Some of us predicted this. The singular reason that it's difficult to move manufacturing in tech back to the US is the same as it is to move it to, say France or the UK: the supply chain for components is almost entirely in east and southeast Asia.
This is what Jobs meant when he famously said in his (frequently misquoted) response to Obama's question on iPhone manufacturing in the US: "Those jobs aren't coming back."
Washington DC needs to digest that fact.
It’s only for some parts. Remember that Apple bought over $60 billion in parts and materials from USA companies in 2018 alone. That’s up from $50 billion in either 2016, or 2017. I forget which.
here’s a reason it’s a problem for companies like Apple. Corning produces the glass for the phones. But despite Apple trying to get them to do it, they refuse to cut and polish it. So Apple has to buy it in sheets, and send it to a company in China that was set up for that very purpose by a woman in China who had worked for a Chinese glass manufacturer. Now, she cuts and polishes, using the latest computer controlled laser machinery, virtually all the glass for just about every phone manufacturer in the world.
why doesn’t Corning want to do this?
That's one busy woman. I hope she doesn't get hit by a bus (or win the lottery)!
The US can accomplish anything ... literally ANYTHING that it sets its collective mind to accomplish. But it rarely makes up its mind about what to focus on because it gets distracted by too many low value things like politics, sports, and celebrities. Imagine what the US could do if it had a collective sense of purpose about something meaningful, like health care for all citizens.
Don’t forget religion in your list of time & resource-wasting national pastimes.
The culture of the USA is far too individualistic to have any kind of collective social goals. It’s a nationalistic culture, instead of patriotic one. FUD and xenophobia are the motivators most used by authoritarians here. They’re not exactly being directly opposed by agents for progress, ethics, or basic human rights, either. Too many corporate interest to protect within leadership of “the other party”.
Just like the nearly nonexistent competition in our so-called free market, there’s almost no competition in politics. The duopoly parties (and therefore their corporate overlords) have a strangle hold on all elections, keeping the populous trapped in picking from only the same two “options” every election: Republicans or Democrats. Nothing changes. The entrenchment continues and the grip of corporations on our economy (and culture) becomes more assured and bold.
If Apple wants to repatriate manufacture, they need to massively simplify their products. There are too many components requiring manual assembly. System-in-Package.
Or, here’s a thought, use standard parts. The reason Apple had a problem was because it wanted a unique screw. I will leave you to ponder why Apple wanted a non standard screw, but domestic manufacturing is not why it was a problem, it was the original design decision to use it.
One former Apple manager noted the relatively small team at Flextronics working on the project compared to the larger teams in China, which overwhelmed overstretched workers. It was unclear why the team was smaller, but it was suggested the higher wages of American workers was behind the decision.
Or, Apple had at this point realised they had over designed the Mac Pro into irrelevance.
If Apple wants to repatriate manufacture, they need to massively simplify their products. There are too many components requiring manual assembly. System-in-Package.
Or, here’s a thought, use standard parts. The reason Apple had a problem was because it wanted a unique screw. I will leave you to ponder why Apple wanted a non standard screw, but domestic manufacturing is not why it was a problem, it was the original design decision to use it.
One former Apple manager noted the relatively small team at Flextronics working on the project compared to the larger teams in China, which overwhelmed overstretched workers. It was unclear why the team was smaller, but it was suggested the higher wages of American workers was behind the decision.
Or, Apple had at this point realised they had over designed the Mac Pro into irrelevance.
Nah, your opinion on Apple engineering comes from a position of ignorance — you don’t work inside Apple and don’t understand the constraints and trade-offs that surely comprise all engineering decisions. Just using off the shelf components may work for beige PCs and generic android knockoffs (remember how crappy Rubin’s phone was on the inside?), but it isn’t how you get the most successful consumer good in history.
