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The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

fortune.com

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Re: The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

#61

Post by ddlatham »

throwaway2016a wrote: post #7

I haven't been myself but my wife is a process engineer and had to go to China to install and train people on a new machine so this is only second hand... But one of the reasons China is so good at manufacturing is because everything is in one place (or at least clusters)... need 10,000 of an Integrated Circuit? The company that makes it is literally down the street. Need some raw materials? That's down the other str…

> I do feel like shipping goods by container ship is bad for the environment and bad for consumers.

How is it bad for consumers (beyond the environment)?

Shipping goods does include an environmental cost which is not incorporated into the price of things - an unfortunate externality. We should have a carbon tax to properly reflect the true cost of items made and shipped so the market can choose between a locally made good and one made elsewhere.

There seems to be a popular opinion that even if the environmental cost were accounted for (carbon neutral) that it is still somehow inherently superior to make things nearby rather then trade for them from another city, state or country (especially food).

Re: The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

#62

Post by dang »

mercurysmessage wrote: post #36
codez4lyfe wrote: post #15

thank you donald trump

What, exactly are you thanking him for? You know that they will all be automated jobs right? That is where manufacturing is going. You can love a corrupt egomaniac all you want, but you should wake up and smell the coffee, you sound like a shill from your amazingly defensive two comments.

Please don't respond to a bad comment by making the thread even worse.

Re: The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

#63

Post by coliveira »

hacknat wrote: post #38
throwaway2016a wrote: post #7

I haven't been myself but my wife is a process engineer and had to go to China to install and train people on a new machine so this is only second hand... But one of the reasons China is so good at manufacturing is because everything is in one place (or at least clusters)... need 10,000 of an Integrated Circuit? The company that makes it is literally down the street. Need some raw materials? That's down the other str…

> Although I hope it is true. I don't know if being a manufacturing powerhouse is actually all that exciting anymore. There aren't really that many jobs in manufacturing anymore. Some of Toyota's modern car plants employ a meager 1500 people which is about and order of magnitude decrease from what car plants used to employ. This las election was frustrating for this very reason everybody assumes getting manufacturing…

Producing our own food is not exciting either, but would you like to live in a place that produces no food and has to import 100% of what is needed to survive? This is the same thing here. Manufacturing is not a sexy activity anymore, but it is necessary, as long as we still live in a physical (non-virtual) world.

Re: The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

#64

Post by codeddesign »

throwaway2016a wrote: post #7

I haven't been myself but my wife is a process engineer and had to go to China to install and train people on a new machine so this is only second hand... But one of the reasons China is so good at manufacturing is because everything is in one place (or at least clusters)... need 10,000 of an Integrated Circuit? The company that makes it is literally down the street. Need some raw materials? That's down the other str…

I would think that this would be the lesser of the problems. Growing up in metro-Detroit, the Big 3 had thousands of smaller 3rd party companies surrounding it that made molds, plastic components..etc. The larger issue that I see would be union's and the large wage gaps. There were plenty of my friends parents that worked on the line making well over $100k each a year (as a line worker!). Everyone enjoys good news, but line work, manufacturing, and coal are not "coming back" beyond those that are highly skilled in the field.

Re: The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

#65

Post by kesselvon »

bandrami wrote: post #51
reallydontask wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please explain what you mean by: poor people today, rich people 100 years ago, living standards. hard to argue with your statement, one way or another, if those aren't clearly defined.

Since I'm not interested in arguing about it I'm not particularly motivated to define it clearly. But good examples are life expectancy, physical pain relief, availability of the entire sum of human knowledge through a small glass and metal rectangle that fits in your pocket, likelihood of living in a democratic country, likelihood of avoiding a violent death, etc.

But housing and education prices continue to outpace wage growth, with medical care becoming increasingly expensive. Things are objectively better, but the non-wealthy see their societies stagnate and wealth being extracted and concentrated far away from their communities.

Re: The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

#66

Post by scottm84 »

brightball wrote: post #54
scottm84 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle is this way. Washington state has an airplane factory in the woods and a car fiber (BMW) plant out in the desert. In the city you can find businesses to build anything.

That's interesting to hear. In South Carolina we've got BMW in the Greenville area and Boeing in Charleston. The Greenville area itself virtually imploded 30 years ago with the textile industry and BMW has largely driven the recovery. Now it's one of the best places to live in the state.

We also have a LIGO detector out by walla walla in case gravity gets shifty in the pursuit of red.

Re: The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

#67

Post by marcosdumay »

wil421 wrote: post #25
maxerickson wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should also start treating rising housing prices as a policy failure.

What about inflation? Why would anyone buy land if it was guaranteed to depreciate. I'd be better off renting from someone else losing money.

> I'd be better off renting from someone else losing money.

Certainly, if houses stop appreciating rent prices will increase to cover some of the difference.

Re: The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

#68

Post by ThomPete »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #27

I read the article and skimmed the full study and was left scratching my head: - What exactly do they mean by 'Competitiveness'? - Why so much focus on labour costs, when manufacturing cost is increasingly driven by large capital investments (especially in China, where low interest rates and government encouragement have expanded capital investments for years) - Why all the talk about R&D expenditure. Is that really…

The focus on labour cost is, I believe, because China have been suppressing it's own currency to stay competitive. But it's just a guess as I am only reading through the article and the study as we speak.

Re: The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

#69

Post by jamra »

throwaway2016a wrote: post #7

I haven't been myself but my wife is a process engineer and had to go to China to install and train people on a new machine so this is only second hand... But one of the reasons China is so good at manufacturing is because everything is in one place (or at least clusters)... need 10,000 of an Integrated Circuit? The company that makes it is literally down the street. Need some raw materials? That's down the other str…

I read an article from the economist awhile back detailing how Mexico is a better source of manufacturing than China due to raw materials being available from within the country. In that article they stated that raw materials are actually scarce in China and have to come from abroad, causing larger fluctuations in pricing during depressions.
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