[TowerTalk] AES SK

[Roger (K8RI) on TT]

Overly simplistic with the reasons for ham gear as well as many products 
off shore include all the things someone said were unrelated. Unions, 
politics, skilled and unskilled labor, work ethics, unrealistic 
expectations and attitudes taught all the way through the school 
system.  Add to that the global market system.

The company I worked for had numerous plants around the US.  There are 
many states that welcome new industries with minimal regulations and 
taxes. Unfortunately the Feds regulations can make starting a new 
business anywhere, more than a little difficult.

We had plants on nearly every continent to take advantage of those 
"local markets"

"Ham Radio" is no where near a large enough market to support that kind 
of business model.

"Off Shore" does not mean junk, but as long as most hams are cheap, 
someone, here or there will build and sell "cheap stuff". Let's face it. 
If WE didn't purchase enough cheap stuff to support the making of cheap 
stuff, then they'd stop making cheap stuff.

You don't need to be very old to remember when Japan was synonymous with 
cheap stuff.
Those producing cheap stuff soon learn there is a lot more money in 
building "good stuff"

"Cheap labor" has a way of becoming expensive labor.
Japan was replaced by Korea and Mexico. Now why would Japanese companies 
start building cars in the US?  It doesn't take long for an open mind to 
find those answers.

Korean cheap labor is being replaced by Chinese and Indian labor.

A thought:
I read that in another generation or two, India will have more people 
with 4 year college degrees than the total US population. Can China be 
far behind?  They have highly qualified people who WANT to work, while 
we have many college grads who want to tell their employers what they 
will do.  I've seen a drastic change in new hire attitudes in my 50 plus 
years in industry

Whoever remarked about the falling # of Hams needs to read 
http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-showing-steady-growth-in-the-us
True, fewer build their own HF and VHF rigs, but LF and SHF are now the 
domain of the home builders. OTOH many of the new hams with store bought 
equipment understand the programming and protocols for some very 
sophisticated communications that leave old time CW and SSB hams 
scratching their heads?

All of these things/topics affect Ham Radio, one way or another.!

73

Roger (K8RI)


On 7/9/2016 Saturday 3:55 PM, David Gilbert wrote:
>
> That's a bit simplistic.  I spent over 30 years working for a huge 
> North American based semiconductor company, and there were a variety 
> of reasons we ended up moving most manufacturing elsewhere.  Labor 
> cost was certainly one of them, but rarely the deciding factor.  
> Others included:
>
> 1.  Availability of trained engineers.  Places like China and India 
> have a far greater pool of highly skilled and dedicated engineers, and 
> engineers in the U.S. tended to think of manufacturing as being 
> "unglamorous."
>
> 2.  Proximity to local markets.  As the world economy became more 
> global, being able to be closer to your customer had tremendous 
> advantages in terms of customer relationships and cycle time 
> reductions, not to mention trade (many countries lower tax rates for 
> local content) and currency issues.
>
> 3.  Bureaucracy and overhead issues.  At one point we wanted to 
> significantly expand a wafer fab locally, but were told by the city 
> that it would take at least 18 months simply to get the approvals for 
> it ... in spite of the fact that we had already proposed every safety 
> and environmental upgrade imaginable for it.  Markets don't wait for 
> that kind of crap, and we ended up having to build the fab offshore 
> where some other entity actually wanted it.
>
> Other industries faced different issues ... tax burdens in the U.S., 
> ridiculous union requirements (much less of an issue now, of course, 
> at least in most places), availability of raw materials, etc.  The 
> problem as many of us recognized even back then was that once such 
> manufacturing migrations begin they are very difficult to curb.  How 
> many colleges and universities in North America offer engineering 
> courses specifically geared toward manufacturing?  Damn few, if any.  
> In Asia they are everywhere. Compare tax rates.  Compare 
> transportation costs to major markets (North America is no longer the 
> only one).
>
> The list of reasons why such "big box" products are built elsewhere is 
> almost endless, and while it may be convenient to blame the 
> manufacturers for that it is simply scapegoating. Consumers who tend 
> to buy the cheapest available product regardless of quality (and they 
> are still the majority, to which I can attest having worked for a 
> while at a big box store) share the blame, as do most other elements 
> of the economic system that ignored cost and efficiency in favor of 
> other factors.   I'd even bet that your own investment funds lie with 
> companies that make as much profit as possible, as opposed to some 
> company that tried to fight the system by paying higher wages, paying 
> higher taxes, training it's own engineers, paying higher 
> transportation costs ... etc, etc, etc.
>
> Manufacturers mostly follow ... they don't really lead the parade.  I 
> can say with great experience that moving manufacturing offshore is 
> one of the riskiest, most traumatic actions a manufacturer can take.  
> It doesn't happen without significant outside pressure from one place 
> or another.
>
> 73,
>
> Dave  AB7E


---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus