America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

Post by bcrosby95 » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 4:20 PM UTC

owlstuffing wrote: post #708

glitchc wrote: post #620

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> Employees have always been responsible for managing their own career growth and always will be. How can it be otherwise? On the contrary, from the 40s to the 70s (possibly well into the 80s) the corporation was heavily invested in your career. Employees were expected to dedicate their lives to the firm, and the firm, in turn, was expected to take care of them. This "free-for-all" employment model is fairly recent.…

Outside of government, this shift also coincides with the decline of pensions and the rise of the 401k. Career growth has always been a shared responsibility between employees and employers. In white-collar fields--especially medicine and engineering--education has long been frontloaded, with formal schooling as the main on-ramp. Blue-collar jobs, by contrast, have relied more on trade schools, mentorship, and hands-…

Post by xpe » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 4:38 PM UTC

mr_toad wrote: post #627

rickdeckard wrote: post #137

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> China generates over twice as much electricity per person today as the United States. Why? >> This appears to be completely wrong? All the stats I can find say that the US has about 4x the per capita electricity generation of China. I believe the comparison is absolute production, not per person. Anything else would be odd. Considering China has 4x the capita of US it would mean that in absolute terms China is prod…

Despite all the hand wringing, heavy industry uses a lot more power than data centres.

Post by sfn42 » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 4:50 PM UTC

silisili wrote: post #723

korse wrote: post #710

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I'm American and heavily involved in manufacturing for industrial/mining/agricultural customers. 'We just don't want to employ people' is a gross simplification. We do want to employ people, and lack of skilled labor is a serious problem which has hampered business growth for years, The first unspoken problem is that very few young people want to live where many factories are located. I can't blame them. I certainly…

> There is a dearth of applicants for jobs exactly like what I've posted. Why don't people take them? It's pay. It's always pay. You gave a range so I'm guessing the lower end is starting out, why take that when nearly every entry level job, with far less demand, pays about the same? Start your pay at $45/hr and people will flood in. If they aren't, it's because the factory is too remote for population to get to. Put…

Post by dangjc » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 5:00 PM UTC

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #675

glitchc wrote: post #589

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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…

To get employers to invest in employees, they'd need more of a stake in it. Right now if you invest $200,000 to train someone, they can immediately quit and go work somewhere else and you're out $200k, so they don't do that. A way to fix that would be to e.g. issue student loans for the training and then forgive them over time if the employee continues working there. But that's rather disfavored by the tax code when…

Post by danans » Thu, Apr 17, 2025, 5:22 PM UTC

runako wrote: post #895

danans wrote: post #823

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> > Our poorest states have higher GDPs per capita than many "rich" western EU countries. Not the OP, but poor as used here seems to refer to average quality of life , quality of infrastructure, etc. > Is the result of that a higher median income, or is it a reflection of a higher wealth inequality? Higher wealth inequality leading to stretched public services and infrastructure, which lead to lower quality of life ,…

Spot on. I would extend your analysis to include the median middle-class person is probably better off in Spain vs most/all US states. This, even though the Spaniard personally earns less income. Largely as a result of the economically precarious nature of living in the US. Healthcare, childcare, education, retirement are all big expensive things the US does incredibly poorly.