Steel is also a strategic resource. Our nation should NEVER NEVER NEVER be reliant on any other nation for a strategic resource.
Yes there are issues with Union Shops and their negative impact on prices. We have to find a way to alleviate that. There’s not question of that.
At the end of the day, we need to be employing U. S. Citizens to build our strategic resources.
This goes for shipbuilding yards as well.
At then end of Trump’s presidency, it’s my hope that there will be no illegal aliens allowed to work on any of our government / military sites.
I had heard that some of our shipyards were using them. If that’s wrong, this may not be as big an issues as I had thought.
Much of the problems started with the end of WWII. We bombed the Japanese capital stock into the stone age, but then rebuilt it through various lend/lease programs. Result: The US has continued to use 1890’s technology to produce steel while others have modernized their plants resulting in lower costs. US modernization has been driven by union costs, and protective tariffs/quotas under earlier administrations have made it possible to continue to use outmoded facilities. Hopefully, this new round of tariffs won’t kill the incentive to modernize like it did in the past.