I misread the headline and thought he was against selling steel to Japan, but he’s against selling the company “US Steel” to Japanese owners.
The history of the firm is truly crazy. JP Morgan’s original claim to fame, which produced over 2/3rds of all domestic steel at its peak and generated obscene profits off the backs of prison labor and press-ganged African American employees, while emitting enormous amounts of pollution from under-built and under-maintained furnaces across the Midwest and Atlantic Coast for over a century. The firm has been at the heart of generations of scandal, from monopolization to failed nationalization to strikes to bailouts to hostile takeovers.
Its a poster child for what unfettered capitalism does to the national infrastructure base.
Finally having the industry chopped up and sold off to foreign financial interests would be a fitting epilogue to its legacy. A real icon of American industry, from start to finish.
US Steel was also an interesting example something that arguably helped the allies win WW2. It was one of the biggest defense contractors back then and was integral to the war machine. My old house still has weird construction materials that were used instead of the metals US Steel was prioritizing for the war.
The company’s history really highlights a lot of pretty significant American moments, struggles, etc. Want to learn about America, learn about US Steel.
It’s only a free market when it benefits the white 1%. U.S. Steel has been mismanaged for literally a century. I have no doubt that the Japanese could do it better.
Japanese foreign investment has been depressingly geared towards American loot-and-scoot practices.
Sapporo Beer’s acquisition of Anchor Steam Brewing Company is a great example. They took over a local institution that had been in operation for over a century and quite profitable for decades, then ran it into the ground within a few years (with help from COVID, but still…)
See: “only free market when it benefits the white 1%”
You’re just describing capitalism, a system which everyone involved says they love and support.
Steel has always been a national security issue. We make tanks and ships from that stuff.
Then why isn’t it nationalized?
We have never nationalized US Industry. The only one I can think of is air traffic controllers. Thanks, Reagan.
