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Making the case for a homegrown Canadian semiconductor industry

financialpost.com

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Re: Making the case for a homegrown Canadian semiconductor industry

#51

Post by roenxi »

PicassoCTs wrote: post #41

This touches a problem democracy inherited from the market participants it tries to emulate in the west nowadays. Longterm commitment to plans. It makes no sense to support projects short term, only then to hand the developed fruits of labour over to those capable to longterm commit to development. This is also the most valuable trait a government can bring to the market, as it is a system usually optimized for explo…

There is no conflict between democracies and accomplishing long term goals. Common perceptions are skewed because (1) "everything works as expected" and (2) "obviously clever long term plan bears fruit" make boring headlines.

If the democracies ever bring out the brass knuckles and try hard they'll probably succeed. Even mild tweaks like loosening IP protections and letting failed financial institutions go bankrupt once in a while would do wonders.

But the political will is focused on, eg, the Green movement (and Germany is one of the world-wide leaders there) which sees it as essential to our survival that we replace cheap energy with clean energy. Now I'm sure a lot of readers believe in that as a goal but industry would rather go where the cheap energy is.

The English speaking democracies have spent years deprioritising industrial reform in favour of improving welfare and supporting environmental initiatives at the expense of industrial competition. These are widely supported policies and fair enough, it is great to live in the west. But the long term effect of this is easy to anticipate - challengers will find it easier to compete.

Re: Making the case for a homegrown Canadian semiconductor industry

#52

Post by aww_dang »

konschubert wrote: post #44
PicassoCTs wrote: post #41

This touches a problem democracy inherited from the market participants it tries to emulate in the west nowadays. Longterm commitment to plans. It makes no sense to support projects short term, only then to hand the developed fruits of labour over to those capable to longterm commit to development. This is also the most valuable trait a government can bring to the market, as it is a system usually optimized for explo…

Germany chose cheap solar over homegrown solar. It is not clear to me that German solar could have become as cheap as Chinese solar with the old subsidy scheme.

There's also the subsidies provided by CCP central planners to consider. This subsidizes consumption in their target markets.

I appreciate the strategic concerns. However, the obvious benefit of a foreign nation subsidizing your consumption shouldn't be overlooked. Some of the knee-jerk reactions to central planning suggest that the western nations should emulate the CCP's statist system.

To be sure there are pragmatic concerns, but more concerning is the race to the bottom of top down planning this creates. Government bureaus will always find a rationale to expand purview of the state.

Specifically, if photovoltaic solar isn't cost effective without subsidies, then why use it?

When the state chooses winners and losers, it distorts the incentive based progression of technology. By narrowly focusing on artificially profitable PV solar, more efficient innovations may be overlooked.

There's always an unseen cost when central planners misallocate resources away from profitable industries. Pragmatists' best case might be that strategic concerns outweigh the losses of productivity and employment.

Re: Making the case for a homegrown Canadian semiconductor industry

#53

Post by goodcanadian »

MattGaiser wrote: post #34

Canada needs to focus on retaining the tech capacity that it has. https://financialpost.com/news/economy/virtual-brain-drain-p...

I hate to bang on about it, but as a Canadian who has worked in the U.S. and who is now in the U.K., I've tried hard to land a good position in Canada. Very few opportunities seem to exist, and the ones that do pay a pittance. In my experience, it is not 30% higher in the U.S. as the link indicates, but more like 100-200%. A couple of years ago, I was offered a highly technical position with a salary below what I had been paid 15 years prior. It was not really even going to cover the basic cost of living for my family.

All I can say is, if you own a company in Canada, you need to work on interesting problems and pay well. Then, you will have your pick of top quality talent. If you are having trouble getting staff, you probably need to about double your salaries.

Re: Making the case for a homegrown Canadian semiconductor industry

#54

Post by goodcanadian »

natrik wrote: post #9

https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iroikDYIT5Q... Canada's deficit is among the worst of all relevant countries at the moment.

Here is Europe:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/economy/governmentpub...

The EU average is about the same as Canada at 13.7% of GDP. The UK is up at 19.2%. If anything, I would think that Canada's 2020 deficit is pretty typical of developed countries.

Re: Making the case for a homegrown Canadian semiconductor industry

#55

Post by konschubert »

tomp wrote: post #50
konschubert wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does an army prop up a currency?

By destroying any country that dares to oppose petrodollar (latest example being Libya). Edit: Google “libya petrodollar gold”

I don’t get it.

Re: Making the case for a homegrown Canadian semiconductor industry

#56

Post by throw0101a »

908B64B197 wrote: post #2

Remember the C-Series plane? Trudeau did absolutely nothing for the industry and immediately bowed down to Trump after he slapped tariffs later judged to be illegal. Well, not exactly, there was whining and a vague threat to switch an order of fighter jets from Boeing to Lockheed. Couldn't inject a little bit of capital at the right time. Airbus swooped in and bought the whole thing at a heavy discount. Engineering s…

> Trudeau did absolutely nothing for the industry and immediately bowed down to Trump after he slapped tariffs later judged to be illegal.

(a) The amount of money funnelled into Bomardier was a lot, and BBD was/is IMHO not much more than a personal piggy back for the founding family who still runs thing. The two-class shares are crazy and should have been eliminated in any one of multiple bailouts that the company received over the years/decades.

(b) Canada has put retaliatory tariffs on all sorts of products when the US has acted in a silly fashion (and not just under Trump): it doesn't do much because of the relative sizes of the two countries.

Re: Making the case for a homegrown Canadian semiconductor industry

#57

Post by eru »

jcims wrote: post #42
eru wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does Canada claw any of that back through expat income taxes? The US is the only country anyone cares about that taxes their expats.

Maybe we're on to something there.

By 'we', do you mean the US?

It's generally considered one of the worst aspects of the American tax system.

See eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidental_American#Taxation_o...

Re: Making the case for a homegrown Canadian semiconductor industry

#59

Post by MichaelMoser123 »

PicassoCTs wrote: post #41

This touches a problem democracy inherited from the market participants it tries to emulate in the west nowadays. Longterm commitment to plans. It makes no sense to support projects short term, only then to hand the developed fruits of labour over to those capable to longterm commit to development. This is also the most valuable trait a government can bring to the market, as it is a system usually optimized for explo…

However longterm planning can be very rigid, in the GDR (east Germany) they used to joke that 'we have got the biggest microchips in the world' (old joke from the eighties, from the same domain, actually)

Re: Making the case for a homegrown Canadian semiconductor industry

#60

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

eru wrote: post #40
vkou wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Could easily see Canada become the agricultural leader of North America. The agricultural leaders of are countries that are nearly universally dirt-poor.

The Dutch disagree. (Not just now, but also historically.)

Except that the Netherlands aren't rich because of their agriculture. They're rich and happend to be good at agriculture on the side as an added bonus.
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