That’s funny. I just read this story in the Times, and came here to see the same story, likely as a result of the Times story.
anyway, it’s just not possible for robots to assemble phones. At least, not yet. Phones have parts put in in different ions. They require the phone to be picked up, turned around, etc. robot assembly stations can only do 2 dimensional work, while this is three. That’s one major problem, and there are others.
we can be sure the manufacturers of automated assembly equipment have been working on this. When they’ll figure it out is the question.
The Times is cited.
Didn’t say it wasn’t. Just thought the timing was funny.
Pick and place are two dimensional machines. 3 dimensional machines lift the product and turn them around in various angles and place parts from different directions. At least, that’s the theory. Painting is very different, and much easier to accomplish. Again, machines that place products on shelves are different, as are welding robots. None of the areas you mentioned are comparable. That’s why those assembly lines don’t yet exist.
That’s funny. I just read this story in the Times, and came here to see the same story, likely as a result of the Times story.
anyway, it’s just not possible for robots to assemble phones. At least, not yet. Phones have parts put in in different ions. They require the phone to be picked up, turned around, etc. robot assembly stations can only do 2 dimensional work, while this is three. That’s one major problem, and there are others.
we can be sure the manufacturers of automated assembly equipment have been working on this. When they’ll figure it out is the question.
Not sure where you are getting the two-dimensional work reference. Even early pick & place machines worked in 3-axes. Painting robots from the early-mid 1980s would open the door on partially assembled cars, extend the painting arm into the 3-dimensional vehicle interior, manipulate the arm in 3 dimensions so as to apply the proper coating on all interior surfaces, including all the nooks and crannies, and then close the door when finished. Automated storage systems, which are essentially robotic cranes, have long worked in 3 dimensions to store all kinds of items, from small products to TV dinners to steel coils to fully assembled automobiles and boats into a 3-dimensional rack system that is often more than one cell deep. Automated tubing bending machines take a continuous linear feed of tubing and bend it into complex 3-dimensional shapes to fit very specific needs. That's all "old school" automation and robotics. Today's robots are much more advanced - and sadly, the US is behind the power curve with robotics compared to Asian and European companies. But we have totally awesome college football and basketball and cheap
Some of us predicted this. The singular reason that it's difficult to move manufacturing in tech back to the US is the same as it is to move it to, say France or the UK: the supply chain for components is almost entirely in east and southeast Asia.
This is what Jobs meant when he famously said in his (frequently misquoted) response to Obama's question on iPhone manufacturing in the US: "Those jobs aren't coming back."
Washington DC needs to digest that fact.
It’s only for some parts. Remember that Apple bought over $60 billion in parts and materials from USA companies in 2018 alone. That’s up from $50 billion in either 2016, or 2017. I forget which.
That’s an increase in sales, not an indication that manufacturering is shifting from Asia back to the US.
Where did I say that? The discussion was about Apple “manufacturing” products in China. They really don’t exactly do that. Assembly is only the last, and least of manufacturing. The point about the very large, and increasing purchase of parts and materials here, is that it contradicts the notion that Apple’s goods are manufactured abroad. Much, if not most of what goes into their products come from here.
Some of us predicted this. The singular reason that it's difficult to move manufacturing in tech back to the US is the same as it is to move it to, say France or the UK: the supply chain for components is almost entirely in east and southeast Asia.
This is what Jobs meant when he famously said in his (frequently misquoted) response to Obama's question on iPhone manufacturing in the US: "Those jobs aren't coming back."
Washington DC needs to digest that fact.
It’s only for some parts. Remember that Apple bought over $60 billion in parts and materials from USA companies in 2018 alone. That’s up from $50 billion in either 2016, or 2017. I forget which.
here’s a reason it’s a problem for companies like Apple. Corning produces the glass for the phones. But despite Apple trying to get them to do it, they refuse to cut and polish it. So Apple has to buy it in sheets, and send it to a company in China that was set up for that very purpose by a woman in China who had worked for a Chinese glass manufacturer. Now, she cuts and polishes, using the latest computer controlled laser machinery, virtually all the glass for just about every phone manufacturer in the world.
why doesn’t Corning want to do this?
