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What happened to the US machine tool industry?

construction-physics.com

191–200 of 226 posts

Re: What happened to the US machine tool industry?

#191
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It appears the western public's understanding of geopolitical realities is always a decade behind. _Right now_, all of NATO combined can't even outproduce Russia alone. We don't need to be talking hypotheticals, it is literally happening in real time. plus if a conflict like that occurs then clearly the US has lost significant power. so why would it be a given that American neo-colonies stay on its side?

>_Right now_, all of NATO combined can't even outproduce Russia alone. What? Don't know where you're getting your sources but NATO combined definitely can outproduce Russia. Why it isn't, is that Russia is in war mobilization mode with all their industry running 3 shifts for the war effort, while NATO's industry is still in peace-time mode because they're not under attack.

NATO countries can overproduce Russia in a future, but right now they don't.

Re: What happened to the US machine tool industry?

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> with all their industry running 3 shifts for the war effort Lol? Where are you getting your sources?

Putin and Chemezov themselves? https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/02/russian-defense-ch...

Military != 'all their industry'

Re: What happened to the US machine tool industry?

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brand names carry weight for several years before the damage becomes apparent. Often their cost cutting measures seem positive at first as it creates a profit uptick, but it's usually at the cost of the brand, so 3-5 years later things take a turn (once the consumer has figured out the brand can't be trusted anymore). By that point it's hard to put the blame on the appropriate person or identify the appropriate reaso…

I said it thousand times in different but related at root topics, quality and reliability are possible but why would somebody build something that would last forever? It’s more profitable to churn cheap garbage over and over specially when customers wouldn’t pay for quality products or when a new, more flashy and feature-rich one is launched everyday. It’s the same for electronics, fashion, cars, machines and anythin…

In cases where it matters, it's still a competitive advantage. Consumers don't care, maybe, but companies absolutely do, for their business-critical tools.

Re: What happened to the US machine tool industry?

#194
post #180

“Historically, machine tool companies were small operations run by people (often descendants of the original founders) who had spent their whole life in the machine tool industry and knew it inside and out. Because of the cyclical nature of the industry, machine tool firms tended to be managed conservatively, and they operated with little debt. … [In] the 1960s, machine tool companies began to be acquired by the late…

MBAs and financially driven management are why the US is such a poor country today. If the US was run like Japan or Germany we would be the wealthiest nation on Earth. First this short shortsightedness cost us the brick industry, then steel, and now machine tools. My children are doomed to be burger flippers due to MBAs.

> .. US is such a poor country today. If the US was run like Japan or Germany we would be the wealthiest nation on Earth.

US is, by a clear margin, the wealthiest nation isn't it? Certainly more so than Germany or Japan.

Edit: I may have missed some sarcasm there.

Re: What happened to the US machine tool industry?

#196
post #80

I grew up in a family printing business. Printing is a manufacturing industry just like anything else, with equipment of various sorts at every step of the production chain. Even in the 80s, when the business was going strong, most of the equipment we used was from Germany or Japan. Sure there were a few odds and ends made in America, things like X-Acto knives, or wax melting machines or something. Paper, ink, and a…

I grew up with a father who is/was an owner and director of a company that produces manufacturing printing rollers (gravure printing), mostly for packaging industry. He always competed against others on quality and flexibility as he couldn't on size, so having the best kit was important. The technology, even though the product is a discardable piece of packaging, is on NASA/CPU manufacturing level.

Even though, I myself was never involved directly in it, nor am I today, I know from him there were several trends:

1) Printing companies in Europe and elsewhere got bigger. What use to be 10 printing companies, now it's 1.

2) Equipment manufacturers for that industry got bigger. What use to be 4,5 equipment manufacturers in EU/USA, now there is one.

3) Lasers. Lasers got to a level where they can compete and surpass mechanical removal on quality and speed. This is true also for industry I'm in.

Re: What happened to the US machine tool industry?

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It works great, until the rest of the world decides that it wants to cut out the middleman. Isn't this why the US invests in having the world's biggest military by a long margin, plus the world's most powerful spy agencies? To make sure nobody dares cut them out of their privileged position otherwise they get a dose full of aircraft carriers, F-35 and B-2s after the NSA finds out what their plans is from the spyware…

I heard this was the real reason the US took out Saddam Hussein. Basically, Saddam had been saying for years that he wanted Iraq to abandon the dollar for trading its oil. If he was successful at this, other Arab Nations would most likely do the same. This wasn't acceptable to the powers in the US, so the US tax payers funded the war in Iraq to send a message to other nations: Don't even think of abandoning the dolla…

According to George W. Bush, God himself told him to start the war.

Re: What happened to the US machine tool industry?

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It works great, until the rest of the world decides that it wants to cut out the middleman. Isn't this why the US invests in having the world's biggest military by a long margin, plus the world's most powerful spy agencies? To make sure nobody dares cut them out of their privileged position otherwise they get a dose full of aircraft carriers, F-35 and B-2s after the NSA finds out what their plans is from the spyware…

I heard this was the real reason the US took out Saddam Hussein. Basically, Saddam had been saying for years that he wanted Iraq to abandon the dollar for trading its oil. If he was successful at this, other Arab Nations would most likely do the same. This wasn't acceptable to the powers in the US, so the US tax payers funded the war in Iraq to send a message to other nations: Don't even think of abandoning the dolla…

Conspirology at its best. Better swap Saddam for Qaddafi, that would be even more believable.

First Iran-Iraqi war that resulted in a standstill, then invasion of Kuwait, and only then the second Iraqi war when he went totally nuts.

Other Arab nations are Saudis and Persian Gulf emirates, who had zero use for the deranged person. And were and still are quite happy with dollars.

Re: What happened to the US machine tool industry?

#199
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have seen firsthand that non-US teams building software for US consumers often don't quite understand the reasoning behind the requirements and may lack polish around basic things like English Something I'm curious about, have you seen this happen with countries culturally close to the US? Like teams based in Canada, Ireland, or the UK?

I've certainly experienced US-made software that was close to useless in the UK, demanding dates in some absurd middle-out format and expecting everyone to know what a "401k" was with no explanation, along with more minor bits of polish like saying "pound" but meaning a completely different symbol.

Hah, good point. If anything, software handling that kind of data might be better is smaller countries that need at international audience from the get-go!

Re: What happened to the US machine tool industry?

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should absolutely increase our industrial capacity but who gives a shit about the biggest Navy? Outside of the problem countries like China and Russia, we have military alliances with nearly every country on earth.. US has somewhere around 450 Navy vessels.. China has closer to 350 but is rapidly adding new tonnage. Sounds ominous! Except Japan has another 150, Australia has 50 more, the UK has 70 more, Spain has…

Also, number of ships doesn't mean too much. I could buy 1,000 canoes. And tonnage only means a bit more - there is plenty of tonnage in old ships rusting at docks. Naval power isn't easily measured with statistics. The capabilities of a single US 100,000 ton aircraft carrier overwhelms entire fleets, unless their capabilities include long-range anti-ship missiles or submarines. Then adding tonnage won't help the US;…

You should look into it. I wasn't referring to canoes. Even then, you're wrong. Number of ships and ability to replace ships correlates to wins in times of conflict.
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