Chip off the ol block or should I say the other mayor. What do you expect?
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LOL ok one percenter is that how you gonna spin it. We no want no big business in Lackawanna now? To bad you didn't learn when Bethlehem got ran off for being overtaxed ,the beginning of the city's decline. Without overtaxtation you can't get your precious tax dollars and no show jobs anymore. Awww!
Oh really. So you are saying that the foreign subsidizing was the reason for the failure of Bethelhem Steel. In fact the subsidizes were so high that it was cheaper to manufacture the steel in Italy, ship overseas and build the Father Baker Bridge directly in front of a steel plant. You're claiming that the wages, work rules, change in environmental laws and taxing had nothing to do with the plant's demise.
Don't tell me that was the only reason for the plant closing because my father, uncles and cousins all worked there. After the strike in 1957, my father said that Bethelhem will never put money into the plant again and thought that the plant would close within 10 years. He was wrong it took 15 years. If in fact your warped idea was true we would have no steel manufacturing capabilities in this country which in fact we do. I could explain the economics of the plant to you but you could NOT comprehend the total picture. Everybody had a part in the plant closing from management, workers, unions, city taxes, county taxes, state taxes, federal and state laws and rules to the overall cost to modernize the plant. The plant could no longer make a profit and closed that is the bottomline. Bethelhem moved production to newer plants and 25,000 people were unemployed. Now try calling this anything but the truth.
Exactly. We all know how there were a lot of workers who clocked in to the Steel Plant, while at the same time having a city job, and then going drinking or gambling at the OTB. I had relatives who worked at the plant and were specifically told not to do a certain task because they had to wait 15 minutes for another guy to drive across the plant and turn that bolt. Like you said, work rules, high unskilled labor costs, taxes, poor mgmt, etc, all added up to make the plant uncompetitive.
Yep, a 25 year old making 75 thou a year just didn't hold up in the world market.....you know what the most expensive aspect of manufacturing is right? But NY hasn't been business friendly for as long as I can remember anyway. Then some country comes along and gives the once cheap labor countries a run....and so on. Until everyone has the same standard of living as us, or we are at the same standard of living as everyone else..This is the most likely scenario
What is your learning disability? So tell me which straw broke the camels back? Taxes both city and school played a role in the plants closing. Only a person whose view on life is so tainted that reality becomes just a misty cloud would not fault taxing one industry and virtually make it carry the entire tax load for a city and a school system. Not holding them responsible for the closing is stupid. How many of those former politicial leaders had any regrets for killing the plant. I would venture a guess of none because they always have an excuse for their failure. To say that the fault was entirely the city is wrong but to not place its fair share on the city would be asinine.
All politicians want to make an industry into a faceless entity because then making the industry into a villain is simple. The fact is that industries are a collection of people with similar values working for a common goal. One of those goals is not having to support the waste of their hard work and money. Paying for patronage jobs in the city and schools with no real value with tax dollars is CRIMINAL.
Yes!!!