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My refrigerator is dying a slow 22 year death. I've been shopping at actual stores. Outside of the ridiculous price of keeping your food cold, is availability. Some models while still being displayed are 5 months or more out from estimated delivery. I had to go several places to find models either on site or in a warehouse reasonably close. My current unit was $600. My new unit more than 3x that amount not to mention all the gas it took to find it. Sure you can pay $2700-3200+ anywhere. They will have what you want right there. I guess anything bellow that is a budget unit.
 
Our fridge took about 2 weeks to get, for a basic unit. Not bad considering 90% of the stock is on backorder until the end of the year. Had to compromise a bit on size but beggars can't be choosers. Just needed something to keep food cold. Didn't need to surf the internet with wifi from my fridge, or a gourmet ice maker, or real time satellite uplink, or a built-in elevator, or enough room for two zip codes. But apparently the big box stores think you need a cray supercomputer that occasionally cools food, because that is all they had in stock. Odd, considering the chip shortage. I would have thought the basic units with less electronics would have been easier to keep in stock. But it could also be that a lot of people aren't looking to spend $4,000 on a fridge that needs monthly firmware updates and a subscription service to remain operational, or sends your midnight snack frequency and average calorie intake to Google.
 
Dear OldBroad44,

This old phart grew up in the "Rust Belt". Long ago the old phart had to leave that sorry part of the US of A because the steel industry left our shores. Be very careful of what statistics you read, most are BS. In the past I've seen numbers of lost jobs in the entire US steel industry which were lower than steel employment lost in only Pittsburgh, PA. By the 1970's bulldozers were knocking down Pittsburgh's steel mills. The legacy of Carnegie, Rockefeller, Mellon, & Frick are now brownfields waiting for a new owner to build.

About 1982-84 a VP of the company that I've retired from visited the site where I was employed. He gave us the "Get out of Dodge" lecture. Unions, benefits, health care, environmental regulation, labor cost................etc; were forcing industry to leave the US of A.

https://www.worldsteel.org/media-centre/press-releases/2021/august-2021-crude-steel-production.html

Look at the numbers! China vs the world! China is at 83.2 (million) metric tons and the closest is India at 9.9 MT. The US of A is at a sorry 7.5 (million) metric tons. The US of A is not coming back anytime soon! The production sites are gone, blast furnaces gone, arc furnaces gone, continuous casters gone, rail lines gone, basic oxygen process gone, etc.

AND IT ISN'T JUST STEEL...........

Every year this old phart receives the annual stock thingy. During my time clock punching years I've been part of construction & start-up teams. A 100 million dollar site was a big deal here in the sorry US of A. The annual stock thingy brags about the multiple BILLION DOLLAR sites being built in China & India.

rolling with the punches,

Foreverlost
During our youth, the dollar was worth more than 10X what it is now. So China building a billion dollar plant now and US building a $100,000 plant then are actually comparable.

I didn't know most of steel making capacity in US has been destroyed. But that may not matter. China out competed everyone else on steel not because we had unions or higher wages and they make it cheaper but because they consider it strategic, so subsidize it. And consider it valuable so subsidize it so heavily that they can dump steel on world markets and ruin the steel making and war making ability of the more capitalist nations. Chinese labor is medium pay/skill labor now anyway. Also, the Messabi Iron Range in northern minnesota hasn't gone anywhere. And the natural gas produced as a byproduct of much of the shale oil production in the Dakotas is still being flared off. Natural gas is close to free in the upper midwest. And because of this, electricity is priced lowest in the world. We probably need new steel plants in the Dakotas, not in older now heavily populated areas. And rail connections between upper Minnesota and Dakotas look good. Pollution may be an issue, but it might be possible to get environmental law exceptions in low population areas to support an industry we probably won't be able to survive without.

Will US steel be competitive with Chinese steel if we restart with new plants in the Dakotas? No. Because Chinese government simply prints money and gives virtually unlimited loans that basically don't have to be paid back to any company or industry they want to support. And since war making ability depends on steel, steel is the most strategic thing there is. If we become more competitive China will simply subsidize it more. (I've seen arguments that the entire Chinese financial system and yuan are way overdue for collapse, and the only way CCP is going to be able to survive is greater repression along with starting a war sometime within the next five years. Probably with Taiwan.)

The heavy tariffs on China steel and removal of deals or tariffs on steel from all other US trade deals by Trump administration and confirmation by Biden administration signal the US government, both red and blue, has decided that China is an enemy, and that we can't depend on an enemy for steel/war-making-ability. And that we too realize steel is too strategic to have no ability to produce at home. So we need to subsidize and rebuild our steel industry too and protect it from competition with China's government subsidized steel.
 
Huh, not a word in that glad handing write-up about the root cause.. that they've shut down many of their hydroelectric power plants due to flood caused damage and the likelihood of cascading failures wiping out millions of citizens.
 
Our fridge took about 2 weeks to get, for a basic unit. Not bad considering 90% of the stock is on backorder until the end of the year. Had to compromise a bit on size but beggars can't be choosers. Just needed something to keep food cold. Didn't need to surf the internet with wifi from my fridge, or a gourmet ice maker, or real time satellite uplink, or a built-in elevator, or enough room for two zip codes. But apparently the big box stores think you need a cray supercomputer that occasionally cools food, because that is all they had in stock. Odd, considering the chip shortage. I would have thought the basic units with less electronics would have been easier to keep in stock. But it could also be that a lot of people aren't looking to spend $4,000 on a fridge that needs monthly firmware updates and a subscription service to remain operational, or sends your midnight snack frequency and average calorie intake to Google.
The party says you need to be in front of your telescreen at all times.
 
