5 ms·

Now THERE’S an idea. What are the major hurdles to overcome in implementing this? EDIT: Looks like the efficiency comes at a high price.

samstave 8y ago
Relevant (reverse) HN-AMA: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18629299 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18629299 --- Welp, about 50 years of cheap, environmentally catastrophic manufacturing (lack of) regulations, a vast army of poor/slave-subsistence-level farmers who can CHEAPLY provide food - no IP laws, a mass ability to gather/import raw materials - hazardous working conditions, cancer, cancer, cancer - slaves, and a gumption of a population with a striving for life that is not nearly as lazy and entitled as anyone else on the planet. Just a start...
ceejayoz 8y ago
OHSA, intellectual property laws...
dqpb 8y ago
Convince the people with all the money that building a giant manufacturing center would have a favorable ROI.
- StillBored 8y ago
  No, as much as I dislike Trump, a nice tariff could solve a lot of problems long term. Its after all how this country was built. Put in more economic terms, you should be taxing things you want to discourage. Taxing income/work, while providing free trade with locations that have lower tax structures _WILL_ force jobs and industries offshore. OTOH, a nice fat tariff on things you want to manufacture, and suddenly manufacturing them at home starts to make strong economic sense. Of course as evidence suggests that you also need a large enough market to assure that your not just paying 100x as much to support some inefficient factory.
  - kaitai 8y ago
    Or you just decide you don't need to manufacture that thing after all. There are a lot of situations where "redesign so it doesn't need that version of the part" is cheaper than "build a US factory, train workers."
  - pjc50 8y ago
    If tariffs worked on their own, Brazil would be an electronics powerhouse. https://thenextweb.com/la/2012/09/30/from-brazil-cost-brazil-profit-why-electronics-expensive-brazil/ https://thenextweb.com/la/2012/09/30/from-brazil-cost-brazil...
    - StillBored 8y ago
      The NAFTA market is literally 10x the size of Brazil. Its not the same thing. Worse, tariffs tend to work if your protecting an existing industry from dumping/etc, not so much if your trying to grow one.
    - erikpukinskis 8y ago
      You can’t really compare the US/EU/China to individual smaller countries. There’s a scale above which the economics are quite different.
stupidbird 8y ago
labor laws, wages, safety, regulation, cost of living
chaostheory 8y ago
Pollution. Regulation. Investors. Unions. https://www.popsci.com/america-before-epa-photos https://www.popsci.com/america-before-epa-photos

samstave 8y ago

Relevant (reverse) HN-AMA: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18629299 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18629299 --- Welp, about 50 years of cheap, environmentally catastrophic manufacturing (lack of) regulations, a vast army of poor/slave-subsistence-level farmers who can CHEAPLY provide food - no IP laws, a mass ability to gather/import raw materials - hazardous working conditions, cancer, cancer, cancer - slaves, and a gumption of a population with a striving for life that is not nearly as lazy and entitled as anyone else on the planet. Just a start...

ceejayoz 8y ago

OHSA, intellectual property laws...

dqpb 8y ago

Convince the people with all the money that building a giant manufacturing center would have a favorable ROI.

StillBored 8y ago
No, as much as I dislike Trump, a nice tariff could solve a lot of problems long term. Its after all how this country was built. Put in more economic terms, you should be taxing things you want to discourage. Taxing income/work, while providing free trade with locations that have lower tax structures _WILL_ force jobs and industries offshore. OTOH, a nice fat tariff on things you want to manufacture, and suddenly manufacturing them at home starts to make strong economic sense. Of course as evidence suggests that you also need a large enough market to assure that your not just paying 100x as much to support some inefficient factory.
- kaitai 8y ago
  Or you just decide you don't need to manufacture that thing after all. There are a lot of situations where "redesign so it doesn't need that version of the part" is cheaper than "build a US factory, train workers."
- pjc50 8y ago
  If tariffs worked on their own, Brazil would be an electronics powerhouse. https://thenextweb.com/la/2012/09/30/from-brazil-cost-brazil-profit-why-electronics-expensive-brazil/ https://thenextweb.com/la/2012/09/30/from-brazil-cost-brazil...
  - StillBored 8y ago
    The NAFTA market is literally 10x the size of Brazil. Its not the same thing. Worse, tariffs tend to work if your protecting an existing industry from dumping/etc, not so much if your trying to grow one.
  - erikpukinskis 8y ago
    You can’t really compare the US/EU/China to individual smaller countries. There’s a scale above which the economics are quite different.

stupidbird 8y ago

labor laws, wages, safety, regulation, cost of living

chaostheory 8y ago

Pollution. Regulation. Investors. Unions. https://www.popsci.com/america-before-epa-photos https://www.popsci.com/america-before-epa-photos