America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it

Post by chii » Sun, Sep 17, 2023, 5:07 AM UTC

yterdy wrote: post #76

mdorazio wrote: post #6

Here are the key points the article suggests (it spends quite a long time explaining how we got here): 1) Improve the [government sponsored] Manufacturing Institutes 2) [federally] Back R&D for manufacturing technologies 3) Provide scale-up financing [by the government] 4) Use government procurement power to promote new manufacturing technologies 5) Direct production support [to sectors deemed critical] 6) Provide bo…

> On the second point, the elephant in the room is that smart people in the US can make 2-3X as much in software or finance as they can in manufacturing, so what do you think they're going to pick? Which company is private investment going to fund - the SaaS co. with 40% margins and rapid growth or the manufacturing co. scraping 10% margins and 5% CAGR? Ooh, this one's easy. Make software companies give back some of…

Post by rizwank » Sun, Sep 17, 2023, 5:08 AM UTC

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #87

mensetmanusman wrote: post #4

I work in one of the last remaining large industrial manufacturing labs in the US. Some of my colleagues worked at Bell before that was shuttered. My sense from talking to the previous generation is that financialization of the US has started (finally) failing the American people. The previous generation cashed in on major profits by off shoring (Kodak), but we overdid it. In a round about way our company is run by p…

An important point is that the recent wave of globalization has been very good for poor people in developing countries outside of the US. From the perspective of US workers, outsourcing looks greedy. From the perspective of foreign workers, outsourcing looks altruistic. https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty-in-brief Even with recent globalization, Americans are still far richer than most people in other countrie…

Post by pphysch » Sun, Sep 17, 2023, 5:09 AM UTC

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #100

pphysch wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This explanation doesn't quite convince me, because if this really were the primary issue, USA could have globalized its consumer base not just for low quality products and pop culture, but high quality development. I think the root problem is political: recognizing that USA's extraordinarily successful mid-century economic model was the result of a compromise by the ruling capitalists to avoid facing a European-styl…

The US economic model has been quite successful recently as well. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-median-income?tab=t... As of ~2019, the US had the world's 4th highest median income, even adjusted for cost of living -- easily the highest median income of any large country. And the median income in the United States has been growing rapidly. Sort the table by "Absolute Change" and you'll see that in absolute…

Post by pphysch » Sun, Sep 17, 2023, 5:15 AM UTC

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #116

pphysch wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans have among the highest incomes, yes, but we also have ridiculous cost of living amid a highly predatory financial system. Housing, healthcare, education and other living expenses are astronomical. We can't just look at the high incomes. Successful for the elite, yes. Not for the median American.

The stats I linked are adjusted for cost of living. As stated on the "Chart" tab: "This data is adjusted for inflation and for differences in the cost of living between countries." People who earn the median income are hardly elite.

Post by ramraj07 » Sun, Sep 17, 2023, 5:17 AM UTC

neither_color wrote: post #106

ramraj07 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is again implying that he’s nothing but an idiot. I don’t know why people are incapable of acknowledging he’s an insightful but crazy and evil person.

Well said. I just sped through his new bio and while the author seemed overly-apologetic about his assholish tendencies(like in the Thai cave diving incident), his ability to inspire his engineers and get things built is undeniable.