Huh, not a word in that glad handing write-up about the root cause.. that they've shut down many of their hydroelectric power plants due to flood caused damage and the likelihood of cascading failures wiping out millions of citizens.
"Chinese Engineer", much like "Military Intelligence", is an oxymoron.
 
On a grand strategy level, wait till the ChiComs make their eventual move on Taiwan and its semiconductor industry - western manufacturing grinds to a quick halt. Then with a very possible takeover of New Zealand and Madagascar they will control the majority of the world's shipping lanes. May you live in interesting times.
It takes a blue-water navy to control world trade. And an attack on New Zealand or Madagascar would also require a Blue water navy. Chinas navy is designed for the South China Sea.

I agree that an attack on Taiwan is a serious possibility.
 
An invasion or puppet-stating the Philippines not much farther a reach, which gives them more leverage over Vietnam. From there they can push on Malaysia and Indonesia... [edit] They may not be strong in Blue Water, but they've been making major investment in growing their amphibious-assault capability.

My gut says they're being aggressive because they're straining at the seams, like the last decade of the USSR, and it's "Win or Die" for Xi personally.
 
Last Edited:
Let's remember that those that voted for a new government and policy are sleeping in the bed they made. Obviously, those voters are super smart. No doubt about it. See how smart they are; go to Costco and buy food or buy gasoline. That is just how smart they are. Their new government voting is likely a symptom of how disorganized their mind is. jmho
 
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It takes a blue-water navy to control world trade. And an attack on New Zealand or Madagascar would also require a Blue water navy. Chinas navy is designed for the South China Sea.

I agree that an attack on Taiwan is a serious possibility.
Taiwan is just a first step.

Controlling trade doesn't require controlling oceans, just the choke points, and that can be done with air power. Geography is key.

Madagascar is in position to threaten the southern Suez and Persian Gulf along with the eastern end of the Cape of Good Hope. Taiwan and New Zealand together would control the South/Western Pacific. Australia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, et al would be essentially isolated.

Invasions don't require a blue water navy either, unless it's seriously contested. China has millions of expendable men, a massive fishing fleet and time on its side.
 
My new Bosch range *might* be here in March, they are *hoping* my new wood stove will be here in January, and my new water heater *should* be here in a couple more weeks.

Trying to order new Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks for work, can't get a delivery date or pricing, but don't expect to get a newly ordered truck till 2023. The F350 I ordered in spring, finally is in transit to the dealer.

Buying semi trailer tires last month, couldn't get the BFGs that are on the other 3 axles, had to go with another brand, just so it could go down the road, and those were over priced!

I've been waiting on an order of Honda generators for months...

It is getting bad, and I am sure it is going to get worse. It is pretty sad when you can't spend your money due to lack or supply.
 
During our youth, the dollar was worth more than 10X what it is now. So China building a billion dollar plant now and US building a $100,000 plant then are actually comparable.

I didn't know most of steel making capacity in US has been destroyed. But that may not matter. China out competed everyone else on steel not because we had unions or higher wages and they make it cheaper but because they consider it strategic, so subsidize it. And consider it valuable so subsidize it so heavily that they can dump steel on world markets and ruin the steel making and war making ability of the more capitalist nations. Chinese labor is medium pay/skill labor now anyway. Also, the Messabi Iron Range in northern minnesota hasn't gone anywhere. And the natural gas produced as a byproduct of much of the shale oil production in the Dakotas is still being flared off. Natural gas is close to free in the upper midwest. And because of this, electricity is priced lowest in the world. We probably need new steel plants in the Dakotas, not in older now heavily populated areas. And rail connections between upper Minnesota and Dakotas look good. Pollution may be an issue, but it might be possible to get environmental law exceptions in low population areas to support an industry we probably won't be able to survive without.

Will US steel be competitive with Chinese steel if we restart with new plants in the Dakotas? No. Because Chinese government simply prints money and gives virtually unlimited loans that basically don't have to be paid back to any company or industry they want to support. And since war making ability depends on steel, steel is the most strategic thing there is. If we become more competitive China will simply subsidize it more. (I've seen arguments that the entire Chinese financial system and yuan are way overdue for collapse, and the only way CCP is going to be able to survive is greater repression along with starting a war sometime within the next five years. Probably with Taiwan.)

The heavy tariffs on China steel and removal of deals or tariffs on steel from all other US trade deals by Trump administration and confirmation by Biden administration signal the US government, both red and blue, has decided that China is an enemy, and that we can't depend on an enemy for steel/war-making-ability. And that we too realize steel is too strategic to have no ability to produce at home. So we need to subsidize and rebuild our steel industry too and protect it from competition with China's government subsidized steel.
The Mesabi Iron Ore Range was kaput shortly after WWII. It ran out of high grade iron ore, Hematite. The only thing shipped out of that region after that period was Taconite which is low grade crap that had to be processed in order to have an iron content high enough to make iron to be converted into steel. If the sorry US of A is to be a contender with China it will take decades. The sorry US of A removed most of the rail lines that brought in raw materials to the steel mills. The skilled labor in the sorry US of A which knew how to make steel is gone, retired or dead. The banking industry that took over the bankrupt mills demolished the Research & Development sites so there would "NOT" be competition with foreign steel making.

To be competitive in today's world, companies have to be international. The sorry US of A is now a service industry. $100 million is the norm even today in the sorry US of A. The big investments are in emerging countries................and are mulit $$$ Billion sites.

As an example our Madam Governess Brownstain has dropped the requirement for HS grads to read, write, or have knowledge of math. We Can NOT compete on an international world market lacking of those skills.

Ever wonder why a supply chain does not work in the sorry US of A?????

Back to the popcorn,
Foreverlost
 

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