You gotta fight, for your right...

[Jester]

I see it in the destitution of Minnesota's iron miners, and the lack of a domestic steel industry, even though we are sitting on a mountain of cheap iron. Now, we are shipping most of our iron to China.

Do you mean only raw iron ore? Because as a total importer of US iron and steel, Canada far outstrips China.

The US does not lack a domestic steel industry. Not even close. You produce something like 100 million metric tons of steel each year - about 7.5% of global production. That makes you the third largest steel producer in the world, after China and Japan.

If the iron miners of Minnesota are destitute, then I can only say it's not because the US steel industry no longer exists. For unemployment, I suspect you should probably look at the opposite factor: the US steel industry is now vastly more efficient in terms of labour, and so requires far fewer workers to operate. This has been true in steel plants everywhere.

Plus, if you want to encourage employment in Minnesota, you might want to encourage, rather than discourage, iron exports to China. The Chinese pay money like everyone else, and that keeps the local boys in the mining business.

-Jester