And why didn’t RCA or Zenith jump into solid state radios and televisions like Sony and Matsushita did in the 1960s and 70s? Where were the US-made audio and video recorders for the mass market?
And speaking of fine machining of fastening components, where was the US when it was time to make all the billions of personal mobile electronics like Sony Walkmans, camcorders, digital camcorders, and iPod hard drives?
The infrastructure for making all the microcomponents for modern electronics is in Asia. The US threw away these capabilities on the mass scale 50-60 years ago. Even the will to make fine things for the masses pretty much died in the US, except for Apple, notably, which is why I for one appreciate what they’ve accomplished continually in the face of US technical incompetence for the mass market.
Really, you have to blame the American consumer for most of that. How many people will pay more for a product made here? Very few. Companies are just trying to protect their markets.
If Apple wants to repatriate manufacture, they need to massively simplify their products. There are too many components requiring manual assembly. System-in-Package.
Or, here’s a thought, use standard parts. The reason Apple had a problem was because it wanted a unique screw. I will leave you to ponder why Apple wanted a non standard screw, but domestic manufacturing is not why it was a problem, it was the original design decision to use it.
One former Apple manager noted the relatively small team at Flextronics working on the project compared to the larger teams in China, which overwhelmed overstretched workers. It was unclear why the team was smaller, but it was suggested the higher wages of American workers was behind the decision.
Or, Apple had at this point realised they had over designed the Mac Pro into irrelevance.
Nah, your opinion on Apple engineering comes from a position of ignorance — you don’t work inside Apple and don’t understand the constraints and trade-offs that surely comprise all engineering decisions. Just using off the shelf components may work for beige PCs and generic android knockoffs (remember how crappy Rubin’s phone was on the inside?), but it isn’t how you get the most successful consumer good in history.
Even Apple’s pentalobe head screws are not standard size heads. Try again.
Some of us predicted this. The singular reason that it's difficult to move manufacturing in tech back to the US is the same as it is to move it to, say France or the UK: the supply chain for components is almost entirely in east and southeast Asia.
This is what Jobs meant when he famously said in his (frequently misquoted) response to Obama's question on iPhone manufacturing in the US: "Those jobs aren't coming back."
Washington DC needs to digest that fact.
It’s only for some parts. Remember that Apple bought over $60 billion in parts and materials from USA companies in 2018 alone. That’s up from $50 billion in either 2016, or 2017. I forget which.
here’s a reason it’s a problem for companies like Apple. Corning produces the glass for the phones. But despite Apple trying to get them to do it, they refuse to cut and polish it. So Apple has to buy it in sheets, and send it to a company in China that was set up for that very purpose by a woman in China who had worked for a Chinese glass manufacturer. Now, she cuts and polishes, using the latest computer controlled laser machinery, virtually all the glass for just about every phone manufacturer in the world.
why doesn’t Corning want to do this?
That's one busy woman. I hope she doesn't get hit by a bus (or win the lottery)!
Some of us predicted this. The singular reason that it's difficult to move manufacturing in tech back to the US is the same as it is to move it to, say France or the UK: the supply chain for components is almost entirely in east and southeast Asia.
This is what Jobs meant when he famously said in his (frequently misquoted) response to Obama's question on iPhone manufacturing in the US: "Those jobs aren't coming back."
Washington DC needs to digest that fact.
It’s only for some parts. Remember that Apple bought over $60 billion in parts and materials from USA companies in 2018 alone. That’s up from $50 billion in either 2016, or 2017. I forget which.
here’s a reason it’s a problem for companies like Apple. Corning produces the glass for the phones. But despite Apple trying to get them to do it, they refuse to cut and polish it. So Apple has to buy it in sheets, and send it to a company in China that was set up for that very purpose by a woman in China who had worked for a Chinese glass manufacturer. Now, she cuts and polishes, using the latest computer controlled laser machinery, virtually all the glass for just about every phone manufacturer in the world.
why doesn’t Corning want to do this?
