imported steel made cars almost free. Then we exported the factories too, so now they pay us to take the imported cars off of their hands.

[DoughtyOne]

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President Donald J. Trump and the Free Republic of the United States of America
President Donald J. Trump's address to the United Nations on 09/19/2017.

Ramirez political cartoon: United and Undaunted LARGE VERSION 09/19/2017: LINK  LINK to regular sized versions of his political cartoons (archive).
Garrison political cartoon: United and Undaunted LARGE VERSION 09/19/2017: LINK  LINK (scroll down) to regular sized versions of his political cartoons (archive).


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...this is a general all-purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

Just $183.00 dollars and cents to 93.00%

[DoughtyOne]

I agree. Put simply, we gutted our middle class.

[central_va]

America is a very poor and indebted nation. Over half the USA earns less than $30K/yr. All of this technology is making us poorer in general. Cable bills, cell phone bills, data plans etc. are killing the personal budget. Salaries and wages are flat but the what I call “new” bills keep piling up.

[MilesVeritatis]

Excerpt:

"Even today, after the election, the Washington establishment still hasn’t processed or properly dissected its [Black Monday's] effects. Economic experts predicted that the service industry would be the employment of the future. Steelworkers were retrained to fill jobs in that sector, which was expected to sustain the middle class in the same way that manufacturing did.

It did not. According to a study done by the Midwest Center for Research, the average salary of a steelworker in the late 1970s was $24,772.80. Today, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the median household income in the Mahoning Valley is $24,133."

[Lurkinanloomin]

At the same time our government was throwing open the borders and welcoming in fraudulently documented foreigners.

[DoughtyOne]

My main beef right now, is that we are 50 million jobs behind where we should be right now.

We have 50 million people out there that need work.

It’s our job to get them working.

When folks address the poor DACA person or the poor illegal alien, they are spitting in the face of those 50 million citizens.

When we truly near full employment wages will begin to rise against for the first time in about 30 years.

We’ll also have restored our middle-class.

Two people making $30k per year can have a pretty good life.

[fr_freak]

I know that tough economic times can really get people riled up, but I still believe that Trump’s election is at least as much about the destruction of our culture. Millions of culturally incompatible foreigners allowed to invade our country, and sexual perversion pushed on our kids, with abominations like “gay marriage” forced on us by leftwing judges. You can only take so much “LGBTXYZ is beautiful” BS before you say “enough is enough!”

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

I've been in some United Steelworkers headquarters, and the campaign posters still adorning the walls are pretty vicious attacks on the "greed"of companies like Youngstown Sheet and Tube. Half the stuff is in red, with the Soviet-style slogans commonly used by the union.

Truth is, the Steelworkers thought they had the hammer, and could get what they wanted by whipsaw strikes, slowdowns, etc.. in the end, they learned the hard way that the business always has the ultimate trump card of ceasing operations.

[central_va]

Two people making $30k per year can have a pretty good life.

As long as they don't want kids. Hence the low birth rate.

[cba123]

Yes.

Now actual communists, are in charge of the entire factory.

The largest (communist) country in the entire world.

[NonValueAdded]

Excellent read, as always. Thank you

[a fool in paradise]

Cars are plastic today.

[central_va]

Too bad the consumer never benefited from all of the cheap crappy steel dumped in the USA. The middle men got all the marginal “savings” and the taxpayer was left with the bill.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

FIRST of all - I LOVES me some Salena Zito! Always have, always will. *HEART*

Secondly, times were bad enough that Billy Joel wrote, ‘Allentown.’ That song STILL makes me sad to this day. :(

That said, I was just coming of age in 1977. (I was 17.) Carter was f-ing up EVERYTHING!

We had to wait in line to get gasoline. The Mortgage on our family home was 18%! (Our farm mortgage in 2017, with three years to go, is 3%!)

I couldn’t find a decent job other than Retail after High School, so I joined the Army - only three years after Vietnam ended. My Mom and Aunties and friends thought I was nuts - but it paid for College and I learned skills that I still use on a daily basis.

I don’t know where I’m going with this, other than the mid-to-late 70’s SUCKED in America.

And I guess one (Selena) could equate it to a Trump Victory, because those of us closing in on Sixty (How’d THAT happen?) lived through it and we’re still cogent enough to REMEMBER. ;)

[DoughtyOne]

You can raise kids on that too.

Will you be able to put them through a big university program? No.

Get a nest egg going between the two of you by the time you’re thirty, pick up a small home, and take it from there.

There are still places in the nation where you can pick up some cheap land, or a decent home for a small mortgage.

You have to look for it, but they’re out there.

[central_va]

Cars weigh more now than ever. A lot of steel in a car. I think a AWD Ford Fusion weigh a whopping 4,000 + pounds.

[a fool in paradise]

>>Salaries and wages are flat but the what I call “new” bills keep piling up.

Nickel and dime on the installment plan.

“Free phone” with 2 year phone bill commitment.
Cable/internet/phone bundle.
Health club membership.
Netflix/Hulu membership.
Amazon prime membership.

And on and on.

“For just $5 a week”. It all adds up. Everyone wants a cut.