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New t-shirt sewing robot can make as many shirts per hour as 17 factory workers

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Re: New t-shirt sewing robot can make as many shirts per hour as 17 factory workers

#51

Why should I be surprised. That's been happening since 1700´s [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution ] Perhaps that will be the way the most developed Countries will return some of the production lines to them.

"Perhaps that will be the way the most developed Countries will return some of the production lines to them" Why do you care about that? ecology? It's not like if it's going to translate in jobs.

Someone would have to build and manage factories. Would need a night guard to feed the guard dogs too :)

Re: New t-shirt sewing robot can make as many shirts per hour as 17 factory workers

#53
post #2

$0.33 per shirt, anywhere in the world, is nearly as cheap as the cheapest sweatshop markets. I expect most commentary will look at this using a US vs China thing, but I'm more worried about SE Asia and Africa. They need to climb up the development ladder that China's already 1/2-way up. Say what you will about clothing and sneaker sweatshops, but they were a tried and tested method for building up the basics of an i…

That $0.33 is cost of human labor, the article doesn't mention how much the technology contributes to the cost of the clothing.

Re: New t-shirt sewing robot can make as many shirts per hour as 17 factory workers

#54
post #2

$0.33 per shirt, anywhere in the world, is nearly as cheap as the cheapest sweatshop markets. I expect most commentary will look at this using a US vs China thing, but I'm more worried about SE Asia and Africa. They need to climb up the development ladder that China's already 1/2-way up. Say what you will about clothing and sneaker sweatshops, but they were a tried and tested method for building up the basics of an i…

You could say that about basically every labour-saving device though. Tractors, earth-moving equipment, container ships, whatever. And even textiles are almost wholly automated now - lots of textiles are grown or spun, woven, dyed and printed almost entirely by automated machines - robots, in effect. Final assembly is in many cases the first time a given piece of textile has been touched by human hands. So why is the…

I'm not convinced this point carries. Sure, "lump of labor" is a fallacy, more productivity is not likely to drive massive unemployment. But that doesn't mean all labor is interchangeably easy in all environments. Competition is still possible.

Early tractors didn't do much for underdeveloped nations. Mainframe computers didn't either. The default state of capital-intensive technology is to improve productivity, but not to bring capital and work into underdeveloped nations. Whatever benefits accrue there are the diffuse rewards of expanding global production.

The economic boom in China, Taiwan, etc was something vastly more specific than "rising labor productivity". Container ships, telecommunications, (Western labor laws,) and efficient but labor-intensive production came together to make offshoring incredibly profitable. The boom wasn't just rising productivity, it was a confluence of incentives that made production in certain countries much more attractive than others. We didn't just make more things, we closed factories in the West and reopened them in China.

If the next wave of productivity gains is high-capital, high-tech, low-labor, we'll probably see the reverse happen. People will engage in production where they can get extremely stable infrastructure (including internet), skilled labor, and precision parts. Factories in countries with cheap labor but unreliable power and internet might well close in favor of more production in countries like South Korea or even America. That won't be the end of the world, productivity will still rise, but it might end the specific forces that have caused so much growth via mass production.

Re: New t-shirt sewing robot can make as many shirts per hour as 17 factory workers

#55
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how much will the human labor cost per shirt be once these automatic t-shirt machines are moved to Bangladesh?

That issue becomes a logistics issue. You can pay one worker in Bangladesh to oversee the machine, or you can pay one worker in the US (or Europe) to oversee the machine. But, if your target market is US (or Europe) you've got shipping costs to get your finished shirts to the US (or European) market. If the machine is in the US (or Europe) those shipping costs are substantially lower (and with much less latency). The…

I remember reading an article on shipping, and they claimed shipping costs for a t-shirt from China to the US are something around $0.02.

I'm thinking the biggest advantage to outsourcing t-shirts is in a lot of places you can dump used dyes into the local river instead of dealing with rules on toxic waste.