And why didn’t RCA or Zenith jump into solid state radios and televisions like Sony and Matsushita did in the 1960s and 70s? Where were the US-made audio and video recorders for the mass market?
And speaking of fine machining of fastening components, where was the US when it was time to make all the billions of personal mobile electronics like Sony Walkmans, camcorders, digital camcorders, and iPod hard drives?
The infrastructure for making all the microcomponents for modern electronics is in Asia. The US threw away these capabilities on the mass scale 50-60 years ago. Even the will to make fine things for the masses pretty much died in the US, except for Apple, notably, which is why I for one appreciate what they’ve accomplished continually in the face of US technical incompetence for the mass market.
Really, you have to blame the American consumer for most of that. How many people will pay more for a product made here? Very few. Companies are just trying to protect their markets.
C’mon, when the first transistor radios were showing up in the 60s, it wasn’t about price, it was about design and technical finesse. No American company could compete with the Japanese from the very beginning of the solid state consumer electronics industry. American legacy radio companies had never had to compete on the basis of aesthetics and rational design/engineering.
Same with TVs. While American companies were making giant wooden consoles with stupid fake-classy names, Sony came out with simple rectangles in plain walnut frames.
Until Apple, i.e. Steve Jobs, showed that some Americans could still produce decent design and engineering, most of us had given up on this particular industrial culture. Don’t make me show you pictures of what was going on here in the 50s.
If Apple wants to repatriate manufacture, they need to massively simplify their products. There are too many components requiring manual assembly. System-in-Package.
Or, here’s a thought, use standard parts. The reason Apple had a problem was because it wanted a unique screw. I will leave you to ponder why Apple wanted a non standard screw, but domestic manufacturing is not why it was a problem, it was the original design decision to use it.
One former Apple manager noted the relatively small team at Flextronics working on the project compared to the larger teams in China, which overwhelmed overstretched workers. It was unclear why the team was smaller, but it was suggested the higher wages of American workers was behind the decision.
Or, Apple had at this point realised they had over designed the Mac Pro into irrelevance.
Nah, your opinion on Apple engineering comes from a position of ignorance — you don’t work inside Apple and don’t understand the constraints and trade-offs that surely comprise all engineering decisions. Just using off the shelf components may work for beige PCs and generic android knockoffs (remember how crappy Rubin’s phone was on the inside?), but it isn’t how you get the most successful consumer good in history.
Even Apple’s pentalobe head screws are not standard size heads. Try again.
Here’s the screw in question, according to the Times. Not a standard shape. Looks like it solves a structural problem not addressable by anything off the shelf. It also looks pretty crude. Would probably have a better finish if it came from China or Korea.
Case Western Reserve University economics professor Susan Helper noted "China is not just cheap," as it is a country where the presence of an authoritarian government means "you can marshal 100,000 people to work all night for you."
Yeah, nothing chilling about that...
Graveyard factory shifts have exited in the US as well. There are generally three shifts in a max capacity plant.
My recollection is that at the big manufacturing companies like Foxconn the employees live in company owned dorms. So it is very easy to marshal a surge workforce - you go roust them out of bed. We don't live that way in the USA - and we don't want to.
Yeh, pretty much. In other words: We want the jobs --- but not the work that it takes to keep them.
We should be deranged about Trump....he and what he represents is a disaster
At the same time, looking at what the Chinese actually do, we've got to understand that there's a very strong moral case (even if the economic case seems suspect) in favor of tariffs against Chinese goods. In no way is it acceptable in the US to have workers working as indentured servants, in corporate dormitories, ready to be woken at 2am, not for a fire call or some other actual emergency, but simply to produce more widgets at the beck and call of an executive. This has given China an enormous advantage; it has led to the collapse of entire supply chains in the US. And we need a national discussion about whether countries where this kind of thing is acceptable should have to pay a higher price to enter the US market. The implication of not dealing with this is that in order to fulfill basic economic needs we'd have to become as a country much more like China, no democracy, lots of exploitation, much less freedom, much more indebtedness to those with money and power.
