Earlier quoted context omitted.
And the evidence for this is … ?
Finance is 12% of the entire US economy.
What’s the right %?
America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it
211–220 of 313 posts
Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not quite. As GGP mentioned, the necessity of keeping stock prices (and property values, and anything else securitized) high so as to not impoverish pension funds, 401Ks, IRAs, etc., is real. That is, if you care about Silent, Boomer, and Gen X retirees - who invested , but didn't save - being able to cover their myriad outlays. Millennials and younger need not apply, of course; we're just never going to be able to r…
Saving is futile with a 3% loss on your money each year. Unless you invest it you are losing it.
It's precisely those investments which cause those losses. Those investments are nothing but roundabout ways to provide loans to people and businesses. Loans inject massive amounts of money into the economy. Massive money injections directly cause inflation by increasing the amount of money in circulation, inflating the money supply and devaluing the currency of anyone who didn't participate in the scam by saving money instead of investing it.
Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it
#213[dead]
Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the closest thing to an answer. The economy has essentially been ruined by looting. People finding ways to strip out assets from companies. Variations on this include private equity racking up debt and bankrupting companies. Executives doing stock buybacks to boost their options while hollowing out the company's resources. Hedge fund management fees. It's everywhere.
started by jack welch at GE, the first corporate raider - https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236...
Was Welch a raider? I thought he worked his way up internally.
My understanding, possibly biased by my Britishness, is that Jim Goldsmith was one of the earliest raiders who took over companies and asset-stripped them.
Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it
#215I 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…
The motivation was greed and the means were treacherous. If someone was helped along the way, great, but don’t be naive enough to think that there is any altruism. Saying that all people matter just as much as any other is an absurd platitude. In some abstract sense, maybe, but your obligations to your family, friends and community obviously supersede any obligations to some hypothetical person with whom you share no relation. Moreover every society of earth maintains this preemption and considers this attitude to be immoral.
Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
>As GGP mentioned, the necessity of keeping stock prices (and property values, and anything else securitized) high so as to not impoverish pension funds, 401Ks, IRAs, etc., is real. I'm confused about how your model of the economy works. It sounds like you believe CEOs are selfish and greedy when it comes to workers, but when it comes to pension funds, they keep stock prices high out of the goodness of their hearts?…
CEOs are employed by the board, the board is made of major stockholders, those are pensions funds and other investors mainly interested in stock prices. No need for conspiracy theories or pitchfork waving, it's just all working exactly how it's openly designed to.
You guys keep saying pension funds. Where are the sources that financialisation sucking us dry is because pension funds need to get seeded? We’re living in a time of record profits and ceo to worker pay ratio through the roof and you guys are implying pension funds, the little to last thing workers have, as the issue?
Gee I’m wondering what we should all be thinking and doing about those pension funds and who that would actually serve.
Y’all get that most of us don’t have pension funds, right? They’ve been gutted long time ago. Defined benefit to defined contribution ring any bells?
But yes, let’s fight against the other plebs that have things we don’t, let’s blame pension funds and not the plethora of other issues.
I tell ya, we’re funding pensions alright but it ain’t the teachers kind.
Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
Big agree on UL certification of electronics imports. So much dangerous stuff is coming in and getting sold in places like gas stations where customers probably won’t suspect safety issues.
Is it currently legal to just sell your DIY power supply to US consumers? Or is there still like FCC certification required? Assuming, say, a USB-C charger.
"It depends" mostly on how DIY it is. PCB + parts kit is usually fine for most things that would have FCC or UL requirements, but selling something that's "assembled in USA" like tractors (wheels bolted on here, everything else done there) would probably still need certified.
Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would caution you against assuming disagreement is misunderstanding, A spring only suspension system responds quickly to a bump in the road. If that’s your only metric, it’s good. But a car without a damper is going to be hella uncomfortable. The shock makes it respond slower - it doesn’t mean it doesn’t respond.
Uuuu, While the analogy is nice, I doubt that taxes are decided upon like an engineer deciding on damping coefficients. An engineer has a specification and tries to hit that spec. I have a hard time believing that’s how taxes are set. I would like carbon taxs/credits to be decided upon that way. But if you look at the real systems it’s obvious they weren’t designed that way. Finally, you are correct that you need to…
I wanted a sports car as a teenagers and my parents gave me a minivan. It wasn’t what I wanted but it’s likely the reason I’m alive today.
The point of governance to some extent is dealing with the tension between what competing groups of people say they want and actually need
Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
While "treat blue collar workers better" sounds like a nice goal in itself...I fail to see how that would do anything at all to address the problem which the article is about. In other news - treating your oxen wonderfully will not transmute a wooden moldboard into an iron plow.
The root of the problem is exactly that America never wanted to treat blue collar workers in a decent way. That's why they sent all manufacturing jobs overseas: it was getting very expensive to pay for these unionized workers. The goal of destroying unions of blue collar workers was the main reason for deindustrialization.
I don’t think it was the goal as much as a biproduct. This article hits the same cultural problem…all this discussion of actions by the capitalist and ruling classes, by companies and governments. The simple solutions of respecting people are so incomprehensible as to be not even discussed.
Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it
#220It can’t be fixed with the current form of government and financial system, and no amount of central planning within the confines of the current system will fix this.
DC politicians redistributing money to advanced manufacturing will generate wealth for transnational corporations that siphon wealth out of the source economy. It will serve as a grift for those with political connections more than it will repair our industries. The playing field is not level because of regulatory capture and inefficient regulation, and the talent pool that can fill the roles has both dwindled in number and chosen other career paths.