Something Wrong With American Manufacturing
There is something wrong with the way American business performs. America does the R&D and introduces new gadgets to the market. It overprices and underproduces.
Like the transistor radio in 1954 - $49.95 - equivalent to $364 in 2006. The Japanese and Chinese jump on this and take over the market. Same with cameras, consumer electronics, household appliances, cell phones, cars, trucks, drywall, fruit cocktail, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Regency_transistor_radio.jpg
Regency TR-1. $49.95 1954
To say that American manufacturers cannot employ mass production to lower the cost of consumables is nonsense. The problem is that these products are conceived as high-end specialty products for wealthy elites - business, government, military, etc. They are not marketed for the general public until competition arises, then it is too late.
Another killer of American manufacturing is "planned obsolescence" . Poor materials (plastic, etc.) are embedded in products to ensure they are not lasting and durable. The American automobile market has been saturated since the early 1960s. Cars from the 60s and 70s are still on the road. Cars from the 80s and 90s are thinning out or non-existant. They consist of assemblies that connot be repaired without huge cost. Like the serpentine belt that goes underneath the motor mount. Brilliant. Thousand dollar carburetors. Special tools required to replace spark plugs. The Japanese, Chinese and Koreans have learned these lessons. When the consumer learns that everything in his life will have to be replaced within one to five years, then lowest cost becomes the most important aspect of a purchase. Race to the Bottom.
The biggest killer is Globalization. The government has been pushing Globalization since Nixon. I don't understand the economics. The Ex-Im Bank and Overseas Private Investment Corp. (US Treasury departments) pay $billions per year to move American manufacturers to China, India, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. Why? The big 3 automakers have invested $billions every year in similar operations, leading to their collapse in the US. Why? The only market of significance is the US market. All other world markets survive because of trade with the US. If the US gives up its trade (and collapses as a market) the entire world market collapses. I don't understand why the US government is directing this suicide. Greenspan publically denounced his impotent economic theories (globalization) last year during the Wall Street collapse. He did not know that the markets would not self-correct, as they failed in 1930s and 1980s (under his control). Ayn Rand's novels were fiction. Congress still has not learned this lesson. Restore of regulation and oversight has not occurred. Wall Street gambling in dirivatives continues unabated.
US manufacturing must change its reputation. Glitsy television advertising does not make up for crappy products where every penny of cost is squeezed until nothing of tangibility remains. US manufacturing must regain the integrity it had at the turn of the century when we dominated the Industrial Revolution and gained the respect of the world. Remember, this was accomplished during the heydays of the labor unions, so labor costs and social living standards improvements cannot be blamed for today's failures of capitalism. Indeed, living standards boosted the production engine and increased the wealth of all. Capitalism run wild ultimately results in monopolism, piracy, and tyranny. It's in the history books. It is human nature. If we truly believed that Capitalism would regulate itself, we would pray for a benevolent dictatorship instead of Democracy.
GLOBALIZATION IS A LIE!
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I don't think the U.S. is making crappy products
of what little is left of U.S. manufacturing. Why the U.S. government has been so busy offshore outsourcing U.S. manufacturing and destroying our economy is a whole other question indeed!
On a side note, NS does not have the feature to enable users to move content around and to the front page. If enough people are here then I will write the code to do that. It's custom code.
Glad to see you got it all working!
Re: Something Wrong With American Manufacturing
You are absolutely correct about planned obsolescence. The science of engineering by definition is to use minimize the use of materials to achieve maximum benefit and usability over the lifetime of the product.
American businesses and their cohort manufacturers in China have perverted this in to using inferior materials and poor engineering practices to fool the consumer in to buying inferior products that last only as long as the warranty.
The real interesting part of all of this is who will these businesses sell their junk to once they have completely undermined the American economy due to their off shoring?
What other society on planet Earth is so willing to part with their money for absolute junk?
As an example, take a simple toaster. Americans will buy a toaster with the expectation it might last 1 year at best. Do you think the Europeans would buy such junk? The answer is no.
As these companies attempt to squeeze out every last red cent out of the materials, and knowingly engineering products with a limited lifespan, they will quickly find themselves without a customer base outside of the U.S. market.
In the end, it really is our fault as consumers for accepting this junk. We take the easy way out and buy whatever meets our needs at the moment without consideration of quality let alone the impact on our environment for purchasing this garbage that ends up in the land fill.