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Termyn8or -> RE: Cheap Labor Conservatives (10/20/2007 6:35:21 AM)
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We have become complacent and lazy.
A while back I read some figures on companies paying for remedial reading classes for employees. Why did they have to do that ? Do you think they do that in China and India ?
I have never worked on an assembly line but I have heard of it. You literally have to give a signal even to go to the bathroom. They keep relief personnel watching for the sign. They actually get to sit around most of the day, but they must be able to fill any position on that line in a moments notice. Stopping that line is like flushing a shitload of money down the toilet. Anyone working the line can stop the line, but if they do it and are not sick, about to pass out, out of parts or a tool broke, the company takes steps. It may start with a warning, but if it keeps happening the employee eventually will be fired.
That is because business is business. I think that there aere enough Americans who would stop the line to go outside and smoke a joint that they poison the labor pool. Add to that even the motivated ones get sick of hitting the brick walls erected to protect the lamos. This all adds up to pretty much what we got here.
Don't discount the fact that China is practically a slave nation. This is hard to compete with. Perhaps apathy was a factor in making us this way. Our stupid politicians let them tie the yuan to the dollar, fixing a set rate. You would think China does not want this, but they do. Sometimes you really have to think outside the box to get at the meaning of things.
China has succeeded in doing something the "Cheap Labor Conservatives" couldn't get done.....YET. They have desimmated the People so badly thaty they will work for a dollar a day. But it all falls into place, the baker, the butcher and the candlestick maker all work for a dollar a day now as well. So you see that they almost have like a sub-economy, but negotiating with the rest of the world's economy.
But I still blame American workers' complacency for a good part of it. What does the average German make ? Swiss ? They innovate, and that is what we should be doing. It would be one thing if things were designed here, and designed well and manufactured elswhere. They would deal with the material waste (pollution). We would collect on the sales as long as intellectual property rights were respected, but that shouldn't even be a concern.
If you ever have an idea, and design build and market a product I got one piece of very important advice. As soon as you have the market and the line going, get on to another idea. Figure you get a couple years out of any product, sooner or later it will be copied. Perhaps not in form which might violate patents, but in function. With technical products alot of people are only interested in function. Constant product improvement is a must.
If not for product improvement we would be driving these ancient looking cars with literally a tube with a valve sticking out the dashboard for a choke. Hand crank to start. We would not be able to jump into our fuel injected cars at below zero (F) temperatures and just throw it in drive and go.
So time and technology of all kind marches on. What consumer products are you aware of that are still made in the US ? Paper clips, certain castings and some types of machinery, components for weapons, some cars and trucks. Boats, but boats are the poorest investment I have seen in a long time.
Innovation does not mean putting more options in the menu, innovation means putting the right options in the menu. Some think innovation means where to put the cupholder in a new car.
But in the end, the question is this : did they make us this way or did we make them this way ?
Answer that one and I see if I can get you nominated for pahunk's post of the day.
T
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