Globalization 4.0... - Page 3 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

cmac2012 · #31 05-18-2009, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emmerich

In an economy like India where pennies per day is a raise, why would you not outsource? If you can reduce the costs of good sold, everybody down to the consumer benefits. The fact that your industry in the US goes under is not your concern, you are obligated to your stockholders, not the competitors. The problems came in when the tried to force things overseas that don't fit overseas. Anything requiring local service, or the ability to speak English clearly is what damages that type of job shifting. This then cause sales to fall, which is counterproductive to what you are trying to accomplish. IN other words, it doesn't matter if it was cheap to make if nobody is buying it.

When you have auto worker in Detroit making huge salaries for flipping over bell housings on conveyor belts, THEY CAN'T COMPETE. Be thankful we have a third world ****hole next door to the south instead of a manufacturing powerhouse like Japan. That ocean in between is a great equalizer. That and the fact Japan has no natural resources (they have people resources, China has both).

Plenty of reasons not to outsource that are not pressing enough to discourage it at present.

Tech support is one thing, no ships transporting goods, but for manf. goods, large ships are needed -- ships belching pollution and subject increasingly to piracy.

Multinational corps have no loyalty except to their piles of loot and those of their shareholders. When we buy Chinese or Taiwanese goods, we shake hands with the lowest common denominator of industrial pollution.

Oh but hey, who cares about air and water not fit to breathe or drink as long as we have mountains of stuff to keep us occupied?

aklim · #32 05-18-2009, 01:29 PM

I think we are like the little store trying to go up against Wal*Mart, failing at it and grumbling. I also think we need to face the fact that simple manufacturing is dead for us. We need to get into a field that they are not at yet. Find something that we can do that others cannot do so well at this time. Yet, we seem to want to find a way to go toe-to-toe with China when it comes to simple manufacturing and we keep getting our butts kicked.

raymr · #33 05-18-2009, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aklim

We need to get into a field that they are not at yet. Find something that we can do that others cannot do so well at this time.

Any suggestions?

raymr · #34 05-18-2009, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Kenny

The real issue here is ; where do we go from here?
The past is the past, and we can learn from our past social & economic dynamics that brought us to this point of the increasing power of 3rd world countries;.... but seriously; we all like cheaper products our underpaid Asian servants provide for us, but we don't want the Asian lackey to be rewarded for his faithful efforts in providing the western world with his cheap service. Nor do we like the fact that hard work, diligence and thrift has paid off for our 'inferiors', especially our 'communist inferiors'. These virtues are only supposed to find reward in the western democracies.
We as humans & creatures of habit, resist change and don't like unknowns, as both are a threat to the comfortable status quo our brains & bodies love. But in reality everything in nature and is dynamic and changing; the only constant we can count on is 'change'.... (Why do you think so many hate "global warming or Global weirding""?.. because we will all have to adapt and change; just like our ice age forefathers.) Aren't you all a little annoyed by bitter older people constantly griping about everything in today's world, and how better & brighter everything was in the 1920's 1930's or 1940's or 50's? But yet the old people back in the 1920's griped about the same dang things...they didn't learn to adapt to an ever changing world.
So the question is: what do we do to adapt and thrive to this ever constant change as individuals and as a society?

NOTE:
India has 1.1 Billion customers
China has 1.3 Billion customers
2.4 billion people in 'Chindia' today. They all want a car, cell phone, computer & a house in the suburbs, small farm or a hip apartment;... just like the see in the movies.

I'd be very happy if the 'Asian Lackey' were rewarded the equivalent of our pay. That would eliminate many problems right there. Their manufacturing costs would then be much closer to ours.

MTI · #35 05-18-2009, 03:55 PM

Peter Egan's April 2009 Road & Track Column

While most of it is an examination of the financial crisis, this is the part that resonates with "car folk."

Wonderful car, this Corvette. One of the best I've ever driven. Fast and remarkably refined, a distillation of years and years of research, engineering know-how and just plain hard work by people who really are highly trained and take their jobs seriously.

I looked at the interior of the car, the seats, dash and steering wheel. Beautifully stitched leather, nicely formed metal and several large trim sections of glossy carbon fiber. I ran my hand over those pieces of carbon fiber on the dash and console. They were perfect.

