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

Post by AtlasBarfed » Sat, Dec 30, 2023, 2:36 PM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #147

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…

It is an interesting narrative but largely untrue. As the article points out, US Steel (and the US steel industry in general) was making enough profit, what they were not doing was re-investing those profits into upgrading their steel making. Instead, the "People in Charge" were giving themselves large bonuses and pay upgrades for being bosses of the "big steel." This was especially true through the 80's and 90's in…

Post by hn_throwaway_99 » Sat, Dec 30, 2023, 3:24 PM UTC

csours wrote: post #35

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gotta say, I'd live in that steel modular house in a heartbeat.

There's a reason that house isn't pictured in the snow.

Post by araes » Sat, Dec 30, 2023, 5:41 PM UTC

sbierwagen wrote: post #122

ren_engineer wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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? it's kind of funny because the US won WWII by the ability to churn out huge volumes of decent quality goods but now our military seems to be adopting the German idea that small numbers of expensive wunderwaffen will turn the tide

Well, what will a future war look like? We're never going to fight WW2 again, because all the great powers have nuclear weapons now. The US army will never take the field in a straight up slugfest against Russia or China. So that leaves non-nuclear regional powers. But you simply don't need a whole-of-society mobilization to fight Iran. The phase of active combat against Iran will not take years-- it won't take month…

Post by AdamH12113 » Sat, Dec 30, 2023, 6:29 PM UTC

foooorsyth wrote: post #163

AdamH12113 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government of North Korea did not fall or surrender. You can argue that it was a political win if the goal was defending South Korea, but militarily, it was a stalemate. North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam after we withdrew. It was in no way a victory for the United States. Afghanistan was arguably pretty similar, although we did install a new government while we were there. Germany and Japan, on the other hand…

>Saying that Germany and Japan were “bombed back into the Stone Age” is a wild exaggeration Japan was firebombed pretty ruthlessly. McNamara openly stated that he would have been tried as a war criminal had the US lost the war. Here is a list of 67 Japanese cities that were firebombed with their destruction % and their US size equivalent: http://www.ditext.com/japan/napalm.html#google_vignette Source: The Fog of War…

Post by l33t7332273 » Sat, Dec 30, 2023, 9:27 PM UTC

Supermancho wrote: post #190

l33t7332273 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason to commit so ferociously to Vietnam was to show our other strategic partners and allies how far USA was willing to go for seemingly small things; if we’ll dump endless troves of blood and treasure for a small country in Asia, what will we do if tanks push into Berlin?

Thats a benefit to the military response, but I dont believe the massive waste of political capital, manpower, and supplies looked impressive to other countries. Especially after the abrupt exit. The use of cruise missiles has been far more imoressive.