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**lh88gFzI** · 01-15-2009, 11:16 PM

I'm not a trade isolationist, but I think key industries, like steel or car manufacturing need to be protected. You really don't see the insanity in having to rely on foreign nations for the materials to make the steel frames for buildings or construct ships for example?

I think key industries should be protected, too. The thing is, neither automobile or the steel industry is a "key" industry in this sense in the 21st century. Pat Buchanan has been complaining about this for the past 15 years or so, but still doesn't realize that the world has changed since the 50s.

The reason why car and steel corporations were vital "key" industries was that they were (1) rare in global sense, thus a foreign power could "extort" nations without them by enacting trade barriers wrt to said industry products; (2) they were cutting edge technologically, so they were slow to build from scratch to manufacturing ready-and-perfect-quality-products. Neither point is applicable today to either of the industries.

01-15-2009, 11:16 PM	#17
lh88gFzI Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 555 Senior Member	I'm not a trade isolationist, but I think key industries, like steel or car manufacturing need to be protected. You really don't see the insanity in having to rely on foreign nations for the materials to make the steel frames for buildings or construct ships for example? I think key industries should be protected, too. The thing is, neither automobile or the steel industry is a "key" industry in this sense in the 21st century. Pat Buchanan has been complaining about this for the past 15 years or so, but still doesn't realize that the world has changed since the 50s. The reason why car and steel corporations were vital "key" industries was that they were (1) rare in global sense, thus a foreign power could "extort" nations without them by enacting trade barriers wrt to said industry products; (2) they were cutting edge technologically, so they were slow to build from scratch to manufacturing ready-and-perfect-quality-products. Neither point is applicable today to either of the industries.
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