The sad part is Trump has not been at all smart about tariffs. Where they should have been applied to finished goods, they have instead been applied to raw materials, and that's had the practical effect of knocking down even more supply chains in the US and shifting even more production overseas, because US manufacturers need access to those raw materials if they are to assemble and build complicated components and especially finished goods here. Basically, when Trump hears a complaint from some friend of his that's in areas in which he's invested, so basically real estate, or raw materials industries like wood-pulp or mining, that's all he hears, and those account for a very small part of the economy. People that actually account for most of this country's economy, through manufacturing and services, simply do not have the ear of this president because he always believes he knows best and he does not bother to find out about anything he hasn't personally experienced.
Generally I agree -- except for two points: 1) The Chinese workers are not indentured servants. They are more like the migrants trying to come to our country: For them a safe environment, warm bed and 3 meals a day + wages is fine. But, the live in worker does have a history here in the U.S.: The coal towns where miners lived in company owned houses, were paid in company chits, and were forced to shop at the company store -- "another day older and deeper in debt....". Or, another example: most nursing schools here were also dormitories where they lived very much like the indentured servants you are talking about --
2) Trump didn't tariff raw materials -- he put them on steel and aluminum in the mistaken belief that it would bring back those basic industries that flourished while he was a young man. Unfortunately, U.S. plants still can't compete with the Asian factories. Plus when they do, they are automated so, instead of employing 4,000 they employ 400.
But, while disagreeing with the specifics, I very much agree with your basic point that the tariffs were not well planned or thought out.
Some of us predicted this. The singular reason that it's difficult to move manufacturing in tech back to the US is the same as it is to move it to, say France or the UK: the supply chain for components is almost entirely in east and southeast Asia.
This is what Jobs meant when he famously said in his (frequently misquoted) response to Obama's question on iPhone manufacturing in the US: "Those jobs aren't coming back."
Washington DC needs to digest that fact.
It’s only for some parts. Remember that Apple bought over $60 billion in parts and materials from USA companies in 2018 alone. That’s up from $50 billion in either 2016, or 2017. I forget which.
here’s a reason it’s a problem for companies like Apple. Corning produces the glass for the phones. But despite Apple trying to get them to do it, they refuse to cut and polish it. So Apple has to buy it in sheets, and send it to a company in China that was set up for that very purpose by a woman in China who had worked for a Chinese glass manufacturer. Now, she cuts and polishes, using the latest computer controlled laser machinery, virtually all the glass for just about every phone manufacturer in the world.
why doesn’t Corning want to do this?
And why didn’t RCA or Zenith jump into solid state radios and televisions like Sony and Matsushita did in the 1960s and 70s? Where were the US-made audio and video recorders for the mass market?
And speaking of fine machining of fastening components, where was the US when it was time to make all the billions of personal mobile electronics like Sony Walkmans, camcorders, digital camcorders, and iPod hard drives?
The infrastructure for making all the microcomponents for modern electronics is in Asia. The US threw away these capabilities on the mass scale 50-60 years ago. Even the will to make fine things for the masses pretty much died in the US, except for Apple, notably, which is why I for one appreciate what they’ve accomplished continually in the face of US technical incompetence for the mass market.
I worked for RCA in the first half of the 70's. They thought their competition was Motorola rather than the Asians. In the 60's & 70's American industry thought it was invulnerable and masters of the world. In the few and specific areas where Asian technology and manufacturing broke through it was thought that they had simply copied off of us. Any speculation that they could design and build better than we could was met with scorn and laughter....
And, to an extent, that is still true: "USA! USA! USA!" "We have the best workers in the world!" (sigh...)
Some of us predicted this. The singular reason that it's difficult to move manufacturing in tech back to the US is the same as it is to move it to, say France or the UK: the supply chain for components is almost entirely in east and southeast Asia.
This is what Jobs meant when he famously said in his (frequently misquoted) response to Obama's question on iPhone manufacturing in the US: "Those jobs aren't coming back."
Washington DC needs to digest that fact.
