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Rust belt states??


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Reading a book and it referred to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as the Rust Belt states, curious as to why that is.  I know Pittsburgh is heavy into steel, is that why?

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When heavy industry started leaving the US in the 70s, a lot of iron mines, steel mills, iron works, and assembly lines were left abandoned and rotting/rusting. These ran from the Wisconsin mines, through the Great Lakes auto factories, the steel mills of Cleveland and Youngstown, and on into Pittsburgh and central Pennsylvania. 
 

The whole area was a sad swatch of rust through the Midwest. Hence, the name Rust Belt. 

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2 minutes ago, Charlie Harley, #14153 said:

Um, no.  I grew up in the Rust Belt as it was happening. Some cities still feel the scars, and they have nothing to do with salt. 

Did you ever see a car from the Rust Belt that wasn't rusty? Most of that industry died out in the late 70's. Bethlehem Steel in Baltimore was a huge employer. They failed to modernized and away they went. 

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46 minutes ago, Charlie Harley, #14153 said:

When heavy industry started leaving the US in the 70s, a lot of iron mines, steel mills, iron works, and assembly lines were left abandoned and rotting/rusting. These ran from the Wisconsin mines, through the Great Lakes auto factories, the steel mills of Cleveland and Youngstown, and on into Pittsburgh and central Pennsylvania. 
 

The whole area was a sad swatch of rust through the Midwest. Hence, the name Rust Belt. 

 

^^^ This is historically accurate.  ^^^

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26 minutes ago, Assassin said:

They failed to modernized and away they went.

 

Sad really, we did more to modernize German and Japanese industry after the war than we did our own. Today we still pay the price for that.

 

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—- HERE’S A BIG REASON...MAYBE THE BIG REASON AMERICAN STEEL MILLS WENT IN THE TOILET

 

 I used to handle “oil country tubular goods”.  My policy was to ONLY use American steel for down-hole and line-pipe tubulars.   The American steel mills continued to maintain an unseemly arrogant, superior attitude.  They had the balls to actually put us “on allocation,” refusing to guarantee my annual tonnage requirements, even though I told them my intent was to guarantee the three of them 100% of my annual tubular business.  Not only that, their in-house inspection of their pipe was very poor.  I visited the mills several times and saw it happening.  Over half of their pipe I personally observed had VISUAL defects (rejects) as it left the mill to be racked, waiting to be loaded on rail cars.  Upon arrival in California, I had all tubulars inspected (our expense) in the rail-yard.  We rejected factory shipments at an AVERAGE rate of 27%, a lot of it visual defects, but about half were body defects, only discernible by third-party “x-ray” inspection (such as Tuboscope, etc,).  The mills ALSO had the same inspection equipment set up right there in the mills,  but I NEVER, in my trips back to the mills, saw this equipment being used in service, inspecting tubulars,  prior to leaving the mills for shipment.  We could have some repairs performed in the rail yards (deducted from the steel mills’ invoices, bu about half the rejected pipe was left in the rail yard and was not paid for.  The steel mills paid for the storage awaiting their disposition of their defective pipe.  I inspected EVERY “joint” of down-hole (especially) pipe that came in.

 

SO!  What’s the point?  My experiences with the US mills were such that it was almost impossible to do business with them.  BUT, they NEVER complained about the expenses I kicked back back to them.  They never looked at that.  They thought they were too big to fail.  I charged everything back to them related to defects.  They only were interested in sales and apparently only looked at their sales figures.  US Steel wanted to hire me, but my wife would have wilted in Pittsburgh.  
 

Cat Brules

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2 hours ago, Assassin said:

Something to do with all the salt they throw on the roads in the winter. 

I was born and raised in Mi and that’s what 9 out of 10 people will tell you around here 

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17 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

They killed their own businesses. I think the unions helped but if management wasn’t so arrogant they might have survived.

Living in Pittsburgh at the time I saw the collapse of the steel industry in real time. It was a combination of the company’s refusal to modernize and union greed. The mills were old and antiquated dirty rusty hulks with broken windows and scrap everywhere. 
The Unions were arrogant and greedy jobs were so compartmentalized that no one really had much work to do. For example a close friend resigned his military commission to work in the mill. His job was to seal the furnace door with mud working slowly in took a half an hour. The rest of the day he sat in a lawn chair taking correspondence courses. Unsealing the door was the job of another shift. Thirteen weeks vacation every few years was a great perk. This is just one example of union greed that not only killed the steel industry but many others 

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2 hours ago, Assassin said:

Did you ever see a car from the Rust Belt that wasn't rusty? Most of that industry died out in the late 70's. Bethlehem Steel in Baltimore was a huge employer. They failed to modernized and away they went. 

Roads in the snowy Midwest have been salted forever. Car frames rust. Has nothing to do with the historic Rust Belt. 

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14 hours ago, Charlie Harley, #14153 said:

Roads in the snowy Midwest have been salted forever. Car frames rust. Has nothing to do with the historic Rust Belt. 

Okay, for some reason, the cars in the rust belt rust out quicker than those that are not in the rust belt. Say that 10 times. I'm pretty sure the heavily industrialized states from Maryland west to Wisconsin formerly steel country are rust belt states. It's a coincidence. But it did happen. :)

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On 5/6/2020 at 2:22 PM, Charlie Harley, #14153 said:

When heavy industry started leaving the US in the 70s, a lot of iron mines, steel mills, iron works, and assembly lines were left abandoned and rotting/rusting. These ran from the Wisconsin mines, through the Great Lakes auto factories, the steel mills of Cleveland and Youngstown, and on into Pittsburgh and central Pennsylvania. 
 

The whole area was a sad swatch of rust through the Midwest. Hence, the name Rust Belt. 

Thanks for the explanation, Charlie

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I had two cars rusted out in Florida. It ain’t a rust belt state. I lived near the beach. ;)

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I lived in DEEETROIT, Mi for10 years. During that time, automobiles had about a 3 or 4 year rust gathering life. After that they were rust buckets. 

 

I also lived in Southern Illinois for 18 years. Cars were rust free because no salt on the roads, but Illinois had a lot of industry that added to the Rust Belt condition. I don't think salt was the culprit. 

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