I'll ignore GURPS posting of last weeks news and address that actual intelligent questions below
Guess the Europeans will just have to make their own bourbon, Harleys, and Levis.
No, that is not how tariffs work...tariffs raise prices on imports they don't ban imports.
Maybe it's me who misses the point of the steel tariff?
You are not alone here. Actually
everyone misses the point of the steel and aluminum tariffs. Everyone includes; every economist, every one of Trumps economic advisors, every member of the Republican leadership...the only person in the world who is current FOR tariffs is our incompetent President.
I thought the idea was to revitalize US industries and put people back to work here?
That is the concept being pushed, but like every other proposal from Mr. Trump the reality is quite different. Let's say steel production were to come back to the US...unlikely, but suppose it does...manufacturing plants don't need workers like they did 40 years ago. New plants are automated...fewer workers who generally need higher skills to operate the machinery.
We used to have a thriving steel industry in this country, what happened to it? That's a real question because I don't know. I'm guessing that it was cheaper to have little kids work the steel mills in China or wherever? The unions ####ed it up with their greed and power mongering?
Our steel industry was screwed by unions AND by management. Unions demanded wages and benefits of such a level that they priced themselves right out of existence. Management didn't upgrade or modernize factories and plants. High labor costs combined with outdated manufacturing facilities doomed the industry. Now all we have left are mini mills that produce much smaller quantities with far fewer workers.
"They" say we can't afford to produce our own steel, and yet we used to be able to afford it just fine. Hell, Billy Joel wrote a whole song about it.
Not sure who "they" are...we can produce steel here...we just can't produce it on a large enough scale at a competitive price. In the heyday of steel production in the world, we were the only country with standing modern steel plants. It took a long time for Europe to rebuild after WWII. We (unions, workers, management, politicians) got drunk and fat off the lack of competition...once the rest of the world caught up, our steel industry began a slow death spiral. It is a story with a great beginning and middle but with a lousy ending that didn't have to be...
Worse yet, we are repeating the story now with our infrastructure. Our roads and bridges are terrible. Our rail service is congested and too slow. Our air transportation system is woefully out of date. Yet we are doing nothing to fix any of it. Here again the incompetence of our President is on full display for the world to see and take advantage of. China is embarking on its Belt and Silk Road project that will open massive lanes of trade all over Asia and Europe. We are pulling out of trade deals and won't replace antiquated infrastructure. The world is getting more competitive and we are falling behind.
