Posted on 12/31/2006 6:25:30 AM PST by A. Pole
AMERICAN manufacturers no longer make subway cars. They are imported now, and the skills required to make them are disappearing in the United States. Similarly, imports are an ever-bigger source of refrigerators, household furnishings, auto and aircraft parts, machine tools and a host of everyday consumer products much in demand in America, but increasingly not made here.
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the experts shifted the emphasis from production to design and innovation. Let others produce what Americans think up.
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But over the long run, can invention and design be separated from production? That question is rarely asked today. The debate instead centers on the loss of well-paying factory jobs and on the swelling trade deficit in manufactured goods. When the linkage does come up, the answer is surprisingly affirmative: Yes, invention and production are intertwined.
"Most innovation does not come from some disembodied laboratory," said Stephen S. Cohen, co-director of the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy at the University of California, Berkeley. "In order to innovate in what you make, you have to be pretty good at making it — and we are losing that ability."
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Franklin J. Vargo, the association’s vice president for international economic affairs, sounds even more concerned than Mr. Cohen. "If manufacturing production declines in the United States," he said, "at some point we will go below critical mass and then the center of innovation will shift outside the country and that will really begin a decline in our living standards."
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"It is hard to imagine," Mr. Tonelson said, "how an international economy can remain successful if it jettisons its most technologically advanced components."
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(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
In Connecticut?????
I dont think so, in fact, every radio show about this topic had to admit that Ct's unemployment rate is higher and all the national recovery that happened happened here last and slower!
If you are a student of history, then you should be aware that it doesn't take much to ignite a nation's hatred and serve as the rationale for war.
Do you really think that the Chinese are different?
It could be a tariff, a deal for an oil field, a cheaper supplier (Vietnam?) or any one of a million things, and the mood of the Chinese public could turn to thoughts of war with the USA.
I can't believe you're pressing this. Do you want me to start posting salary data for engineers that get a master's degree? How about a Ph.D? I believe Mase has some information about how many CEO's are engineers.
Do you have anything to back up your assertion(s)?
You might want to do something about that.
I met a former NYC steel warehouser/distributor. He said that he was able to place an order, at the close of the business day, with Bethlehem Steel, and the order would be sitting on railcars in his yard the next morning.
Now, six months wait for foreign steel is not unusual.
Yikes.
Free trade assumes that those who actually do the work and make the products are stupid.
One of these days, many of those who cheered as their country lost the skill and means to support itself will be out of a job along with those they stomped on.
My point, such as it is, is that no single discipline is an assurance of a high salary. If someone goes into engineering thinking they'll always have a job, then they are mistaken. What assures a high salary and success is being very, very good at your job.
I guess that didn't do Bethlehem Steel a whole lot of good...
The reality is that few people are able, or get the breaks, to get an "artistic" job, and when the dreaming and scheming is over, the factory job proves to be better than most.
In reality, almost anyone can get an "artistic" job. It won't pay much and they'll be crappy hours, abusive bosses and backstabbing, cut throat competition. That's the foot in the door. But if you're good -- very, very good --then you get the beach house in the Hamptons, large bank account, and retire at 50. If you're not good or just so-so, then you get kicked to the curb with an iron boot.
Yes. And my point is that the likelihood of that high salary belonging to an engineer is far greater than the nonsense you posted about someone with an "arts" degree, or whatever it was you were going-on about.
I would say you do, if you are to dumb to know what a rhetorical question is.
Yes. And my point is that the likelihood of that high salary belonging to an engineer is far greater than the nonsense you posted about someone with an "arts" degree, or whatever it was you were going-on about
It has nothing to do with "likelihood." It's not a horse race. It has to do with talent in the field, whether that field is engineering or packaging design.
There is nothing that you, or I, can do, that someone else can't attempt to do for less money. They may not equal our quality or service, and they may not make a profit, but they will likely prevail for a time, and we will have to cease. Bethlehem Steel was no exception.
Yep. Just wait until the Baby Boomers (or the majority of them) retire.
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1"It's not quite that simple, either. I remember 20 years ago, all the engineers were lording it over the "art majors." And now the engineers are out of work or under employed and the "art majors" are pulling down the big bucks."
I know the Hamptons, and the guy with the biggest house was the guy who made the hangers for the "artists" to hang their creations on.
I should add that the artists and manufacturers were greatly eclipsed, in size of Hampton "cottage", by the Wall Street crowd.
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