Re: New t-shirt sewing robot can make as many shirts per hour as 17 factory workers

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding of Buffett's tax plan is that it is an income tax. Buffett and Gates both don't need much income proportionate to their wealth, they don't intend to spend/consume their fortune or pass it on to their children. Buffett's plan calls for a lot of other wealthy people to be taxed, but I don't see him doing a taxable transaction on his main holdings, I believe the effect on himself would be minuscule.

I don't see him doing a taxable transaction on his main holdings How so? Either he passes it on to his heirs or he uses it (selling the stock and realizing gains), both of which are taxable events. Since he has called for an increase on both the capital gains tax and on the estate tax, he'd be affected in any case.

He will contribute the majority of his wealth to charitable foundations. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundat... ). I believe this will allow him to avoid the taxes.

I don't have any objection to Bill and Warren choosing strenuously avoid giving their money to the government, and I don't object to what they are doing.

What I really object to is Warren advocating for other people's money to pay these taxes and presenting it as if it will affect him but he is such a great guy that he is all for it anyway. To me, he is the kid that is about to get in trouble and is frantically pointing at the other kid and mouthing he did it.

Re: New t-shirt sewing robot can make as many shirts per hour as 17 factory workers

#57
post #53
post #2

$0.33 per shirt, anywhere in the world, is nearly as cheap as the cheapest sweatshop markets. I expect most commentary will look at this using a US vs China thing, but I'm more worried about SE Asia and Africa. They need to climb up the development ladder that China's already 1/2-way up. Say what you will about clothing and sneaker sweatshops, but they were a tried and tested method for building up the basics of an i…

That $0.33 is cost of human labor, the article doesn't mention how much the technology contributes to the cost of the clothing.

More importantly, what will you save on shipping and how much more could you make by marking the t-shirt up as "made in America"? What are the long-term brand benefits of being American-made?

Re: New t-shirt sewing robot can make as many shirts per hour as 17 factory workers

#58
post #35
post #2

$0.33 per shirt, anywhere in the world, is nearly as cheap as the cheapest sweatshop markets. I expect most commentary will look at this using a US vs China thing, but I'm more worried about SE Asia and Africa. They need to climb up the development ladder that China's already 1/2-way up. Say what you will about clothing and sneaker sweatshops, but they were a tried and tested method for building up the basics of an i…

Kenya hasn't developed yet, why do we think it will? Putting it another way, Kenya's development has not been held back by lack of sweatshops but by corrupt government and misguided go-gooderism.

> by lack of sweatshops but by corrupt government

I think this is a false contrast. Stable government and reliable infrastructure are the standard requirements for building factories (sweatshop or otherwise) in a country. So a lack of industrialization is frequently a consequence of bad governance.

Notably, corruption itself isn't an issue. China, for instance, has plenty of corrupt and autocratic governance. But it has predictable, tolerable corruption and a basically-stable political structure, however the specifics may change. What's important is that the situation was predictable; everyone was willing to skim a percentage and leave the basic structures of government intact. If investors were worried that the government might take 100% of an investment, or fall completely, the situation would look pretty different.

Re: New t-shirt sewing robot can make as many shirts per hour as 17 factory workers

#59
post #47
post #42

Friendly reminder that building a wall isn't going to keep blue collar jobs around. Automation is going to kill them much quicker than immigrants will.

.. and no amount of cheap immigrant labour won't stop automation. Which is why the less immigrants, the better. Less people kicked out of jobs == easier to implement UBI or similar system.

Fewer.

Re: New t-shirt sewing robot can make as many shirts per hour as 17 factory workers

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see him doing a taxable transaction on his main holdings How so? Either he passes it on to his heirs or he uses it (selling the stock and realizing gains), both of which are taxable events. Since he has called for an increase on both the capital gains tax and on the estate tax, he'd be affected in any case.

He will contribute the majority of his wealth to charitable foundations. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundat... ). I believe this will allow him to avoid the taxes. I don't have any objection to Bill and Warren choosing strenuously avoid giving their money to the government, and I don't object to what they are doing. What I really object to is Warren advocating for other people's money to p…

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