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UK's hardware talent is being wasted

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Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#671

Post by ta1243 »

Earw0rm wrote: post #187
bboygravity wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO the UK should look at what Singapore did and maybe learn from that. There's really no excuse for a country like the UK other than ordinary plain and simple mis-management from the top. Singapore did not depend on neighboring countries to climb out of 3rd world poverty. To name an example.

It's a political issue. There are things the UK is good at - finance, culture/media, software and yes hardware innovation, legal services, tourism. But since the GFC especially, none of these things are considered "right" by the electorate. Instead we romanticise unproductive legacy stuff, and an NHS which, while its staff are in many cases heroic, spends most of its vast budget cleaning up the mess of a population w…

Vast majority of NHS expense is keeping an aging population alive. A lot of the rest of government spending (nearly 80% of my council tax for example) goes on social care for that same aging population.

The NHS spends less per capita than the US spends on medicaid. Not less per person covered, less overall.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#672

Post by constantcrying »

pjmlp wrote: post #214

This is an issue in most countries, not only UK. The job market is not prepared to fulfill the promises the talent expects, and in places like SV, what you get is the STEAM version of Hollywood, where every waiter dreams of being the next movie star, and there can only be so much.

Except that not so long ago the dream mostly came true. For many decades an engineering degree was a golden ticket to middle class financial stability and job security. Both in Europe and the US.

Nowadays that is no longer the case. Mostly because of international competition. People are still completely in denial, that there are people in China who do just as good of a job as they do, but for half the wage. Even more striking in software, where outsourcing to India is very common.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#673

Post by timeon »

maeil wrote: post #149
tidenly wrote: post #89

I left the UK after graduating at 21, fully intending to come back within a couple of years. Its weird watching it from the outside for 10 years waiting for a "good time" to move back and realizing that time isn't coming more and more each year. The salaries in Japan arent great honestly, but mine, the quality of life and how far my money goes is so much better than if I lived back at the UK. Every time I go back it…

Exact same story for Korea. Dollar-term salaries similar to the EU, but when you compare to CoL it's a much better deal.

How about suicide rates?

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#674

Post by constantcrying »

saos wrote: post #314

The U.K is not doing anything innovative that creates jobs and wealth. Instead the U.K. focuses mostly on housing wealth and building a property empire. This is evident with a govt that’s hell bent on stoking demand…after so many years they’ve only just stopped “right to buy”!! If we want higher salaries then the uk needs to start creating meaningful and impactful products that other countries want…

And these products need to be globally unique. You can not compete with a product that China can make far cheaper.

The US has achieved this numerous times through start-ups.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#676

Post by constantcrying »

thom wrote: post #332

Things are tough all over. I’m based in Sheffield, and we have an Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and obviously a rich history of manufacturing and engineering across the city that pioneered chrome steel. But the process for new enterprises always seems the same, you get some small, timid spinout from one of the universities, that spends years iterating through various crumbs of grant money, and maybe finds a…

>a programme to create thousands of new apprenticeships in the steel industry in the region

It seems very cruel to put people into a job market where the entire industry is undercut by China and has very little reason to exist, besides a nominal interest by the government in security.

If you want to challenge China, you have to embrace Chinese poverty, how else are you going to make profitable steel? You have higher energy prices, higher labor cost, higher construction cost and more bureaucracy and you want to compete?

>I couldn’t help feel they’d probably do better if you just taught them to code, even in this job market

Seems very cruel to put people into a job market where the entire industry is undercut by India.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#677

Post by constantcrying »

throwaway83726 wrote: post #592

A lot of these comments tell me that most commenters haven't actually worked in the EU or attempted to build wealth here. I come from an unprivileged background, my father joked that he might leave me an empty bottle of whisky when he died. I went from making 20k USD at my first job to over 800k per year. Taxation never particularly blunted my avarice or desire to advance further, and I never minded paying my taxes e…

>the good old boys clubs in Europe

What are you talking about? This certainly is not a "European" phenomenon.

>I went from making 20k USD at my first job to over 800k per year.

Then you are extremely lucky, as those just are extremely rare.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#678

Post by pjc50 »

constantcrying wrote: post #675

>Unlike lucrative software jobs, hardware engineering demands physical presence. Genuinely baffling. What is talking about? Most hardware jobs involve sitting in front of Design and simulation software.

Eventually the hardware comes back from the factory and somebody has to do bringup. It doesn't need constant in office presence, but it does need to happen some days. Sometimes you even need to go to the factory itself.

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#679

Post by hintymad »

tomhoward wrote: post #519

I don’t think it’s just a UK thing, or that it’s much easier to start a hardware startup in the USA. I think it’s more that the bar for getting a hardware startup off the ground is much higher than a software startup - everywhere in the world. Personally I’ve been trying to self-fund and bootstrap a hardware startup (based in Australia but I’m reasonably well connected in Silicon Valley as I’m a YC alum). I’ve had pl…

UK ignited the First Industrial Revolution. It's sad to see that UK has slipped to number 16 or lower when it came to the market share of global manufacturing. And the problem is not to just UK, but to pretty much all the developed countries. Many nations and people have benefited greatly from globalization, but I have to ask: is it worth it if the cost is forfeiting my own country's manufacturing know-how and supply chains? And yes, I'm fully aware of the theory of comparative advantages, but in the meantime, but manufacturing can still bring great income to many families and nations still compete and even go to wars with each other, right?

Re: UK's hardware talent is being wasted

#680

Post by constantcrying »

wakawaka28 wrote: post #84

Keep importing skilled workers. I'm sure it will work out for you eventually. /s Seriously, I feel bad for our British bretheren. The UK government is seemingly out of control and actively working against the people. There are also long-running geopolitical trends like outsourcing to contend with. Talk too much about these things and you're probably getting sent to prison. It's time for the US to bring some democracy…

If you are opening your job market to the entire world, the average salary for your workers will become the global average salary.

It is pretty trivial to see that this is exactly what is going to happen and the weighted average of UK and Indian wages are pretty close to Indian wages.

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