It’s only for some parts. Remember that Apple bought over $60 billion in parts and materials from USA companies in 2018 alone. That’s up from $50 billion in either 2016, or 2017. I forget which.
here’s a reason it’s a problem for companies like Apple. Corning produces the glass for the phones. But despite Apple trying to get them to do it, they refuse to cut and polish it. So Apple has to buy it in sheets, and send it to a company in China that was set up for that very purpose by a woman in China who had worked for a Chinese glass manufacturer. Now, she cuts and polishes, using the latest computer controlled laser machinery, virtually all the glass for just about every phone manufacturer in the world.
why doesn’t Corning want to do this?
And why didn’t RCA or Zenith jump into solid state radios and televisions like Sony and Matsushita did in the 1960s and 70s? Where were the US-made audio and video recorders for the mass market?
And speaking of fine machining of fastening components, where was the US when it was time to make all the billions of personal mobile electronics like Sony Walkmans, camcorders, digital camcorders, and iPod hard drives?
The infrastructure for making all the microcomponents for modern electronics is in Asia. The US threw away these capabilities on the mass scale 50-60 years ago. Even the will to make fine things for the masses pretty much died in the US, except for Apple, notably, which is why I for one appreciate what they’ve accomplished continually in the face of US technical incompetence for the mass market.
I worked for RCA in the first half of the 70's. They thought their competition was Motorola rather than the Asians. In the 60's & 70's American industry thought it was invulnerable and masters of the world. In the few and specific areas where Asian technology and manufacturing broke through it was thought that they had simply copied off of us. Any speculation that they could design and build better than we could was met with scorn and laughter....
And, to an extent, that is still true: "USA! USA! USA!" "We have the best workers in the world!" (sigh...)
Hey, thanks for the inside look. I forgot about the disrupter (at the time) Motorola.
Same with Detroit. They laughed at the VW bug until it got 10% of sales in the 60s, and then the Japanese started moving in at the end of the decade. The response was to drop the chrome and tailfins and go flatter, wider and heavier. It was another twenty years before they got away from solid rear axles and drive shafts, i.e, rear wheel drive. They’re still into it with their focus on heavy trucks and SUVs.
Never mentioned when we reminisce about the so-called American Dream in the 50s for the (lower) middle class, the industrial worker, is the fact that the wages were based on waste and planned obsolescence. The average American car weighed twice as much as the average European car (the Bug weighed 1800 pounds), and depreciated twice as fast because of yearly model changes based on obscene levels of retooling. There was a recession starting around 1958, when, I thought at the time, the “car-buying public” (actual business-news term) finally revolted against the chrome-plated monstrosities. The fins in ‘59 reached their peak. Detroit never really recovered, even when they “downsized” and had a brief hit with the “sporty” Mustang and imitators starting in 65. Note that they were smaller cars, but still stupidly engineered and designed. And redesigned yearly.
Case Western Reserve University economics professor Susan Helper noted "China is not just cheap," as it is a country where the presence of an authoritarian government means "you can marshal 100,000 people to work all night for you."
Yeah, nothing chilling about that...
Yeah but man it gets things done. They've built superhighways in a fraction of the time it takes everyone else to do so and shows just what can happen when lots of people come together with a single goal.
If they don't want to work those hours then there's always another 100,000 workers they can find elsewhere who will.
Some of us predicted this. The singular reason that it's difficult to move manufacturing in tech back to the US is the same as it is to move it to, say France or the UK: the supply chain for components is almost entirely in east and southeast Asia.
This is what Jobs meant when he famously said in his (frequently misquoted) response to Obama's question on iPhone manufacturing in the US: "Those jobs aren't coming back."
Washington DC needs to digest that fact.