Somewhere — maybe in Detroit or elsewhere in the Midwest — was a division of Chevrolet or an outside supplier where these sections of carbon fiber were produced. Somewhere there was a real shop where people got up in the morning, came to work and made these pieces. They knew how to mix and cure the chemicals, how to lay the fiber mats and how to form, trim and polish these parts. They knew how to make stuff.

tankdriver · #36 05-18-2009, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aklim

We need to get into a field that they are not at yet. Find something that we can do that others cannot do so well at this time.

We do this already. The issue is that manufacturing is the only way to generate actual money.

aklim · #37 05-18-2009, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tankdriver

We do this already. The issue is that manufacturing is the only way to generate actual money.

There is no way we can compete with them when it comes to simple manufacturing. Perhaps in the high tech stuff?

Hatterasguy · #38 05-18-2009, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonL

I'm no economist, but it seems to me that there are a number of factors that must be reconciled. Aside from business-cycle fluctuations, the American workforce must be near an all time high. 40 years ago working women were the the exception rather than the rule. That has changed dramatically and now almost any family needs two incomes to stay afloat.

I seem to recall hearing on the radio that American productivity keeps improving.

We all seem to be working far more hours than before.

Working class and middle class wages have stagnated over the past many years.

The disparity in wealth in the US has never been greater. Executive compensation is through the roof.

Corporate income taxes are at an historic low (I believe).

It is nearly impossible to buy American made goods in many categories. Go into Bed Bath and Beyond for housewares... EVERY item in the store is made in China. Even IKEA, that bastion of Scandinavian design and flat-pack furniture... it's most all now made in China.

We keep borrowing from China to support our economy and our wars, and our children and grandchildren will be paying for generations.

I don't know what to make of all this, but I don't think it is good.

I'm starting to understand where the communists come from. If this keeps going on communism starts to sound pretty good to the people stuck at the bottom.

Hatterasguy · #39 05-18-2009, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Kenny

The real issue here is ; where do we go from here?

I'd like to see some tariff's imposed on cheaper goods to level the playing field a bit. F the rest of the world, we were pretty damn well off in the 40's and 50's when we made a lot of what we used.

Do what China does so well, force corperations to set up shop and provide jobs in our country.

Get into green energy and figure out how to make it work, than sell it to China for a massive profit. Just like the Arabs do with oil, but it will be us raking in the insane amounts of money.

Fulcrum525 · #40 05-19-2009, 01:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

I'm starting to understand where the communists come from. If this keeps going on communism starts to sound pretty good to the people stuck at the bottom.

But is it really worth it.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPd8CrhiOug
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l10wDTQ36hE

cmac2012 · #41 05-20-2009, 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tankdriver

We do this already. The issue is that manufacturing is the only way to generate actual money.

It's either that or dig up and/or grow raw natural resources. Those things have a place, of course, but none other than Pat Buchanan noted a few years back that our relationship with China resembles that of a colony to their parent state with us as the colony, i.e., export raw materials and foodstuffs, import finished goods.

raymr · #42 05-21-2009, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmac2012

It's either that or dig up and/or grow raw natural resources. Those things have a place, of course, but none other than Pat Buchanan noted a few years back that our relationship with China resembles that of a colony to their parent state with us as the colony, i.e., export raw materials and foodstuffs, import finished goods.

If that's supposed to parallel our past relationship with England, then we have nothing to worry about, except for that war of course.

mpolli · #43 05-21-2009, 03:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pj67coll

Skill, Makita, Black and Decker, Bosch, Milwaukee, Rigid, Ryobi, etc. Every one of them without exception was made in China or Mexico, and there was only a couple of Mexican ones. It's pathetic.

Did they have any Hilti? Made in Lichtenstein.

dannym · #44 05-21-2009, 09:13 AM

I didn't read all 3 pages but my opinion is Free trade would be OK if it was Fair Trade.

Switching to a consumer / service basedeconomy has reaked havoc on our economy. The tax base on a manufacturing economy is much MUCH higher.

Not only have we sent jobs overseas we have totaly screwed ourselves.

And my last point why don't we raise the tax on imports? Why is it always the middle class that has to pony up for everything.

Actually another thought, why do we still have classes in our political system?

Danny

tankdriver · #45 05-21-2009, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmac2012

It's either that or dig up and/or grow raw natural resources. Those things have a place, of course, but none other than Pat Buchanan noted a few years back that our relationship with China resembles that of a colony to their parent state with us as the colony, i.e., export raw materials and foodstuffs, import finished goods.

In the past, we produced our own raw materials and foodstuffs, and then produced finished goods too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dannym

Actually another thought, why do we still have classes in our political system?

We don't. Class issues are socio-economic, not political.