GM,
They're gonna steal the steel.
This doesn't have dystopian consequences at all.
Discussion
So weird seeing UK and France militarize with wet blanket figureheads
I was working in procurement covering the UK and it's quite shocking the amount of closures of vital commodities in the UK. De-industrialisation moving to totally deconstruction of the country now.
We moved from trading to manufacturing to bankers, but since 2007/8 we haven't really found a new role.
We're very posh and civilised, maybe we should become the worlds butlers 😂
“The Equalization of Opportunity Bill,” he said. “The Steel Unification Plan. That was the tag they used for the bill, though nobody knew what it was supposed to unify, except the output of the steel industry. What it did was nationalise the steel mills.”
Hank Rearden:
“They say it’s only temporary,” said Rearden. “They say they’ll let me run the mills and take a fair profit. But they mean to control me entirely—and they won’t let me earn what I’m worth. That’s what the bill means: they’ll own me without paying for it.”
There is also talk of that here in Australia though mostly because the current owner has gone into administration. The government have bailed them out with a $2b lifeline.
It’s not going to help as the owner ran it into the ground and still have $1b in creditors.
Arguments are we shouldn’t be bailing out a private enterprise without ownership stake. Also a strategic asset.
Interesting 🤔
GM☕️☕️🌅💜Feel sorry for Britain 🇬🇧.
Atlas Shrugged vibes
# ☕ 🇧🇷GM
Come on nostr:npub1aqakd28d95muqlg6h6nwrvqq5925n354prayckr424k49vzjds4s0c237n, let’s not distort the facts or turn Nostr into X, please. The UK government isn’t "stealing" the Scunthorpe plant. In fact, they tried very hard to find another group to buy it. The UK government loves privatisation even more than the US government.
The fact is, the Chinese group that was running it was going to shut the steel plant down, and nobody else wants to run a steel plant in the UK. This is actually the last steel plant we have in Britain, and steel may become a rare commodity very quickly if the world keeps heading in the direction it’s currently going.
I know this contradicts the libertarian narrative, but we need to be intellectually honest about the facts here. This is not a hostile renationalisation. It’s a rescue mission, given that the Chinese group running it was simply going to declare bankruptcy and move on, and the "free market" isn’t interested in keeping the plant running at all since there’s not a lot of profit to be made at the moment and investment groups can't care less about Britain sovereignty.
As one of the people paying upwards of 50% in marginal tax rates, while I’m all for small government, I do approve of this. I really don’t want Britain to end up importing steel at 10x markups just to keep its railways, factories, and infrastructure running if the worst comes to pass. It’s a strategic investment.
You are absolutely correct in the facts you provide and the assessment you make.
But I come from a world in which if companies or industries fail then you allow them to fail.
No one needs street lamp lighters or fax machines anymore.
I have also never seen any government effectively run a company.
Don't waste time on a dying industry, pursue thriving ones.
We still need steel, but clearly the market doesn't make it efficient for the UK to produce it.
Also, try not confuse different arguments, saving jobs for individuals is at the expense of the nation.
40 years on, there are no unemployed fleet street hot metal operators, they moved on.
My argument wasn't about saving jobs in an unprofitable industry (I know that's the BBC's angle in the article I linked, but I wasn't trying to mimic it). I do agree with you that, in most cases, private companies do a better job than public ones, at least when it comes to non-vital resources that can be driven purely by profit. But this isn't about profitability. Britain needs pure steel. It needs pure steel today, and it will need pure steel tomorrow, even if producing it here isn’t profitable at the moment. That’s largely due to the inability to export and the small scale of the UK's steel industry. The market has been flooded with cheap steel, and countries are becoming increasingly protectionist, applying large tariffs to try to save their own industries.
My argument is about sovereignty. I've lived in countries that can’t refine pure steel, and I know what happens when the market turns and you simply can’t buy it anywhere. And trust me, the market does turn. You don't want to live in Britain without access to pure steel during the next economic boom. Or worse, in wartime or a heavily protectionist global reality. We need to have some pure steel of our own, and unfortunately, unlike gold, a pure steel reserve isn’t practical.
There are plenty of terrible, horribly managed, unprofitable companies that are still providing vital services to the country. A prime example: Thames Water. We still need water, regardless of whether Thames Water is profitable. In a situation where no local or foreign company is willing to take on a strategic resource, I’m 100% fine with renationalisation. The alternative is either bailing out a failing company or not having access to the vital resource at all when needed.
Don’t worry. When steel prices skyrocket again (and they will, that’s the nature of commodities and vital resources), I’m sure the British government will find a way to privatise it again. I’m completely fine with that too. My argument isn’t in favour of state-owned companies in general. I’m just saying that I'm okay with paying what is essentially an insurance premium to reduce the risk around vital resources. Pure steel, like water, certainly fits the bill.
Also, unlike most of what’s in the British Museum, the UK isn’t really stealing this plant. On the contrary... we’ll be paying through our noses for it. 🤣