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US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

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Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#171

Post by Spooky23 »

hbarka wrote: post #142
AlbertCory wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet NUMMI failed. https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a5514/4350856/ Then the building became Solyndra, which also failed. GM, of course, is one of the stupidest companies on Earth, so they'd have trouble selling free beer to college football fans. If you want to blame them you won't get any argument from me.

This building (really a massive factory area in Fremont) is now Tesla. NUMMI produced some really good cars under the Saturn brand. GM messed up in this collaboration. GM quitting Saturn is a story in itself.

NUMMI did the Geo cars. They were good!

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#172

Post by Spooky23 »

20after4 wrote: post #160
lumost wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, US labor union relations have been strained for some time compared to international settings. Plausibly, this is in part due to the size of American labor unions compared to their international equivalents. The Resident Advisors in my dorm were required to be members of and pay union due to the United AutoWorkers of America. The list of industries which the United Steel Workers represents is likewise ...…

wtf, $200/month really? that's pretty ridiculous. Unions are good in theory, but in practice I'm not so sure.

$200/month probably included their health plan.

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#173

Post by hef19898 »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #161
hef19898 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing correct in your statement is the spelling of Toyota and Lexus, and even that you only nailed one out of three times (brand names start with capitals, even in English).

Maybe you could stop being lazy and explain specifically why what I claimed was wrong. But you can't, because you're wrong and you know it.

Car build quality has nothing to do with unions for example, and that unions allow workers to be lazy is such wrong statememt, I din't even know where to start.

US car makers were always bad when it came to quality, unions or not since Tesla is no difference. Build quality doesn't come from "working ad hard as possible", in general quality is indorectly proportional to the amount of hustling people do, voluntary or othetwise. Build quality in anything assembeld comes from proper engineering, proper assembly procedures, properly trained staff, solid quality culture (guess where the Japanese traditionally excel) and a quality focused organisation. None of those have anything to do with unions, half-assery or anything else you brought up.

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#174

Post by xp84 »

happytiger wrote: post #121
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US Steel was a major contributor of steel for the WWII military machine. Honest question: if WW3 were to start, would we be able to appropriate Nippon-owned USS factories for wartime use?

So, this is an interesting question and one which I watched unfold in COVID times. The law that would specifically come into play here is called the Defense Production Act, and it’s complicated. Here’s a great overview: https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/what-defense-production-act For more specifics, I would look at this overview which is excellent: https://www.businessdefense.gov/ibr/mceip/dpai/dpat3/docs/DP... In wartim…

In the event of WW3 it's going to involve either Russia or China, neither of whom Japan would even consider allowing to come to further dominance, even by inaction. Japan would be at the White House Day 1 of the war offering their 100% backing including all steel production in both countries if needed.

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#175

Post by lumost »

Spooky23 wrote: post #172
20after4 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wtf, $200/month really? that's pretty ridiculous. Unions are good in theory, but in practice I'm not so sure.

$200/month probably included their health plan.

It did not, health plan was covered by a separate charge through the university or through student's own continued coverage from parents.

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#176

Post by 4ggr0 »

FredPret wrote: post #169
4ggr0 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what do we say to poor people? Sorry your life sucks, but the economy is big enough now? we talk to rich people and tell them, "Sorry, but we've f*cked poor people long enough now, time to adjust downwards and meet in the middle."

Nah mate, you’ve got to be realistic. No human will ever accept a downward adjustment. Plus, meeting in the middle is even less sustainable than the current situation. The options are: - Dramatically less (like prehistoric levels) - Dramatically more (star trek)

What about Solarpunk[0]? That could almost be the middle between Pre-Historic and Star Trek.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarpunk

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#177

Post by xp84 »

4ggr0 wrote: post #168
FredPret wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's practical to lower or keep it at the same level. - what do we say to poor people? Sorry your life sucks, but the economy is big enough now? - even if we did say that, perish the thought, nobody's going to accept that. Africa, India, China, the rest of Asia, and South America have tons of poor people who want their turn. Why shouldn't they also get to be as rich as us? That implies a huge and growin…

> what do we say to poor people? Sorry your life sucks, but the economy is big enough now? we talk to rich people and tell them, "Sorry, but we've f*cked poor people long enough now, time to adjust downwards and meet in the middle."

The Plan:

Convince Western countries, which are mostly some form of republic or a parliamentary system emulating one, to lower their citizens' living standards, in order to theoretically set a better example of resource usage for developing countries, who will 100% ignore this supposed role-modeling anyway because they actually want the best possible living standards, like most people do, and they have a point that even if we start limiting things now, we didn't artificially limit ourselves for the past 100 years, so why should they not get their turn at cheap growth?

That's a pretty tricky plan. Just asking voters to accept even minor inconveniences like "Hey maybe let's not install indoor gas stoves in new construction going forward because they literally poison our indoor air" was met with fiery rage. Telling people they'll have to just consume a lot less plastic, fuel, etc. to leave more for developing countries is political suicide.

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#178

Post by Spooky23 »

lumost wrote: post #175
Spooky23 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$200/month probably included their health plan.

It did not, health plan was covered by a separate charge through the university or through student's own continued coverage from parents.

That's an incredibly bad deal then.

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#179

Post by abtinf »

AYBABTME wrote: post #37
abtinf wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no comment on this specific case, but in general: all of those things—all government interventions that ostensibly protect an industry or company—make it more brittle, less efficient, and more likely to fail. That is precisely the point. You can’t build a successful business by ignoring reality.

At the same time some industries and their major businesses are strategically important enough to warrant government support.

This has been covered extensively elsewhere, even in 101 level macroecon courses. Literally the worst method of protecting “strategic” supplies is to subsidize the industry producing them.

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#180

Post by graphe »

Spooky23 wrote: post #170
graphe wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Toyota started in California at a union plant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUMMI saw it on asianometry.

That was a joint venture, many years ago. They also chose to open their RAV-4 production facility in Alabama vs. Ontario, despite the fact that the literacy levels of Alabamians was lower to the extent that production documentation had to be converted to pictures, adding delays. Paying illiterates $17/hr is cheaper than paying union workers $28.

What benefit does Toyota get for opening in Ontario? The article's union I mentioned didn't usually have more than a high school education.
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