Made in America

[AHNC]

There is much discussion today, everyday really about this topic. I would strongly recommend that everyone read to the New York Sunday Times 1/22/12 issues article "How US Lost Out on iPhone Work" Outstanding article. Depressing, but outstanding reporting.

 

[AHNC]

link


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/b...queezed-middle-class.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

 

[UWAdventurer]

Very interesting, thanks for posting the link.

 

[schoolsout]

Meanwhile, Apple continues to take advantage of slave labor...

Apple's Foreign Suppliers Demonstrate Widespread Scamming and Horrific Abuse of Employees | | AlterNet

 

[Beltzington]

This highlights the point I have been trying to convince several friends of since 2006 and the reason why the trickle-down economy and American corporations create American jobs don't hold water. One, Corporations are in business to make money for the shareholders and even during recent periods of huge profits they outsourced and hired to and from other countries. Two, emerging markets and core company growth (profits) are no longer in the US but overseas.

This is the new world and won't and should not be changed by government policy. My beef is our taxation policy is still rewarding American corporations and stock holders for the old world system. Corporations and stockholders want to play the capitalism card, let them pay for the chips and be taxed accordingly based on the costs of infrastructure, military, etc. and the profits gained from doing business overseas and let them fail or succeed on their business acuity not cry for and accept bailouts when they are no longer the "smartest folks" in the room.

American customers are best served by buying based on value as sales are the only metric which will drive changes in the quality, price and type products companies produce.

Good topic and hopefully we can keep the right and left fringe comments to a minimum as unfortunately most of us have had more than a lifetime's quota.

 

[raasd]

It was a great article. I recently got in a discussion with a friend about American manufactuting. His belief is that regulations and the need for environmental impact studies make building a factory too much of a hassle. He just didn't get it. Why pay American workers minimum wage ($7.25/hour) when you can pay asian workers $17/day for 12 hr days. Its simply the labor cost. Some people just don't understand why it doesn't matter how many tax breaks you give major corporations, they won't bring those jobs back and reduce profits.

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

Its simply the labor cost.

its not always the labor cost. Moden manufacturing has things to the point that the amount of labor in a product is increadibly small. A robot does not cost any more to operate in the US than it does in China.

The problem is our government. As a business owner, I can't begin to tell you the difficutly of just being open for business. Government at every level demands control and its slowing us down and adding massive inefficiencies to our simple retail business.

Another is the labor force. I'm becomming increasingly convinced that Americans don't what certian kinds of jobs. Its been very clear as we've seen people in the farming community having a nearly impossible time finding Americans to work on farms when the people with 'questionable' documentation have left.

Like many political issues, if we'd just address ALL the factors in small ways rather than taking one aspect of a problem and creating a national riot about it we could chip away at these things. But we won't.

 

[Volfandt]

Interesting topic.
We've faced the enemy and it is we.....

Messick is right, the problem has a multi front, and theres no one single fix. That said we must chip away at it to survive. All could probably be traced back to the start of our great society nanny state. Temporary fixes became permanent, greed escalated and our work ethic decreased, well manual work ethic if you will.
Funny we take it out on the new segment of our society that actually works... Document them and tax them and that problem dininishes drastically....

More gov is not the answer, it's one of the major problems, if not THE major problem.

No matter what course we take, it's going to painful. No baby wants to ween and I believe we're taxed enough already. Theres got to be middle ground...

re. the OP topic. I've had the pleasure of visiting the far east, middle east and Europe via Uncle Sam and while I had respect for the prople of the country's I visited, theres NO place like home boys & girls .......

Dave

 

[houstonscott]

Tired of the southern stuff. The two most backwards places I have traveled to are silicon valley and NYC. Both are yesterday cities and places.

HS

 

[raasd]

I'm a business owner as well and can speak to the truth that a number of people just don't have the work ethic that I was taught, and that is why farming and construction have turned to people with "questionable" citizenship.

Government regulation is not the problem, it's the lack of consistency and commen sense in regulation. We recently had some new rules put in place by our state health department on our busines. I understood the reasoning behind the rules and their value. I, along with some other business owners, cooperated with the state to get the rules written so that they were understandable and make sense. It seems that the stance business wants to take is that all regulation is bad and lets fight it all no matter what. If business leaders would only be more cooperative, understanding that if we worked together we could get good regulations, that make sense, are not overburdensome, and benefit everyone.

Manufacturers aren't going to invest in unknown robot technology, possibly costing millions to develop and millions more to produce and operate, when you can get such low manufacturing costs going overseas. I have a friend that has a company producing ATV accessories and just moved his manufacturing overseas. He was having production done at a small shop in SD, moved it overseas and cut his production costs by more than half. The shop in the USA was already up and running so no regulation barriers to starting up.