It’s only for some parts. Remember that Apple bought over $60 billion in parts and materials from USA companies in 2018 alone. That’s up from $50 billion in either 2016, or 2017. I forget which.
here’s a reason it’s a problem for companies like Apple. Corning produces the glass for the phones. But despite Apple trying to get them to do it, they refuse to cut and polish it. So Apple has to buy it in sheets, and send it to a company in China that was set up for that very purpose by a woman in China who had worked for a Chinese glass manufacturer. Now, she cuts and polishes, using the latest computer controlled laser machinery, virtually all the glass for just about every phone manufacturer in the world.
why doesn’t Corning want to do this?
And why didn’t RCA or Zenith jump into solid state radios and televisions like Sony and Matsushita did in the 1960s and 70s? Where were the US-made audio and video recorders for the mass market?
And speaking of fine machining of fastening components, where was the US when it was time to make all the billions of personal mobile electronics like Sony Walkmans, camcorders, digital camcorders, and iPod hard drives?
The infrastructure for making all the microcomponents for modern electronics is in Asia. The US threw away these capabilities on the mass scale 50-60 years ago. Even the will to make fine things for the masses pretty much died in the US, except for Apple, notably, which is why I for one appreciate what they’ve accomplished continually in the face of US technical incompetence for the mass market.
Really, you have to blame the American consumer for most of that. How many people will pay more for a product made here? Very few. Companies are just trying to protect their markets.
C’mon, when the first transistor radios were showing up in the 60s, it wasn’t about price, it was about design and technical finesse. No American company could compete with the Japanese from the very beginning of the solid state consumer electronics industry. American legacy radio companies had never had to compete on the basis of aesthetics and rational design/engineering.
Same with TVs. While American companies were making giant wooden consoles with stupid fake-classy names, Sony came out with simple rectangles in plain walnut frames.
Until Apple, i.e. Steve Jobs, showed that some Americans could still produce decent design and engineering, most of us had given up on this particular industrial culture. Don’t make me show you pictures of what was going on here in the 50s.
Heh. I won’t make you do anything. The ‘50’s were a different time. A time we can never go back to, because it was a result of WWII, and the destruction of overseas industrial capacity, while ours was built up in the late ‘30’s and ‘40’s. After that, we fell behind because our plant was getting old, while everyone else’s was newly constructed after the war. That’s began a decline in consumer good superiority. Japan could build more cheap,y for years. American consumers are known to be cheap. Don’t want to believe that, fine. It’s true nevertheless. American goods were t worse during the sixties. But by the end of the decade, Japanese companies, supported by the business governing style, and cheap loans, began to enter the market here.
its not true that American electronic, for examp,e were older in design. Motorola has the first modular chassis. American sets became solid state at about the same time as the Japanese. It varied from manufacturer to manufacturer.
but the story about Sony was an examp,e of how they managed to do it. Emerson made the sets for Sears, at the time one of the biggest sellers of self branded sets. Sony cane to them after having studied Sear’s products, and said that they could do the same thing for less. Sears, of course, said sure. Sear’s sale swent up because of the slightly lowered pricing.
after a few years of learning g the USA market, Sony entered with its own premium priced models. They didn’t do to well at first, but gave a reputation of luxury and quality. Then Sony came out with lower priced models, and they began to grab share.other Japanese companies followed. It’s a good model to follow. Start with slow selling premium models to fix that premium image in the potential, customer, then co e out with more affordable models that will sell heavily. Panasonic did that with the Technics label, s did others.
but, until the Bush recession, the USA was still the worlds biggest manufacturing nation and exporter. The recession handed that to China. Still, we’re the second largest. If all you guys think about is cheap consumer goods, then you’re mostly right. But otherwise, you’re wrong.
Comments
The culture of the USA is far too individualistic to have any kind of collective social goals. It’s a nationalistic culture, instead of patriotic one. FUD and xenophobia are the motivators most used by authoritarians here. They’re not exactly being directly opposed by agents for progress, ethics, or basic human rights, either. Too many corporate interest to protect within leadership of “the other party”.
Just like the nearly nonexistent competition in our so-called free market, there’s almost no competition in politics. The duopoly parties (and therefore their corporate overlords) have a strangle hold on all elections, keeping the populous trapped in picking from only the same two “options” every election: Republicans or Democrats. Nothing changes. The entrenchment continues and the grip of corporations on our economy (and culture) becomes more assured and bold.
