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America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it

americanaffairsjournal.org

281–290 of 313 posts

Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it

#281
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that’s only half right… the financialization is driven via a priority of short term profits that are incentivized by the market to executives. They play the BS game to just get rich and then dip, company be damned in the long run.

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…

IMO it's top vs bottom, not generation vs generation.

The vast majority of us are working class.

Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idiomatic translation to English would be: “A broken clock is right twice a day.”

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.

The negative implications from the message deliverer come from you, not me. You are probably correct about him being an idiot, but the phrase being translated specifies that the message delivered is not relevant to the message, in the same way that I would not call a clock an idiot for being low on battery power.

Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it

#283
post #55

Earlier 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…

>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?…

> The stock price is essentially the fair market value of the company

That is something some people choose to believe to be true. The same way some people choose to believe that God (or a number of Gods) exist.

Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it

#284

Earlier 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.

Nope. CEO's tend to be on the board of each others companies, making sure that there is never any argument over CEO compensation.

Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it

#285
post #145
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but unsure what’s to be done? Can feel Lenin spinning in his tomb from here.

Ah yes, Communism! So successful at delivering productive happy societies that they needed walls around their countries to keep people in. Great idea.

Capitalism! So successful at delivering productive happy societies that they need to stage coups worldwide to keep people from attempting to try alternatives and fund death squads to secure profits. Great idea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Massacre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contras

Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it

#286
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…

>Americans are some of the world's richest people

Taking national wealth or GDP and implying it's shared equally amongst its citizens would be an absurdly disingenuous argument.

You're not doing that, are you?

Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it

#287
post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The problem is design and tech companies and cloning resellers sling stuff direct to consumers via ungodly amounts of facebook ads. Because they’re direct shipments so many of those products are not safe or certified and many clones are labeled as certified but aren’t because they’re cheap knock offs made to look like the originals.

Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it

#288
post #267
post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your cash over time is guaranteed to lose almost all its value. While, if you invest in something, it could be even gold or silver, could be a house, could be a global market cap index fund, it holds more of its value than a fiat currency does. So no, fiat currencies lose everything and even with risks involved with other investments, the risks are still less than cash. Cash over time is one of the worst investments.

It depends on your time horizon. Over a period of say ten years, cash is unlikely to lose almost all of its value, whereas for stocks the likelihood can be higher. The stock market may crash (like it has in the past) at an inconvenient moment where you’ll then be happy to have some cash on hand.

In 10 years, at 3% inflation, cash loses about 26% of its value, and at 5% inflation, about 40% of its value.

Not "almost all", but that bucket is quite leaky.

Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then everything that the us imports would be more expensive in the next day, fueling inflation...

Yes, inflation on imports. Investing in the domestic manufacturing sector isn't free.

This, there ain't no free lunch.

Re: America's advanced manufacturing problem and how to fix it

#290
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going off of the stock Tesla looks incredible but the price is insane and driven by factors other than their actual production outputs. They had a huge lead at the start but the old giants aren't that far behind them any more and aren't hampered by over promised and underspecced self driving claims and the... Muskness of their leadership.

Check out the Mach E review by Scotty on YouTube. Ford certainly is not behind Tesla at all. That Mach E is oders of magnitude more exciting than any Tesla I have ever seen.

The main thing Tesla still has over their competitors is the charging network. I've watched a couple X vs Tesla roadtrips and the biggest issue in the non-Tesla is there's way worse information about the chargers you'll find at a particular spot. These were a bit ago so maybe they've gotten better but there were a lot of "oh this charger doesn't work hopefully we have the range to get to the next one" where the Tesla chargers provide pretty good information about the number of people already charging there etc.

It's a gap they're losing a bit by other companies adopting their plug choice but there's still the integration to the car infotainment system.

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