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I have to second what "Fordson29" said. I run my own fabrication and repair business. I deal with everything from heavy mining and construction equipment to fleet truck service and manufacturing. What effect the increase in the tarrifs on steel is going to have has yet to be determined. Like Fordson29, I also buy from a supplier and have little control over where my steel is mfg'ed. Depending upon what I am buying, I sometimes have a choice but in most cases, I don't. Before anyone jumps for joy over this, you should think about some things. First off, the US steel industry has not kept up times with other countries. Japan makes some of the best specialty alloys available since they have new automated facilities that can produce batch after batch of steel with very tight tolerances. Likewise, Taiwan also has some state-of-the-art facilities. This aside, US steel mfg'ers have had to take a pounding in many directions. Unions fighting for more money and keeping workers on the job. EPA and DEP, just two of the government agencies who crawl up the mfg'ers @$$es every minute of the day looking for violations and dictating new environmental policies faster than most companies can read them let alone comply with them. Understandable, the unions are there to look after the workers and pressure the company into keeping employees rather than eliminating jobs. Understandable, agencies like DEP and EPA are supposed to do thier job which is prevent companies from illegal and unsafe dumping of waste, hazmat, air polution, ect. Then you have the little home town action groups and such that pick at the mfg'ers as well. In most cases, these groups go on hearsay rather than facts, yet the outcome is higher cost to the company. On top of the above, you add the "anti-big business" liberal politicians raising taxes. Which of course means nothing because corporations do NOT pay taxes, consumers do! Sure, the taxe rates the businesses pay go up and directly proportional the cost of the goods go up at the retail end. So who's paying the taxes? Yep, you are. So add up all these things and you can see why big industry in the United States is dying. If you have a company that is forced to pay employees who do nothing high wages, you then force the company to install and maintain tight controls on their emissions, you then force the company to maintain water supplies that were not contaminated by them in the first place... you see where I'm going with this? Here is the heart of the old times and old industry, places like Bethlehem Steel, US Steel, Mack trucks, Allentown Paints, Dutch Boy Paints, Excide Batteries, Herculese Powder, Berillium, Palmerton Zinc and the anthracite coal industry. Yep, that's my neck of the woods. I know the area, I know the business and I know the problems. Many of the places above are no longer in business and most of those that are remain so in name only. Some of these places went under by their own accord and some raped the area for what they got and left behind a mess for others to absorb the cost of. Because of these rapists, many other businesses also suffered greatly. Cheap oil killed the coal industry. Very few coal operations remain, none of them deep mine and the surface mining ones are now responsible for cost of the recovery of former surface mining disasters left behind by rapists. Now the remaining coal businesses are not only taxed on their own properties and profits but are taxed with the cost of others as well. Still, there is no let up from the people here at all. Government aside, the people are their own worst enemy. In a land littered with open strip mines, known to most of us as "the land of big black holes in the ground" the people resist change even when it's for the better. This place is a minimum of 20 years behind the rest of the world. Corruption is still alive and well here from the government down to the unions and some workers. Everyone is in someone elses pocket and those that are not loose out. The biggest selling point to bring industry to PA is "low wages" and "protections under agreement". What that means is the unions have gone from protecting the worker to protecting their pockets. Govenrment sponsored industry building agencies cut deals with the businesses and government officials to line thier pockets. It's nothing but one big ugly game of corruption from one end to the other. The only way to get ahead is to buy it with money or favors. When you don't have the favors to offer and the money runs out, where does that leave you? OUT OF BUSINESS! Let's face it folks, it does not take rocket science for anyone to figure out that a company in business to make money is going to make as much as possible by whatever means is necessary. Why should a business operate here in the US and be forced to comply with regulation after regulation when they can take their operation somewhere that does not give a dang about regulation? That's nothing to do with patriotism, it has to do solely with profit. If a company here is forced to pay 500 workers $50,000 per year to sit around and do next to nothing, does it not make more business sense to move that business where they can pay 1000 workers $2000 per year to do the same amount of work? The goods still sell for the same price so the increase is profits. Now people expect the remaining businesses to make up the slack and be able to compete with a company who is spending less on labor and does not have to spend a dime on evironmental matters. It's impossible to do. There has to be a compromise somewhere or this is going to be a flop. People need to give a little, unions need to give a little and the government needs to give a little or we are all going to loose. Reasonable evironmental policies. Reasonable wages. Reasonable taxing. What I mean by "reasonable": Don't force a company to install air polution scrubbers on smoke stacks that don't work. Don't expect the company to maintain workers they don't need. Don't expect to get paid to do nothing or get paid a small fortune for non-skilled labor. I've been on both sides of this one folks. I've been the poor sucker working in unsafe conditions for 7 bucks an hour and I've been at management level running a production facility with 450 employees under me. When I was on the production line, I paid my union dues only to have the union reps sell out the company at my cost. When I got into the managment position, I got paid only after I showed a profit for the production process. When I went off on my own and thought I could have less headaches being an independent iron worker, I found myself at the mercy of the corruption in the unions. It did not take long for me to tell 'em all to got to he11 and started my own business. Sure, the first 7 years were not easy. High start-up costs, paying fees and taxes everytime I turned around. Surviving on $.25 a pack instant soup and using coffee grinds twice over to get by. Now, 10 years later, I got myself something. I did not buy my way into a union. I did not favor my way into government contracts. I did not sucker people out of their money. I built what I have with my own blood and sweat. Paying my way with money I earned, not money I stole. Working for me, not some CEO or union boss. No, it was not easy and it's still not easy to maintain a business. I deal more and more every day with more and more government regulations, taxes and fees. The you got to deal with the money grubs looking to sue you for a free ride. What does it all mean to me. Simple. I got where I am by working my @$$ off and plating the game as best I could. I still work my @$$ off 16 hours a day seven days a week. What do I have to show for it, not a lot but everything I got is mine, bought and paid for with the scars I carry on my body and the blood and sweat I spilled getting them. If you think for a minute that raising a tarrif is going to be some magical cure for years of destruction, you are sadly mistaken and YOU are going to pay the price in the end.
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