I will leave you to ponder why Apple wanted a non standard screw, but domestic manufacturing is not why it was a problem, it was the original design decision to use it.
Or, Apple had at this point realised they had over designed the Mac Pro into irrelevance.
Really, you have to blame the American consumer for most of that. How many people will pay more for a product made here? Very few. Companies are just trying to protect their markets.
Same with TVs. While American companies were making giant wooden consoles with stupid fake-classy names, Sony came out with simple rectangles in plain walnut frames.
Until Apple, i.e. Steve Jobs, showed that some Americans could still produce decent design and engineering, most of us had given up on this particular industrial culture. Don’t make me show you pictures of what was going on here in the 50s.
1) The Chinese workers are not indentured servants. They are more like the migrants trying to come to our country: For them a safe environment, warm bed and 3 meals a day + wages is fine. But, the live in worker does have a history here in the U.S.: The coal towns where miners lived in company owned houses, were paid in company chits, and were forced to shop at the company store -- "another day older and deeper in debt....". Or, another example: most nursing schools here were also dormitories where they lived very much like the indentured servants you are talking about --
2) Trump didn't tariff raw materials -- he put them on steel and aluminum in the mistaken belief that it would bring back those basic industries that flourished while he was a young man. Unfortunately, U.S. plants still can't compete with the Asian factories. Plus when they do, they are automated so, instead of employing 4,000 they employ 400.
But, while disagreeing with the specifics, I very much agree with your basic point that the tariffs were not well planned or thought out.
And, to an extent, that is still true: "USA! USA! USA!" "We have the best workers in the world!" (sigh...)
Same with Detroit. They laughed at the VW bug until it got 10% of sales in the 60s, and then the Japanese started moving in at the end of the decade. The response was to drop the chrome and tailfins and go flatter, wider and heavier. It was another twenty years before they got away from solid rear axles and drive shafts, i.e, rear wheel drive. They’re still into it with their focus on heavy trucks and SUVs.
Never mentioned when we reminisce about the so-called American Dream in the 50s for the (lower) middle class, the industrial worker, is the fact that the wages were based on waste and planned obsolescence. The average American car weighed twice as much as the average European car (the Bug weighed 1800 pounds), and depreciated twice as fast because of yearly model changes based on obscene levels of retooling. There was a recession starting around 1958, when, I thought at the time, the “car-buying public” (actual business-news term) finally revolted against the chrome-plated monstrosities. The fins in ‘59 reached their peak. Detroit never really recovered, even when they “downsized” and had a brief hit with the “sporty” Mustang and imitators starting in 65. Note that they were smaller cars, but still stupidly engineered and designed. And redesigned yearly.
If they don't want to work those hours then there's always another 100,000 workers they can find elsewhere who will.
its not true that American electronic, for examp,e were older in design. Motorola has the first modular chassis. American sets became solid state at about the same time as the Japanese. It varied from manufacturer to manufacturer.
but the story about Sony was an examp,e of how they managed to do it. Emerson made the sets for Sears, at the time one of the biggest sellers of self branded sets. Sony cane to them after having studied Sear’s products, and said that they could do the same thing for less. Sears, of course, said sure. Sear’s sale swent up because of the slightly lowered pricing.
after a few years of learning g the USA market, Sony entered with its own premium priced models. They didn’t do to well at first, but gave a reputation of luxury and quality. Then Sony came out with lower priced models, and they began to grab share.other Japanese companies followed. It’s a good model to follow. Start with slow selling premium models to fix that premium image in the potential, customer, then co e out with more affordable models that will sell heavily. Panasonic did that with the Technics label, s did others.
but, until the Bush recession, the USA was still the worlds biggest manufacturing nation and exporter. The recession handed that to China. Still, we’re the second largest. If all you guys think about is cheap consumer goods, then you’re mostly right. But otherwise, you’re wrong.