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"No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

construction-physics.com

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Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#71

Post by hammock »

darth_avocado wrote: post #43
hammock wrote: post #10

Plenty of innovation by US Steel. Just in operations, not in materials.

So in other words, short term value for the shareholders?

Define short term. 120 years?

US Steel’s vertical integration practices changed the game and influence goes all the way to Apple and Tesla today.

Their way of standardizing manufacturing processes inspired Henry Fords assembly line.

Their Research Lab paved the way for the establishment of similar, famous labs at IBM, Bell, Xerox and others.

Their corporate structure set a precedent for large-scale corporations, influencing the development of conglomerates like GE to diversify various industries under a single corporate umbrella

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#72

Post by vGPU »

araes wrote: post #28
ganzuul wrote: post #12

Steel remains a technology with huge potential for future development. Some keywords: eutectic solution, bulk metallic glass, and boron steel. It seems crazy to me that any first world nation would let it's steel production fall into foreign hands. As a machinist for 5 years in my country I would have been excempt from military service even in total war. If US steel is unable to innovate and foreign ownership is some…

America has started to have the appearance of griefing their own enlisted. I'm not sure if America actually cares about those types of war and military considerations any longer. Have you looked at ship construction times lately? On the materials side. Totally agree. However the issue there, is that's not what corporations tend to optimize. The story itself really spells it out pretty clearly (it may be biased, never…

Which they are likely sorely regretting as tensions flare higher with China and our navy is struggling to protect shipping around Israel.

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#73

Post by robocat »

pomian wrote: post #30

One of the ideas that seems to be missed from the study of history and economy, was the effect on the total destruction of the Japanese and German industrial base - during WWII. Britain and USA, were left with their archaic industrial systems. After WWII, the Japanese and the German steel industry had to be completely reborn. (At the cost of primarily USA financing.) Those two countries had no more relics of the past…

Can we set up a system to occasionally bomb our industrial base to get these benefits?

Your point is mostly irrelevant. US steel could have innovated or even copied - but it didn't.

The idea that poor US steel couldn't compete because other startups had an advantage is assinine. That is a core message of the article itself.

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#74

Post by caboteria »

ProjectArcturis wrote: post #37
pomian wrote: post #30

One of the ideas that seems to be missed from the study of history and economy, was the effect on the total destruction of the Japanese and German industrial base - during WWII. Britain and USA, were left with their archaic industrial systems. After WWII, the Japanese and the German steel industry had to be completely reborn. (At the cost of primarily USA financing.) Those two countries had no more relics of the past…

Similar to many cities having catastrophic fires (New York, Chicago) which allowed them to rebuild their streets on a grid system. Vs Boston, which never had a great fire but which is known today for the phrase "You can't get there from here."

We've had a couple of big fires: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Boston_Fire

Somehow they didn't result in exchanging grids for winding streets.

The back bay, though, is newer than other parts of the city and it's a grid.

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#75

Post by technofiend »

ProjectArcturis wrote: post #37
pomian wrote: post #30

One of the ideas that seems to be missed from the study of history and economy, was the effect on the total destruction of the Japanese and German industrial base - during WWII. Britain and USA, were left with their archaic industrial systems. After WWII, the Japanese and the German steel industry had to be completely reborn. (At the cost of primarily USA financing.) Those two countries had no more relics of the past…

Similar to many cities having catastrophic fires (New York, Chicago) which allowed them to rebuild their streets on a grid system. Vs Boston, which never had a great fire but which is known today for the phrase "You can't get there from here."

Re, Boston: The way I heard it was "Three rights make left, except in Boston."

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#76

Post by [deleted] »

kevbin wrote: post #59
hef19898 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> (At the cost of primarily USA financing.) The Marshall Plan was one of the best foreign policy ideas ever so.

I’d like to see Chris Nolan follow-up “Oppenheimer” with “George (Marshall)” and “(William) Knudsen”

[deleted]

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#77

Post by KMag »

sjfjsjdjwvwvc wrote: post #61
l33t7332273 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A small country winning the war against post WW2 USA seems like it would be a bit of a plot hole.

Which war did the US win post WW2? Afaict they all ended in stalemates and eventual retreat (Korea,Iraq,Vietnam,Afghanistan,..)

I would argue both Iraq wars and the war in Afghanistan were cases of losing the peace in equal measure to easily winning the war.

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#78

Post by ericjmorey »

turndown wrote: post #40
ProjectArcturis wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar to many cities having catastrophic fires (New York, Chicago) which allowed them to rebuild their streets on a grid system. Vs Boston, which never had a great fire but which is known today for the phrase "You can't get there from here."

Chicago had a grid system before the great fire, maybe NY is a good example of this but I do not know. See this[0] 1869 map which shows Chicago was already quite regularized 0: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/1869_Bla...

It's not. The older parts of NYC are still not on a grid, there was no massive fire in NYC that needed to be rebuilt. They may have been thinking of London `¯\_(ツ)_/¯`

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#79

Post by Beijinger »

delecti wrote: post #69
sjfjsjdjwvwvc wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which war did the US win post WW2? Afaict they all ended in stalemates and eventual retreat (Korea,Iraq,Vietnam,Afghanistan,..)

That's mostly because we keep going into situations with political goals, and military means (when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail). If a small country declared war on us, we could easily bomb them back into the iron age. Though in 20 years, the young adults there would probably provoke us into another dumb situation like the above.

"with political goals, and military means"

True

"If a small country declared war on us, we could easily bomb them back into the iron age."

Putin probably thought the same about Ukraine.

Military objectives were achieved in Afghanistan, but not in Korea and Vietnam. And based on Clausewitz: "War is politics by other means" And our politics changed....

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#80

Post by jonplackett »

mnau wrote: post #70
sjfjsjdjwvwvc wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which war did the US win post WW2? Afaict they all ended in stalemates and eventual retreat (Korea,Iraq,Vietnam,Afghanistan,..)

First gulf war would qualify.

I think that’s more like quitting while you’re ahead
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