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America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

molsonhart.com

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Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#861

Post by inglor_cz »

selimthegrim wrote: post #819
inglor_cz wrote: post #769

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both the Romans and the US had success with immigrants in the military, provided that they were thoroughly mixed . A unit with 35 ethnicities in it usually does not rebel "like one man". The Roman way started to fail when they moved to the foederati model, where there would be units of, say, only Goths under a Gothic commander. That proved dangerous.

Did either work for Kakania/Austria-Hungary?

The Hapsburg empire, in its various incarnations, existed for almost four hundred years (1526-1918), and most of the time, their troops were loyal, so the answer is yes?

But one has to be careful: while their military was diverse, it wasn't really made of immigrants. It was simply built out of very diverse local ethnicities that were settled in the same place for centuries. Which means, for example, that when the Kaiser fought against the Turks, everyone involved regardless of language had an incentive to fight, because their own homes and freedom were at stake.

Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#862

Post by gaoryrt »

zbobet2012 wrote: post #326
PaulKeeble wrote: post #9

Its the integration and overall combined effect of the entire industrial pipeline that makes China so incredible. It processes all the raw materials and the recycling/reuse of off cuts through every possible way to turn those raw materials into components and then into goods with very little need for import from other countries. Its the complete system for a huge variety of goods. To compete with that the entire pipe…

This is true, and at the same time, this article is absolutely rife with unsourced, unserious points. However insane Trumps plans, the fundamental "facts" presented here are largely a joke. > Chinese workers work longer hours more happily and they’re physically faster with their hands; they can do things that American labor can’t. It’s years of accumulated skill, but it’s also a culture that is oriented around hard w…

I was thinking the same thing while watching "American Factory" on Netflix.

Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#863

Post by InDubioProRubio »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #703
glitchc wrote: post #589

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Concur, employee training and retention are at an all-time low. There are no positions available for junior employees, minimal onboarding and mentoring of new employees. Organizations have stopped planning people's careers. Used to be that the employee's career growth was their manager's problem, while the employee could focus on the work. Now the employee must market themselves as often, if not more often, than actu…

> minimal onboarding and mentoring of new employees. Organizations have stopped planning people's careers. I hear from all the much more senior devs about how they learned OOP in company training after years of C, or how their employers would give bonuses for finished projects, and that sort of thing. I always seem to join the ship when the money train and training train leaves the boat. I think R&D for tax reasons n…

But then the ip-poachers wait for you at the gates. Investing into the new thing, in a world order where copying the new thing is the best game approach, makes R&D a looser strategy. You need temporary punishment tariffs on products that steal IPs to recuperate the investments and make it a bad strategy - or else..

Patents do not work - because the rule of law does not exists without the international order and goverments have a tendency to trade away such cases for protection of big players.

Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#864

Post by ta20240528 »

InDubioProRubio wrote: post #863
giancarlostoro wrote: post #703

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> minimal onboarding and mentoring of new employees. Organizations have stopped planning people's careers. I hear from all the much more senior devs about how they learned OOP in company training after years of C, or how their employers would give bonuses for finished projects, and that sort of thing. I always seem to join the ship when the money train and training train leaves the boat. I think R&D for tax reasons n…

But then the ip-poachers wait for you at the gates. Investing into the new thing, in a world order where copying the new thing is the best game approach, makes R&D a looser strategy. You need temporary punishment tariffs on products that steal IPs to recuperate the investments and make it a bad strategy - or else.. Patents do not work - because the rule of law does not exists without the international order and gover…

Literally patents.

But you have to take out a copy of the patent in EVERY country you want protection. Most companies don't do this and then whine about copies.

And lest someone whose never done it says they don't work: note how diligently generic drug companies wait for patents to expire.

Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#865

Post by throwaway2037 »

Bender wrote: post #817
NoTeslaThrow wrote: post #581

We never stopped manufacturing, we just stopped employing people. > We don’t have the infrastructure to manufacture That's trivially false given we're the second-largest manufacturer in the world. We just don't want to employ people, hence why we can't make an iphone or refine raw materials. The actual issue is that our business culture is antithetical to a healthy society. The idea of employing Americans is anti-bus…

The actual issue is that our business culture is antithetical to a healthy society. I agree with the unhealthy society and your statement got me thinking. In regards to health what happens when global trade is shut down and a country can not make it's own pharmaceuticals for example? About 64% of people in the US over age 18 are on prescription drugs. Some of those drugs have really dangerous rebound effects if one s…

To clarify, I just Googled for: what percent of american adults are on prescription drugs?

I got back from "AI Overview": Approximately 64.8% of adults in the United States report taking prescription medication at some point in the past 12 months. This figure is based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The key phrase here is "at some point". I guess a huge amount of it is a very short 1-3 week dose of antibiotics.

Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#866

Post by ta20240528 »

Kirby64 wrote: post #841
makeitshine wrote: post #827

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has forced prison labor. We can talk about how bad the Chinese government is, but their economy is not built on forced labor anymore than the US is built on prison labor.

I also think any form of forced work in the US prison system is pretty awful, but don’t try to equivocate Chinese “reeducation” camps with regular prison. Not anywhere close to the same thing.

Have you asked any of the inmates at the Angola "working farm" in Louisiana?

Apparently 63% are serving life terms, 27% more than 20 years.

Doesn't seem worse than China's attempt to iron out a seditious, violent sub-culture that was actually detonating bombs amongst civilians? Most seem to have closed, so the maximum term Neither are good ideas IMHO - but one way worse than the other? Come now.

Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#867

Post by poulpy123 »

Yeah sorry but the Apple math is so weird that it cmake me doubt the rest of the article. An increase of 54$ in taxes doesn't explain the 216$ increase in price. Of course to keep the same profit, the price would increase more than 54$ to handle some externalities and the decrease of sales, but it would be paid only once and do not need to increase at each step

Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#868

Post by adrian_b »

NoTeslaThrow wrote: post #581

We never stopped manufacturing, we just stopped employing people. > We don’t have the infrastructure to manufacture That's trivially false given we're the second-largest manufacturer in the world. We just don't want to employ people, hence why we can't make an iphone or refine raw materials. The actual issue is that our business culture is antithetical to a healthy society. The idea of employing Americans is anti-bus…

Most companies that do manufacturing in USA are oriented to making business-to-business products, where high margins can be achieved.

As an European, there have been many decades since the last time when I have seen any competitive "made in USA" product that is intended to be sold to individuals.

There are products that I buy, which have been designed in USA, e.g. computer CPUs, but none of them have also been made in USA.

When I was young, it was very different, there were many "made in USA" products that could compete with those made elsewhere.

Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#869

Post by apercu »

glitchc wrote: post #589
NoTeslaThrow wrote: post #581

We never stopped manufacturing, we just stopped employing people. > We don’t have the infrastructure to manufacture That's trivially false given we're the second-largest manufacturer in the world. We just don't want to employ people, hence why we can't make an iphone or refine raw materials. The actual issue is that our business culture is antithetical to a healthy society. The idea of employing Americans is anti-bus…

Concur, employee training and retention are at an all-time low. There are no positions available for junior employees, minimal onboarding and mentoring of new employees. Organizations have stopped planning people's careers. Used to be that the employee's career growth was their manager's problem, while the employee could focus on the work. Now the employee must market themselves as often, if not more often, than actu…

> Now the employee must market themselves as often, if not more often, than actually doing the work.

Maybe only tangentially related to your post, but this has been on my mind a lot lately. After many years of doing all kinds of tech and business consulting gigs, I decided to somewhat specialize over the last 3 years and have been spending some time on LinkedIn this year.

What I can't figure out is how (arbitrary percentage) 30% of the people I follow do any work when they are on LinkedIn posting/commenting on posts _all_ day.

Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#870

Post by bostonwalker »

> And if we want to apply tariffs, do it slowly. Instead of saying that products will be tariffed at 100% tomorrow, say they’ll be 25% next year, 50% after that, 75% after that, and 100% in year four. And then make it a law instead of a presidential decree

This is the big difference between a tariff regime that is credible in such a way that the business community can plan investment around it, and the current one that has mostly just caused chaos and confusion.

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