On Dec 21, 2011, at 5:39 PM, Larry Colen wrote: > > On Dec 21, 2011, at 2:16 PM, John Sessoms wrote: > >> From: Bruce Walker >> >>> On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 2:14 PM, Bob W <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>> http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/economy-40/decline-kodak- >>>>> offers-lessons-us-business >>>>> >>>>> A story on Marketplace, transcript and audio. Interesting reader >>>>> comments also. >>>>> >>>>> Tom C. >>>> they say it offers a lesson for US business, but IBM did the same thing - >>>> twice (DOS and Oracle) - and has managed to recover. >>>> >>>> B >>> But IBM merely had to hire and/or shift software architects and >>> developers into the rebuilding project and jump-start it. The >>> infrastructure for computer software is all there. >>> >>> This article is pointing out how, if you let entire product categories >>> go, then the manufacturing know-how, the staff, designers, all the >>> infrastructure goes too. Think about another category that was big up >>> until the 1970's then disappeared from North America: televisions and >>> hifi. If the US wanted to build that consumer electronics again, it >>> would have to start absolutely from scratch. There's nothing there. No >>> supply chain, no designers, no manufacturing, nada. All TVs and hifi >>> stuff is now made in the Pac Rim somewhere. >> >> Most of your computer components too. There may be some assembly plants left >> in the U.S. > > It's a "tragedy of the commons" thing. For each business it makes economic > sense to move aspects of production off shore to where labor is cheaper. > After a while, nobody is building anything in the US anymore. Except for > Toyota and Honda who now have some car plants here.
Toyota and Honda plants are in right=to-work states. But that's not a solution for homegrown manufacturers, since right=to-work is a string of obscenities to democrats, who depend on union votes. Off-shore production is a fact of life for many products, and consumer electronics are chief among them. . BTW, the Detroit three still build cars here as well, many of them in union plants. But it's tough to compete with those who get a better deal. Did someone ask why they needed government bailouts to stay in business? > > Now, they're even trying to outsource writing software. At the moment, the > problem is that few of the Asian programmers have the necessary mindset to > write code well. Then there is the disconnect from managing projects with > teams 8-12 timezones apart. Eventually, the software culture will develop in > Asia while fewer and fewer American kids learn how to program, and we'll be > left wondering how to support ourselves, with nobody left qualified to design > or manufacture anything in this country. > > In the meantime, we can get stuff cheap at Wal-Mart. > > > -- > Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est > > > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
