Trump Is Wrong: America Makes Tons of Stuff

[Bigun]

Assembly is part of the 'make' process and has always been. It is very rare that someone makes anything from raw material to final product. Even the saddle makers of 100 years ago didn't make them from start to finish. Often, the saddle maker was just an assembly man who put together components sourced from others. That's the way businesses grow. They specialize and source out to someone who specializes in other parts to deliver the most efficient, profitable, best item for their brand.

No argument from me. Part of the process. Yes. Making. No.

[ABX]

Ford Motor Company has a stamping plant in Hamburg, NY, just outside Buffalo.

Then they transport the parts by rail to assembly plants elsewhere in the country.

And their engines are made in Canada or Mexico with Canadian and Japanese parts. Most of their electronics are made in Japan as well.  Depending on the car, some suspension and safety components are even made in Denmark (ironically, the same plant car is made).

My car is 'made' in Sweden, but assembled in Denmark from components made in Sweden, Germany, Denmark, and Japan.

[Oceander]

Assembly is part of the 'make' process and has always been. It is very rare that someone makes anything from raw material to final product. Even the saddle makers of 100 years ago didn't make them from start to finish. Often, the saddle maker was just an assembly man who put together components sourced from others. That's the way businesses grow. They specialize and source out to someone who specializes in other parts to deliver the most efficient, profitable, best item for their brand.

Well put.

[truth_seeker]

You seem to subscribe to the very mistaken idea that assemble means the same as make. It doesn't!

The major automakers build vehicles in the most efficient manner. Power trains may be built in one place, shipped to another for use in the total vehicle.

We built the railroads next Interstate highways and later airplanes to move people and goods around.

That is how they arrange for the components. People that design, engineer, plan, work in various places, too.

With very little publicity and fanfare, most major auto makers have design studios in California.

Management, financing, procurement, sales may take place in the home countries without which much of the profit potential and jobs opportunities would not exist.

Assembly brings together subcomponents from all over the great big, specialized world.

When we eat at a restaurant, we enjoy the benefits of services and assembly. The customers and restaurant employees and management create an end use for those Texas cattle. 

[Oceander]

The major automakers build vehicles in the most efficient manner. Power trains may be built in one place, shipped to another for use in the total vehicle.

We built the railroads next Interstate highways and later airplanes to move people and goods around.

That is how they arrange for the components. People that design, engineer, plan, work in various places, too.

With very little publicity and fanfare, most major auto makers have design studios in California.

Management, financing, procurement, sales may take place in the home countries without which much of the profit potential and jobs opportunities would not exist.

Assembly brings together subcomponents from all over the great big, specialized world.

When we eat at a restaurant, we enjoy the benefits of services and assembly. The customers and restaurant employees and management create an end use for those Texas cattle. 

[jmyrlefuller]

The way humans have survived technological growth and change for as long as there have been civilizations, evolve (in this case, evolve their skill set to the new changing technology and automation.) It is actually something we humans are quite good at if given the chance.

I guess you missed the point in my mentioning the power loom. You used the same argument the Luddites used when they protested (and sometimes burned the factories of) that new technology, all because they were afraid hand spinners couldn't make a living.

And the Luddites were right. Where are the spinners now? Either cashiering or sitting in the inner cities on welfare. That's all they have.

Let's face it: there will come a time when we run out of jobs for the people to do. As technology advances, there will inevitably come a point where we will have more people than tasks for them to do. We're rapidly approaching that point.

[jmyrlefuller]

Go west, young man. And these days, go south too.

Historically people have adapted, and moved to locations where the work was. Blacks migrated to the north. The "Dust Bowl" caused many to migrate west. Oil, gold, silver booms have lured many.

People that just sit in a fixed location, in their own self-constructed "pity pots," decrying their sad state of affairs deserve little concern.

Try the oil fields of North Dakota.

Have you seen rent there? It's obscene.

That brings up another problem: a lot of these jobs are concentrated in areas where there isn't enough space to accommodate them. Now, I understand in North Dakota that you're dealing with resources that aren't anywhere else.

But take Silicon Valley. Tons of great jobs, and not enough housing to accommodate it. So you might get a job there, but not be able to afford to live there. There's NOTHING inherently special about Silicon Valley that requires all the tech companies to cluster there. Nothing. One of them could easily move to the Rust Belt and have just as much success.

[Fishrrman]

jmyrle wrote above:
"There's NOTHING inherently special about Silicon Valley that requires all the tech companies to cluster there. Nothing. One of them could easily move to the Rust Belt and have just as much success."

Ah, but there IS something that "requires" that they cluster there.

Prestige.
The aura of having a business in Silicon Valley, near "the good life".

Do you think the movers and shakers who run those businesses would want to be in Buffalo or down in Alabama?

[truth_seeker]

Have you seen rent there? It's obscene.

That brings up another problem: a lot of these jobs are concentrated in areas where there isn't enough space to accommodate them. Now, I understand in North Dakota that you're dealing with resources that aren't anywhere else.

But take Silicon Valley. Tons of great jobs, and not enough housing to accommodate it. So you might get a job there, but not be able to afford to live there. There's NOTHING inherently special about Silicon Valley that requires all the tech companies to cluster there. Nothing. One of them could easily move to the Rust Belt and have just as much success.

What is special about Silicon Valley IS that they cluster there.

Not much different that finance clustering in London and New York, or oil clustering in Houston, or entertainment clustering in Lost Angeles, or autos clustering in Detroit.

It is similar to why stores cluster together on main streets, later in shopping malls, etc.

[Oceander]

And the Luddites were right. Where are the spinners now? Either cashiering or sitting in the inner cities on welfare. That's all they have.

Let's face it: there will come a time when we run out of jobs for the people to do. As technology advances, there will inevitably come a point where we will have more people than tasks for them to do. We're rapidly approaching that point.

The Luddites were amongst some of the most miserable misanthropes around.  Their misguided "love" for people was on a par with that of liberals of today, with just as equally disastrous results if/when implemented.

[ABX]

And the Luddites were right. Where are the spinners now? Either cashiering or sitting in the inner cities on welfare. That's all they have.

Let's face it: there will come a time when we run out of jobs for the people to do. As technology advances, there will inevitably come a point where we will have more people than tasks for them to do. We're rapidly approaching that point.

You are joking, right?  (I really hope you are) You do realize the Luddites were proven wrong by the Industrial Revolution that they opposed? The spinners the Luddites claimed to be fighting for are not 'sitting in their inner cities on welfare', they died 200 years ago. The Luddite protest was in 1811-1816.