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It may increase domestic production for domestic customers, but I think we ran that experiment before. What I found decades ago is that products made domestical

by awful 9y ago

It may increase domestic production for domestic customers, but I think we ran that experiment before. What I found decades ago is that products made domestically, driven by greed, profit seeking, marketing and labor costs were too expensive for your average customer. Tools for example; look at the pricing of simple domestic hand tools, technical and heavy duty. Scopes, meters, soldering tools, socket sets, electronics, schematics and repair manuals, specialty auto tools; there was a time these were too expensive for the average consumer. Sure it created manufacturing, sales and distribution jobs but by lock in - this did not make the technician or the customer wealthy, but it did make the business owner wealthier as they were the moneyed and licensed gatekeepers, charging royally for access. *As a youth I was screwed by electronics manufacturers, car companies for access to semiconductors, schematics, tools, and special tools. I believe that is exactly what China has faced for decades and has been fighting against, at least partially.

pm90 9y ago
Your comment really made me think for a while why this might be happening. And I have a few conjectures. 1. When a protectionist market is created, global companies generally tend to avoid competing in them. What this means is that the local companies producing the protected goods are generally one-market only. They're only interested in the protected market and know they're shielded from foreign competition... less competition == less incentive to make world class products. And new firms will not generally target the captive market created by regulation unless they know the regulations will stay that way for many decades to come. 2. If you can create regulations to keep foreign competitors out, you can also use regulations to keep domestic competitors out. This is a favorite strategy used by bigger corporations in countries with lax implementation of laws, but strict laws on paper. Just threaten smaller firms that they will be sued and take them over.
slededit 9y ago
Having some experience manufacturing electronics domestically I don't think it's a conscious thing. Domestic companies don't fundamentally understand cost optimization and "good enough". As an example making a PCB with a nominal impedance spec. A domestic company will take that to mean you want full testing and careful analysis. A foreign company will quickly rough out a stack up and send you the boards. Because my impedance spec was nominal and not critical the foreign company is the correct approach.

by awful 9y ago

pm90 9y ago

Your comment really made me think for a while why this might be happening. And I have a few conjectures. 1. When a protectionist market is created, global companies generally tend to avoid competing in them. What this means is that the local companies producing the protected goods are generally one-market only. They're only interested in the protected market and know they're shielded from foreign competition... less competition == less incentive to make world class products. And new firms will not generally target the captive market created by regulation unless they know the regulations will stay that way for many decades to come. 2. If you can create regulations to keep foreign competitors out, you can also use regulations to keep domestic competitors out. This is a favorite strategy used by bigger corporations in countries with lax implementation of laws, but strict laws on paper. Just threaten smaller firms that they will be sued and take them over.

slededit 9y ago

Having some experience manufacturing electronics domestically I don't think it's a conscious thing. Domestic companies don't fundamentally understand cost optimization and "good enough". As an example making a PCB with a nominal impedance spec. A domestic company will take that to mean you want full testing and careful analysis. A foreign company will quickly rough out a stack up and send you the boards. Because my impedance spec was nominal and not critical the foreign company is the correct approach.