Define "brightest minds." I don't agree with their implied definition.
Agree. He goes from "elite" to "Ivy League" to "Harvard" and stops there. I'd like to see numbers from a broader spectrum of universities.
Brooks: America’s brightest minds have been abandoning technical enterprise
51–60 of 88 posts
Re: Brooks: America’s brightest minds have been abandoning technical enterprise
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
The "American decline in manufacturing" is a myth. American manufacturing output has been on a continued uptick, the peak of output for the US was... 2006, and will likely exceed that shortly as the economy recovers. The US contributes fully 1/5th of the world's entire manufacturing output. What has changed is that US manufacturing has grown much more efficient, so there are far fewer manufacturing jobs than there us…
Then I guess Brooks is wrong. But any way you look at it discussing that "americans are abandoning technical enterprise" without mentioning offshoring is missing the point (if you are being generous) or intentional deception (if you are a bit more realistic). Regarding the statistics of manufacturing supposedly growing they are misleading. I don't have time to explain why they are misleading but if you dont believe m…
I wrote 88 words, could you please do me the favor of reading them all? Honestly, there's no need to skim. As I said, manufacturing output has been increasing, but that's in spite of (or perhaps even because of) manufacturing jobs diminishing due to increased efficiency. That can lead and has led to areas of the country that used to be heavily dependent on manufacturing jobs being left at a disadvantage if they fail to adapt to changing circumstances, but that's always true regardless of whether the economy or a particular industrial sector is growing or shrinking.
Moreover, the problems of Detroit and Flynt are not entirely encompassed by the decline of local manufacturing jobs.
Re: Brooks: America’s brightest minds have been abandoning technical enterprise
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
The "American decline in manufacturing" is a myth. American manufacturing output has been on a continued uptick, the peak of output for the US was... 2006, and will likely exceed that shortly as the economy recovers. The US contributes fully 1/5th of the world's entire manufacturing output. What has changed is that US manufacturing has grown much more efficient, so there are far fewer manufacturing jobs than there us…
Which of your possessions are manufactured in the US? Not many of mine are. No electronics I can think of, and not my cars or my furniture or 95% of my clothes. When economic measures seem out of whack with observed reality, one should question what the numbers really mean.
It means that the US is producing a lot of valuable stuff, but not much of it is durable consumer products like clothes or electronics. The US is, for instance, the world's number one aircraft producer by a significant margin, and one Boeing 747 is worth a lot of cheap Chinese t-shirts.
Re: Brooks: America’s brightest minds have been abandoning technical enterprise
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Today Bob borrowed $100 from Alice and earned $5 on his daily basis. Bob thinks he became $105 richer while Alice doubts that.
Individual income vs. government borrowing/spending are not the same thing. Your analogy, corrected: Today Bob's parents borrowed $100 from Alice and Bob earned $5 on his own. Bob thinks he became $5 richer, Alice is owed $100, and Bob's parents now have more debt.
Two things:
1. Bob's personal debt rose over past years too.
2. Bob's parents are the money issuers. When they decide they can't return their debt they probably make this money worth zero.
Whatever, I'm done with that thread, as HNers don't seem to approve :)
Re: Brooks: America’s brightest minds have been abandoning technical enterprise
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, a country without a solid manufacturing base cannot stay dominant in the world forever. Manufacturing is not low tech; it is high tech, and requires extreme amounts of innovation in technologies like robotics, chemistry, automation, etc. You can say everything will be digital and that's fine, but until we have nano machines replicating material goods, who's going to make the things we use every day, or the things…
This is slightly toungue-in-cheek but why can't all of the actual manufacturing be outsourced? Why not? Corporations do it successfully, why can't countries specialize in design just like they used to specialize in certain crops?
like an iPod?
Re: Brooks: America’s brightest minds have been abandoning technical enterprise
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then I guess Brooks is wrong. But any way you look at it discussing that "americans are abandoning technical enterprise" without mentioning offshoring is missing the point (if you are being generous) or intentional deception (if you are a bit more realistic). Regarding the statistics of manufacturing supposedly growing they are misleading. I don't have time to explain why they are misleading but if you dont believe m…
I wrote 88 words, could you please do me the favor of reading them all? Honestly, there's no need to skim. As I said, manufacturing output has been increasing, but that's in spite of (or perhaps even because of) manufacturing jobs diminishing due to increased efficiency. That can lead and has led to areas of the country that used to be heavily dependent on manufacturing jobs being left at a disadvantage if they fail…
Yeah I read your entire post. Nevertheless it is misleading. If you look at American manufacturing as percentage of American consumption of manufactured goods it is going down. The fact is that while manufacturing does get more efficient, the demand for manufactured goods increases, so that usually there is enough demand for the products of a factory even if its efficiency increases.
The fact that Flynt and Detroit and Philladelphia are empty shells of their former selves is not because the goods they made are still being made in America but more efficiently, but because the goods they made are being made somewhere else.
Re: Brooks: America’s brightest minds have been abandoning technical enterprise
#57"Most people who lived in the year 1800 were scarcely richer than people who lived in the year 100,000 B.C."
From the perspective of a well-paid NYT journalist, maybe. But I doubt the average 18th century farmer would have traded his iron tools, draft animals and brick-built house for the flint axes and caves of his ancestors.
Re: Brooks: America’s brightest minds have been abandoning technical enterprise
#58The MBAs get to lay off the engineers. The engineers' kids figure this out.
Re: Brooks: America’s brightest minds have been abandoning technical enterprise
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wrote 88 words, could you please do me the favor of reading them all? Honestly, there's no need to skim. As I said, manufacturing output has been increasing, but that's in spite of (or perhaps even because of) manufacturing jobs diminishing due to increased efficiency. That can lead and has led to areas of the country that used to be heavily dependent on manufacturing jobs being left at a disadvantage if they fail…
Yeah I read your entire post. Nevertheless it is misleading. If you look at American manufacturing as percentage of American consumption of manufactured goods it is going down. The fact is that while manufacturing does get more efficient, the demand for manufactured goods increases, so that usually there is enough demand for the products of a factory even if its efficiency increases. The fact that Flynt and Detroit a…
*"If you look at American manufacturing as percentage of consumption of American manufactured goods it is going down."
I cannot parse this, what is your meaning?
Re: Brooks: America’s brightest minds have been abandoning technical enterprise
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah I read your entire post. Nevertheless it is misleading. If you look at American manufacturing as percentage of American consumption of manufactured goods it is going down. The fact is that while manufacturing does get more efficient, the demand for manufactured goods increases, so that usually there is enough demand for the products of a factory even if its efficiency increases. The fact that Flynt and Detroit a…
*"If you look at American manufacturing as percentage of consumption of American manufactured goods it is going down." I cannot parse this, what is your meaning?
I meant "If you look at American manufacturing as percentage of American consumption of manufactured goods ..."
Edited in original.