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Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

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Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#31

Post by jongjong »

In most of the west, technically talented people are fully subjugated to suits so I'm not surprised.

Sometimes, there are brief moments when technical people are given the control they need to deliver... But after a few years, they are again subjugated to MBAs in suits again and the capacity is lost.

I see this constantly nowadays. As a technical person, there are many companies/roles where the constraints set you up for failure from the beginning. I've delivered some very complex projects but I've also worked at jobs on far simpler projects where I knew since day 1 that the project wouldn't pan out due to counter-productive technical constraints being imposed... but you know the company is well positioned in the financial system and that the outcome won't matter; so you take the job anyway. You still get the high pay and the prestige from the brand name. There are many companies like this where people seem to keep failing upwards and stock price always goes up.

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#32

Post by probably_wrong »

taneq wrote: post #9

Is this the new “China can’t manufacture a ball point pen”? (Which I strongly suspect they can do at this point. :)

More like the new "America can't manufacture a grill scrubber" [1].

For those who haven't seen the video, YouTuber Destin Sandlin ("Smarter every day") tried to build a grill scrubber using 100% materials from the US and failed.

[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZTGwcHQfLY

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#33

Post by fkdk »

cyberge99 wrote: post #30

Needs an orthogonal approach. Perhaps Elmer's glue that physician’s can dip their hands in and rinse off?

Some of my early research (elementary school) suggested that certain glues can form a peelable, skin-like layer. Maybe that could be a promising way forward?

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#35

Post by orphereus »

jongjong wrote: post #31

In most of the west, technically talented people are fully subjugated to suits so I'm not surprised. Sometimes, there are brief moments when technical people are given the control they need to deliver... But after a few years, they are again subjugated to MBAs in suits again and the capacity is lost. I see this constantly nowadays. As a technical person, there are many companies/roles where the constraints set you up…

Shouldn't free market reward companies that go the other way and where people don't "fail upwards"? It is kind of demoralising to think otherwise, but it seems it is true.

We see it everywhere. Bad companies making bad decisions keep surviving, and actually the vast majority of companies are like this.

One implication is that MBAs in suits that make bad decisions are actually right and their decisions are not bad. The other implication is that there is no free market, no meritocracy and the truth is, game was rigged from the start.

Edit: I should add that most of this is anegdotal evidence and a general feeling I have. It is not a very powerful argument I'm making.

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#38

Post by jongjong »

orphereus wrote: post #35
jongjong wrote: post #31

In most of the west, technically talented people are fully subjugated to suits so I'm not surprised. Sometimes, there are brief moments when technical people are given the control they need to deliver... But after a few years, they are again subjugated to MBAs in suits again and the capacity is lost. I see this constantly nowadays. As a technical person, there are many companies/roles where the constraints set you up…

Shouldn't free market reward companies that go the other way and where people don't "fail upwards"? It is kind of demoralising to think otherwise, but it seems it is true. We see it everywhere. Bad companies making bad decisions keep surviving, and actually the vast majority of companies are like this. One implication is that MBAs in suits that make bad decisions are actually right and their decisions are not bad. Th…

I agree, a free market would work that way... Yet 'fail upwards' and zombie companies seem to be the default. Personally I don't believe that what we have in the west is a free market. I think these days, it's probably less free than the one in China. The market here is completely smothered by regulations.

For example, about a month ago, I saw a video about people farming frogs in China... To collect secretions for medical use. At first I thought WTF. But then they mentioned how much it sells for and I thought "Wow. We have a lot of cane toads here everywhere, it would be a great business to do here." I actually started thinking of doing this... This is really out there for me because I'm a software engineer; but I started seriously considering this. But guess what? I did my research and turns out it's illegal to do it in my country (Australia) because the frog secretions would be considered an illicit substance and you need to go through some expensive process to obtain a license. Yes, you need a license to farm frogs...

A few weeks back, I read news about someone who got arrested for farming cockroaches (as reptile food for zoos)... It's like all the entry-point business opportunities have become illegal.

Every time I heard of a case like this where some really good niche business opportunity is illegal in Australia, I asked my AI if this practice is legal in China and the answer is almost always yes.

The other day, I was watching a documentary about Philippines and I saw a kind of makeshift resort built literally on top of a coral reef. Really amazing looking. They seemed to be getting good reviews and actually making money... This would NEVER be allowed in my country. At best, you could purchase a ship for millions of dollars then apply for expensive licenses, then you'd have limits on how many people you can take at a time, etc... So many constraints and regulations. Such artificially high capital requirements. It would be a worse experience and less profitable; and you'd have to be filthy rich just to get a chance to engage in that highly constrained, mediocre business activity.

Re: Why it's so difficult to produce American-made medical gloves

#40

Post by philipallstar »

vrganj wrote: post #19
raverbashing wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how much those spreadsheet heads know nothing about how the actual world works

You gotta optimize everything for the market man! It's magic! Everything will work out if we only make number go up! Who cares about silly stuff like health emergencies, the climate catastrophe or war. Number must go up!

You don't need to optimise for the market. The market is the optimising machine. Get in its way with slow regulators or subsidies or bailouts and you get all the problems.
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