Now that Japan is totally screwed

[kd8dey]

As bad as I feel for Japan,
Nuclear reactors totaled,
Radioactive Iodine in the drinking supply,
100,000+ homeless, Thousands upon thousands dead,
Industrial complex asunder......

I can't help but wonder if we might be able to reclaim the lead in electronics manufacture bringing much needed jobs back here, Or if China & Taiwan will just pick up the slack during the next couple of decades...... :ugh:

[w3bny]

I was gonna say sumthin...but thank goodness I didnt hit the enter button.

[kd8dey]

I was gonna say sumthin...but thank goodness I didnt hit the enter button.

Feel free. I know that It's not the most heart warming post at the moment.
BUT Lets face it
It's a dog eat dog world.
With everybody Talking about a global economy and our own people suffering from lack of work
Are we gonna eat or continue to lay down and be eaten?
for better or worse times are a changin

We were at one time the king of the electronics world. The Inventors of the transistor yada yada yada
Then we allowed ourselves to be dethroned by cheap low quality imports.

Where Is RCA, Zenith, Curtis Mathis, etc etc etc..........

[W3WN]

I think China and other countries in the SE Asian arena have already made significant inroads to Japan's lead, if they haven't actually surpassed it.

Considering the lack of modern infrastructure at the present time in North America, in the short term, I'd expect to see those existing facilities simply expand production.

Whether or not we have the poltical will and captial investment to build or rebuild industrial capacity in our country, regardless of what happens with the tragedy in northern Japan, remains the key question. So long as too many think it's cheaper to build overseas and ship, rather than build in-house, I don't think the situation will change. And yes, I know that this is very short-term thinking, not long-term thinking, nor do I agree with it... but that's the corporate mind-set these days.

[w3bny]

Yeah...we will NEVER be the manufacturing center of the world ever again. We charge too damn much. Yeah we may "invent" or "develop" the technology but short of that, it goes to that factory in China where everyone jumps off the roof and the owner jumps into his pool of hundred dollar bills.

What was that figure again... Yeah..."How many cell phones are manufactured in the U.S."....ZERO!

[KK4AMI]

The irony of the whole thing is that we have stopped the production of several American cars because of the lack of Japanese parts.

[kd8dey]

Yeah...we will NEVER be the manufacturing center of the world ever again. We charge too damn much. Yeah we may "invent" or "develop" the technology but short of that, it goes to that factory in China where everyone jumps off the roof and the owner jumps into his pool of hundred dollar bills.

What was that figure again... Yeah..."How many cell phones are manufactured in the U.S."....ZERO!

It's impossible to to compete with people making $20.00 a week building product compared to $23.00 per hour sweeping floors at G.E.

Instead of swallowing a little pride and taking a good look at ourselves. We did absolutely NOTHING, smug in our own accomplishments and self gratification until it is practically too late to do anything about it.

At one time Unions played an important part in establishing a fair wage and workers rights, BUT they have become overly greedy to our own detriment.

Does that mean that I am against unions?
No.
But with the advent of globalization we really need to evaluate where we are, Where we want to be, And what are we willing to do to get there.

[KG4CGC]

Whoever told you that GE pays $23/hr to sweep floors was lying to you.

[w3bny]

Well according to the IRS....We are paying GE to not have the floors swept.

[KG4CGC]

All house keeping is outsourced and not just at GE. Since about 94, every place that I've worked at has used a contract cleaning crew. If this was anywhere near the $23 figure, this business model wouldn't work in the US.

[kd8dey]

Whoever told you that GE pays $23/hr to sweep floors was lying to you.

NOPE!! True story. My buddy that got me into ham radio has a relative in the maintenance electronics/repair dept (getting ready to retire) One of Their "Perks" is G.E. Day at kings Island. I wonder how much that cost the company every year.......

http://www.kicentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10562

[N8YX]

..."How many cell phones are manufactured in the U.S."....ZERO!
What you did there...I thought part of "Hope and Change" was the creation of a buttzillion moar jobs...?

[PA5COR]

GE didn't pay a dime on taxes, as matter of fact you, the tax payer paid GE 1 billion in subsidizing.
GE made a bundle profit, why shouldn't workers also profit?, it's their (partly) own money....

We can compete here with good wages, and a social structure only in your dreams like paid holliday, holliday money, universal healthcare, unlimited unemployment benefit, still we have less as 5% unemployed, and a booming production society.

It is not the wages of the workers that did away with the USA middle income group, nor the production based society, it is the power you give to Republicans/teabaggers and companies to outsource the work to cheap wages countries.

But then, we've been over that be4.

[KG4CGC]

I think your buddy was just building up the story a lot bigger that it really was.

[kd8dey]

All house keeping is outsourced and not just at GE. Since about 94, every place that I've worked at has used a contract cleaning crew. If this was anywhere near the $23 figure, this business model wouldn't work in the US.
In Ky before I moved back to Ohio (98 ) I worked at a major plastics company. (Polycel structural foam products) And we did NOT outsource our "Housekeeping"

In 9 months I went from a temp on the line to working in the Q.C. Dept.
Got in an altercation with another employee running his mouth about how he could of had my job etc etc and trying to boss me around and I got sacked. dunno what happened to him BUT I do know that the plant I was at shut down within a couple of years later.