OT: Great article on the difficulty of mfg here
- Thread starter horshack.sixpack
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I stopped reading at #3. That guy is bad at research. You’re going to want to change the thread title.
I agree with some of what this guy wrote but disagreed a lot of what he said. Several things that need to be fixed in this country’s labor. Number one is litigation. My god some of the litigation filed by labor against big companies is unbelievable. I don’t know how companies in this country stay profitable. From litigation to government regulations to lazy employees need to be corrected.
America underestimates how hard... I don't know what that means. I ain't underestimating anything because I really don't know how hard it is and my few posts on this issue pretty much drained all my knowledge. Maybe supporters of this tariff policy underestimate this. Anyway, good win last night against a ranked team in a stadium with a bunch of empty seats.
Yes but…
This is the place where he’s right.
America’s culture isn’t in manufacturing at this level and your talking about correcting lazy employees sounds not so vaguely like herding cats.
Corporations know this. This is why they spend money to get their product produced elsewhere.
The liability crap is a big problem for companies. Is it complicated, yes. Can it be improved, yes.
Here’s a question:
Can it be improved to the point where there is enough buy-in from enough employees in all of the sectors where this applies and production quality is good enough?
I’m thinking No because I doubt there are enough people who want to be vested enough to be involved.
What the far-right MAGAs don't get is that Trump MAY have been able to pull off this long term plan in 2017, and had he been elected in 2020. It didn't happen, and more than that, COVID highlighted just how fragile everything really was. So while I give Trump credit for trying back in those days, today in 2025, it's a flawed, delusional idea. Because we all know what's coming in the 2026 mid-terms and the 2028 election.....and it ain't more MAGA. Regular, middle ground people will be sick of that shlt by then along with more older baby boomers buying out.
Trump's bunch is living in a damn concrete echo chamber with a big army, though a decreasing army, of useful idiots around them who aren't affected by all this garbage.
Trump's bunch is living in a damn concrete echo chamber with a big army, though a decreasing army, of useful idiots around them who aren't affected by all this garbage.
If manufacturing comes back to the USA like it was 50 years ago, it will be via automation and AI....labor unions are worse now than they were when everything started moving over seas. You want that cheap Chinese labor, you need that cheap chinese labor!
Making iPhones in America was a good way to excite his constituency base. Personally, I think it’s a win if we get some other industries back. Things like hand and power tool manufacturing and cookware.
I think if you tried to “improve” it, there would be pushback from workers and unions. The American workforce has a sense of entitlement that’s been baked in over the years and it’s not going to go backwards (or what they perceive as backwards).
That’s where overseas manufacturing comes into play. You can just plop a factory in India or Bangladesh where a living wage is a fraction of what it is here and there’s people lined up to work for it.
I think it can be. One thing that would help would be to hold the losers of frivolous lawsuits accountable for both party’s legal fees.
I have a friend that does workman’s comp claims for a big box store. You would not believe the number of claims from workers and the mental gymnastics they do to fabricate whatever stories just so they won’t have to work.
I'm more concerned about the type of manufacturing than the amount of manufacturing. Oversimplified example: I don't give a chit where five dollar plastic toys are made but I do care where essential medicines are made.
And you're not in your own echo chamber I presume.
They have now exempted phones and laptops from the China tariffs
Anybody else old enough to remember when we used to ***** about so many things being made in Japan ?
Its as if we are deporting the wrong people.
I used to handle that for a large chemical manufacturer. About 1/3 of the workforce was a papercut away from being out for the remainder of their lives on workman's comp.
I spent far too long chasing ghosts on "injuries" that weren't plausible.
I started manufacturing products in China 25 years ago. It wasn't hi Tec products but the end consumer was more patriotic than the average consumer. The manufacture machines required had totally left the US at that time. I searched everywhere for a stateside manufacture and final I found one place in Colorado that would commit to the equipment required but the end cost was 10x the cost in China and thus made the products too expensive for the market. its going to be tough to bring the low tech stuff back. Its possible with pharmaceuticals and hi Tec stuff but its going to come at a cost.
I think it can happen and I think it can work, but there are so many layers to this problem that cover generations. All I know to say is that education has to be fixed where we actually teach kids things that matter. The social experiment crap has to end (like, grow up and man up people), and we as a society have to stop being so 17'n stupid and wasteful. I have my fair share of chinese made stuff, but I really struggle with making a communist nation (the commie part) strong as a result of our insatiable need for stuff
Lot of people create interview “activity” so they can maintain workman’s comp. They have no intention of taking a job, just keeping comp rolling as long as possible. Often the jobs they qualify for pay less than comp so it’s economics at some level.
I like that was mostly cars and a lot of it was being embarrassed by our quality vs theirs. Early - mid 80’s were terrible for US autos. Imagine the K-Car being the #1 seller. That’s sad…
At the end the article makes a very good point about our need to control our destiny in that area as well as others.
Is that the point of the tariff war...to bring manufacturing back to the US?
Or it the point of the tariff war to make trade 'more fair' for the US by negotiating trade deals?
Because those concepts largely don't align. A 'more fair' trade agreement wont result in a bunch of reshored manufacturing.
The hardline tariffs are quickly losing any teeth.
- High rates that quickly dropped to 10%.
- Exemptions for certain industries.
- Exemptions for specific products.
So much growl and such little bite.
It's good for consumers for sure, but if these things are exempted then why not other things that will also be good for consumers since costs will be lower?
It doesn't seem to be good for the 'plan' and seems to highlight how ineffective the 'plan' is.
As a Manfacturing Engineering Consultant I feel dumber for reading this article. The only thing I agree with is that we should raise the tariffs even higher.
Being an insufferable douchebag is a winning strategy to sway opinions. You should double down on it.
Well, Trump did, and you love him with no independent thought whatsoever. So maybe I should.
Fortunately I give no shlts about what you think. I roll with the truth.
So the country is going to give up on MAGA, and turn to Communism? Could happen I suppose. The whole world is turning slowly toward Socialism/Communism. Most of the last holdouts are in the Western Hemisphere, basically the Americas. Canada is very socialistic, but many of their people are not. The Bible does detail this progression very well. Hard to tell where the world is prophetically, but it seems we're much further along than I thought. Trump admin. could very well be the last death throes of freedom & liberty.
My comment was on your being an insufferable douchebag on literally every subject you post on but in the words of mstategflr you can go an 17 blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
yourself.