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UK's hardware talent is being wasted

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Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#641

Post by pjc50 »

graemep wrote: post #488
pjc50 wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under-rated comment. This is basically the whole explanation. 2008 did a huge amount of damage, not just immediately but to long-term mindsets. Ironically I think it's even entrenched the meme that the only real way to make money in the UK is property. We're all Georgists now. (this includes property as an export industry! Leaving increasing areas of the UK owned by overseas absentee landlords.)

The problem is that people think property is a risk free way of making money - even if they borrow heavily to invest. Maybe what we need is a property price crash.

Nearest we came was ... 2008, with all that implies. I don't think we can have a property price crash until the population starts net-declining.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#642

Post by IshKebab »

AdamN wrote: post #595
piker wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK is almost twice the size of the largest US state--California. And that comparison doesn't fare well for the UK. The UK is below the US' poorest state in terms of GDP per capita.

> UK is almost twice the size of the largest US state--California You mean by landmass? Looks like the UK is quite a bit smaller than California and I presume is a middle-sized state in size terms: https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/country-size-comparison/unit...

He meant population.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#643

Post by dgellow »

gadders wrote: post #500
incog_nit0 wrote: post #143

It's not just in the hardware sector, it's across the board. My (American) wife moved to London years ago and was a manager in a prestigious London museum overseeing 60 people. She has over 20 years experience in some of our top museums and her salary in 2023 was a paltry £30k. We just moved to the US and within a couple of months she has a job in museums here but now paying 2.3x the salary (converted back to £) and…

>> Only London's financial sector pay was globally competitive - but now with Brexit's rules fully locked in even that sector is slowly losing its talent and customers to Europe and beyond. Citation needed. No-one wants to live in Frankfurt.

That's a shame, Frankfurt (am Main) is a pretty nice place

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#644

Post by Beretta_Vexee »

llm_trw wrote: post #635
Beretta_Vexee wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being an engineer means mastering your production tool. For everything to do with physical production, you need to be close to the means of production to gather essential information on quality, capacity, operator feedback (machine and quality operators are invaluable sources of information.), etc. Most information is not digital or hardly digitizable. I don't completely agree with the article's classification of ARM…

I'd go one further and say you have to be at least a journeyman in whatever tools your process is using. The difference between someone designing a part in cad and someone designing the tool paths for the machine that makes the part in cam is night and day.

We could discuss this at length, but I completely share your point of view. Anyone can design a part that's impossible to produce.

The real added value is knowing how something is actually going to be made, in how many stages, with what tools, what controls will be carried out, with what tools, what the acceptance and rejection criteria are, and how these criteria have been determined, are essential points.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#646

Post by dennis_jeeves2 »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #14
mapt wrote: post #12

A lot of these complaints are not about an industry, but about late stage capitalism. About a failing society that privileges profits over social progress and material productivity because oligarchs and aristocracy own the institutions and are running this thing into the ground on base class instinct. All these cool "save the world" school projects exist because the current people running the world are deciding what…

Yeah, yeah, the meme copy-paste problem diagnosis, but what’s the solution? Rebuild into socialism? Rebuild into communism? Reset into early stage capitalism (lack of regulation and all)? How do you know that those systems won’t also have their own late stage failure? Case in point, the NHS right now. (Edit, posting too fast: To the person below who suggested 90% tax rates; the US never had those rates. On paper they…

>Reset into early stage capitalism (lack of regulation and all)?

I think this wouldn't be bad.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#647

Post by hbrav »

I'm a Brit who has worked in finance and AI. I honestly want to move into building hardware. My background is physics, I want to build things that make the world better. But the businesses just seem absent. One of the UK's most exciting hardware projects was Reaction Engines, and they went bankrupt recently.

I really want to know what we can do to fix this. As a country, we aren't building things that people want. Which means we are less powerful.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#648

Post by rfool »

Oh no! What you describe is generally known as a 100% german trait.

You cannot steal it from us and relabel as british! No, Sir!

BTW: your examples stink.

From first to last one:

> Sarah: Built a fusion reactor at 16. Now? Debugging fintech payment systems.

Nice, but that fusion reactor? Where is it? Did she really accomplish something?

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#649

Post by rfool »

rfool wrote: post #648

Oh no! What you describe is generally known as a 100% german trait. You cannot steal it from us and relabel as british! No, Sir! BTW: your examples stink. From first to last one: > Sarah: Built a fusion reactor at 16. Now? Debugging fintech payment systems. Nice, but that fusion reactor? Where is it? Did she really accomplish something?

Btw: remaining examples are just as stupid as the first one.

Ideas are worth nothing. Even if they shine

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#650

Post by ETH_start »

All economic development initiatives face an uphill challenge if the underlying macro conditions aren't right.

The solution for the UK, the EU and Canada is simple but politically anathema: cut taxes

A 2018 study shows tax increases significantly reduce innovation. A 1% increase in the top marginal income tax rate leads to a 2% reduction in patents and inventors, while a similar increase in corporate taxes causes even larger declines.

The study is quite rigorous too:

https://www.maximum-progress.com/p/tax-cuts-and-innovation?r...

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