[Paulus Invictus]

The two smaller steel plants I wrote about pay well above minimum wages and also provide health care and retirement. They are not paying union scale, hence there are no $50k wages or lavish bennies. Also, the two plants are high-tech operations with new equipment and methods. If they didn't have these efficiencies, they too would fail. The one large steel plant in the state with old technology and methods, went broke and is now closed. Not only did its demise cost many people their jobs, the mess the plant left behind is still there and still a source of pollution.

I agree that people in such jobs should derive benfits in accord with their labor, but the point I made (and many others have also made), is that the big steel plants and the unions raised the price of US-made steel so high that foreign steel makers saw the opportunity and acted upon it.

[DoughtyOne]

Paul, you touched on a very important issue at the end of your comment. When I damn corporate infractions, I want it to be clear, that unions too have to take their lumps for things they did wrong.

IMO there were union abuses in the steel industry as well as the auto industry. These abuses led to a climate where US products were too costly. This is cleary wrong. On the other hand corporations that pit ten cent an hour employees in China against a man trying to raise a family in the United States will be looked on very unfavorably by God at some point, again IMO. I firmly believe this is not the golden rule at it's best.

[DoughtyOne]

BTW Paul, I'm glad to hear these new steel mills pay a decent wage and are able to show a healthy profit as well. That's great. I appreciate the report.