Posted on 12/16/2016 6:58:35 PM PST by central_va
We have re-rated the statement as True and removed the older report from Trump's Truth-O-Meter record.
(Excerpt) Read more at politifact.com ...
The question is how much of the lower cost of electronics today is due to virtual slave labor costs in China et al and how much is due to improvements in technology and automation or differences in environmental or other regulations on manufacturing.
Magnavox got screwed and Philips ran off to Europe.
I was lucky and Square D called two weeks earlier.
The room couldn’t believe it, me either. I was just a contractor but it was bad.
The home for the workers was gone. I had a place to go, the others, not so much.
They show up to flip burgers and pack products in warehouses for $8/hr, why wouldn’t they show up at a factory to make 3 times more ?
I think the key is in economies of scale. If America made a decision to become the world’s factory again, where automation produced 5 times the product using 2 times the current number of workers we could have high paying jobs and fill not only our own store shelves but the world’s.
Amen. Fantastic post.
“We will never have the level of manufacturing employment we had before 1975, largely because of labor-saving technological change.”
Unions opposed every push for automation because it reduced the number of workers required. That was partly manufacturers fault, though. They should have pushed automation as a way to increase production and decrease costs rather than jobs. The less labor embedded in a product, the lower the cost and the less advantage slave labor countries have over us. R&D and tooling and automation costs need to be spread over a larger number of units than the US market can absorb. Even 30 million TVs per year for the US market is not enough to amortize the cost of R&D and tooling for new plants when display technology changes so fast — from CRT to DLP RPTV to Plasma to LCD to LED to OLED and from NTSC/PAL to 1080i to 1080P to 4K in less than 20 years. If the market is the whole world and 500 million TVs each year, those fixed costs become much less per unit.
Sometime after 09/13, the startup date for Elements.
I can remember in the 50’s going to the drug store with my father when our tv would go on the fritz. Was usually the vertical or horizontal hold.
They had a machine where you would plug in tubes that you took out of your tv to see if they were good or not. If bad you could buy a replacement.
Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t.
I bought a 40" Element TV from Walmart in December, 2012 for $187 plus $40 for a five year, 100% guarantee both parts and labor and it has been perfect. I pay that much for my cable bill every MONTH.
BUY AMERICAN!!!
We make nukes here. That's all that the next World War will use. It'll be over quickly.
Prior to that, a color TV was a major family investment, costing 2-3 months salary and expected to last for 15 years. And when it broke, you took it to a TV repairman who fixed it.
Today's TVs cost only a couple weeks' salaries, if even that. The Samsung 65" 4K I paid $2400 for a mere 18 months ago is now selling for under a grand. They may last 7-8 years but they're technologically outdated long before that. When they break, you leave it on the curb for the trash collector.
The US Military uses politically correct non-leaded bullets these days - less range, less accurate I’m told. We are Green! Saving the planet by losing wars!
I sold TV’s in the 80’s. I think the last American made set was a Zenith console in 1987.
Sort of the same memory - watching my dad - must have been 1949 or 50 - hand assemble a big TV I think he bought as a kit. He had put a giant antenna up on the roof - must have been 15 feet tall. We lived just a few miles from the RCA labs on US 1 in NJ.
One of the final steps was to tune the set. He has me watch the screen as he fiddled in back saying, “Anything yet?” I would say no and he’d continue fiddling.
At one point, I was speechless as there was a picture on the set. I said, “Dad, there’s a monkey eating a banana in color!” He didn’t believe me and kept fiddling until some B&W show appeared.
It really happened it turned out: RCA was experimenting on that day with a way to broadcast color over a B&W signal. Never went anywhere but was very interesting idea.
How about the 15 minute ones from the 40s and 50s - the Magic Slicer Dicer comes to mind?
“Element” is not a manufacturer in that article, so it must be OLDER than that.
My point stands — an article should have a dateline, especially if it is going to refer to “as of the date this was written”.
That is crazy talk. Nuts. If you think TV's made in America would cost an additional $900.00 per TV because of US labor then you are just too stupid to even be in this conversation. The globalists have brain washed you.
I am not for regulations but they are really not a huge problem. Lets say a manufactures has to install an air purification system in their factory. Let’s say it cost $1,000,000 to install. Lets’ say they produce 1,000,000 widget per year. That comes out to $1.00 per widget to the consumer if amortized over one year. Most capital expenditures have a 5 year amortization making it now $.20 to the consumer. I personally do not think we should be de industrializing and offshoring over $.20.
There will never be another nuke used in anger again. SO the globalist want to nuke everyone. That is our security then? Screw that.
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