Trump continues to back aluminum and steel tariffs despite Republican fears

[GMDino]

(03-08-2018, 08:53 PM)Benton Wrote: I'd disagree.

Jobs requiring a high level of education are great. There's no knocking advanced learning. But there's always going to be a significant chunk of the population that is not there. They aren't going to be chemists and botanists and coders. But many of those people don't mind working hard, they just need somewhere to work. Some way to contribute to the economy. The last 40ish years, we've moved away from supporting those people. We made it cheaper to do labor in other countries and then acted amazed when there was no one here who wanted to do labor for below a living wage.

People want to work and this will go a long way to putting a lot of people back to work. Not just those in the plants, but the spin off industries, too.

In terms of improving the economy, this and re-doing NAFTA are strong moves. People with jobs — generally — make more and spend more than people without jobs. That's not playing to a base. It's simple math.

Will steel and aluminium cost more? Slightly. Will increased wages offset that? Provided that we keep producing and manufacturing domestically, most likely.

Here's a problem I see:  Are they going to be the union jobs that left 30 years ago?

Better wages? Health insurance? Pensions? 

My guess is no.

Sure, some will be.  But most will not.

So how much of a bump in wages we say may be small.