The story of Raybestos... and why the UAW supports tariffs.

[WarGamer]

In 1919...

1919, Raymark Industries in Stratford CT was manufacturing automotive BRAKE PADS right here in the USA.

They cut the hardened steel, they fired the pad material including asbestos...

They put brakes in early cars... then clutch plates... they supplied parts for WW2 planes and tanks, trucks, AV, etc...

They put parts in space and the men on the moon had Raybestos in their boots.

All made in the USA...

Then by the 90's... they were switching over to Chinese mfg... because of regulatory and labor and cost pressure.

Here's a set of brake pads online... for $9.73... made in China.

They can't be made in the USA for $10.

https://prnt.sc/IdMqrYAmH6pM

[RJ-MacReady]

1. screw the UAW

How stupid are they? When this doesn't work out Fain will cry about Democrats.

[ObscurePiton]

9. Cool, man.

This loser's lunch we're eating does taste a little better now that I feel superior to an auto worker.

[Kingofalldems]

2. Yeah I see what's up.

Link leads nowhere BTW.

[House of Roberts]

3. You were looking for a story with text,

but the link leads to a screenshot of a brake pad listing from a parts supplier.

[WarGamer]

6. This will help you

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/history-american-shifting-position-tariffs-180968775/

Republicans, once the party of unwavering protectionism, came to establish themselves as the free trade party over the span of the Cold War. “And Democrats in the postwar era,” Mihm says, “become increasingly associated with tariffs and protectionism—specifically, calls for protectionism driven not by industry, which it had been before, but by labor unions wary of competition from Japan and Taiwan.” China soon came to be seen as a threat as well.

Starting around the administration of President Bill Clinton, Mihm notes, the two factions actually managed a state of uneasy harmony. “For a couple decades,” he says, “there’s this bipartisan consensus for the most part about the virtues of free trade.” It was widely acknowledged that in a globalized, digital era, free trade had to be the policy baseline. “The Democrats were less enthusiastic,” Mihm says, “but nonetheless willing to embrace it” with the centrist push from Clinton.

[House of Roberts]

4. Interesting side note about brake pads in the 1990s:

I had a car shop in the 1990s and we specialized in Porsche cars. The only asbestos pads I could get for Porsches were manufactured in Australia. The brand name was PBR if I recall correctly. They were the cheapest available pads but I never offered them to customers unless they insisted on them.

[ImNotGod]

5. No manufacturer is going to expand manufacturing, build new plants, invest in new machinery because of any

executive order. Only long term tariffs passed through congress would spur manufacturing.

[durablend]

7. This is the crux of all of this

Here's a set of brake pads online... for $9.73... made in China.

They can't be made in the USA for $10.

Either

* They open factories here, paying the prevailing US wages, in which case you'll be paying 5 times as much for brake pads (which MAGA Will be bitching about)

or

* They open factories here, paying workers such low wages (nobody will work for) to make those $9.73 brake pads.

MAGA idiots just can't get this through their thick skulls.

[Meadowoak]

8. People can't afford a new car as it is, add another twelve thousand

Dollars to the price, and the big 3 might as well just close their doors. They won't be selling ANY cars.

[WarGamer]

10. Then MAYBE...

GM shouldn't have engine and transmission assembly lines in Mexico... interior assembly lines in Canada and electronics from China...

Assemble them in Detroit and call them "Made in the USA"??

[Meadowoak]

11. good lord, my father was a UAW autoworker, Im sure he's rolling in his grave.

[WarGamer]

12. In the olden days...

Engine Blocks were nicknamed after the City that were MADE IN... as in where they CASTED THE IRON BLOCKS and HEADS.

Lima, Cleveland, Windsor...

Anyone who insists that we can't do that work is wrong.