Posted on 12/07/2004 6:32:06 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
I've built machines for home use for a long time; nothing in mine comes from China. Processors from Malaysia, memory from Singapore, HDDs Singapore, you get the idea.
Somehow I very much doubt that Chinese-made computers will be acceptable for either the US government or defense contractors.
It doesn't appear that they will have any choice -- certainly if COTS is going to be the standard for procurement.
"If the thing gets damaged, no big deal, just buy another one."
You know, considering the way people and their property are treated at airports these days...you have a good point!
Does it make sense to buy a new $1,000 machine/laptop every three or four years?
Maybe they will have the jobs here for manufacturing.
It wasn't that long ago that IBM was one of the 5 largest employers in the United States.
I don't know what is more sickening.
The fact that now it's being sold off to the chicoms.
Or the fact that companies like IBM are no longer our biggest employers. In fact, the two biggest "private" employers in the US are Walmart and McDonalds.
Welcome to the New World Order.
Yes --- they must be showing up soon --- they'll proclaim how it's great --- like you said Americans don't need jobs, everyone can live off investments just as they themselves do -- and when you're living off your investments, it's good that prices get very cheap.
It's good when the dollar looses it's value because then we can't buy things from Europe --- only from China which is somehow much beter.
If they get made in China, we'll have to buy $500 machine/laptops every four months. Just like all that other cheap crap you find that's brought in.
ping
IBM isn't stupid. They sold a part of their company that was history. IBM will move on and continue to be successful. The Chinese will make money on the venture, but only by producing PC's at half the price of Compaq/HP. The Asians are copiers, and good copiers at that. In the West, we are the inventors. We invented the PC, perfected it, produced it, but now it's time to move on. This is way capitalism is working right now. Some people don't like it, but we are still on top. For now.
"Does it make sense to buy a new $1,000 machine/laptop every three or four years?"
Maybe not. Ive been known to buy refurbished stuff..with an extended warranty though. Most bang for the buck.
My desktop unit is a self made unit, and is due for an upgrade.
Right now I have a dual pentium 3 with 1G RAM and a SCSI RAID harddrive config.
Memory and SCSI RAID are more important for overall performance than clock speed...but thats off topic here..
You mean, Big Blue...is now Big Red? Not that the parts sourcing will change much.
You're not surprised by this, are you?!
Recycled Dell has worked out well for laptops...
I think that offshoring labor has some fascinating parallels with disruptive technologies. I wonder if China is the disruptive "technology", coming in to scoop up all the low-end, low margin markets, with American companies like IBM gratefully ceding their money-losing low-end product lines and concentrating on the higher-end, higher-margin lines for a higher rate of return.
If this is so, then it doesn't bode well in the long run for the US companies that get pushed into these niche markets by the upstart Chinese. But from the standpoint of the employees it's not necessarily the end of the world - if there are new, innovative US companies they can migrate to. These new US companies may themselves be working on disruptive technologies in the more classical sense.
Can the disruptive technology model be extended to countries or economies as a whole? I dunno. I suppose in the general sense that China is a country full of cheap labor and we're full of expensive, highly trained, productive, & creative labor. Does this mean we've been marginalizing ourselves as an economy as we pursued higher-margin market segments across the board? I dunno.
Anyway, Japan started out in China's position after WWII and ended up a relatively high-wage country after just a few decades. I don't hear too much anguish over Japan stealing American jobs these days.
One point some analyst made recently: China has little experience in managing a free economy. What's going to happen when they encounter the inevitable recession, currency crisis, or whatever? Chances are their government & central bank are not going to handle it well. Chances are they'll screw it up & create a depression for themselves. I wonder what kind of repercussions that would have (good or bad) for us when the inevitable happens. Hmmm...
They already are. Where have you been. Our politicians and corporations have sold out this nation for greenbacks and percentages on the stock market. In ten years, you'll be lucky if what's left of the US is a mere aggrarian culture of third world scale. It's the amazing side effect of cutting a hole in the bottom of a tub of water. The water exits while disturbing the entire volume within that has not yet exited.
Unless the hole is patched, the water flows out completely.
And as wages are far far cheaper than here in China, India and Mexico. We'll lose every job in the US to outsourcing and offshoring long before those countries run out of 3.00 a day slaves to replace us with. We have some 300 million people in this country. China has billions. Do the math. Common sense belies the propaganda of the other side.
Awesome post dude....I needed a laugh after reading this. ;)
China is finally rising from its slumber. It's buying all the oil, steel, and concrete it can get its hands on to build, build, build. It will be the only thing approaching superpower status to challenge US dominance. If our economies are intertwined, I would expect our relationship with China to be valued by the leaders of both countries. The odds of World War V will be lower - allowing us to finish WW IV (WOT) properly.
...for the next few years.
Maybe you don't know how to read PR statements, but examine VERY closely the Q&A with the IBM flak, and you'll find that in about 5 years the 'support' function will be largely new employees.
Granted, they will be working in the USA.
But Research Triangle employees? They are history.
Wanna start subtracting "US-based jobs"?
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