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Impressive machine. As an Italian, I am pleased to see that the casting machine for Tesla is supplied by an Italian company. Living in Italy, sometimes it's ha
by lvice 6y ago
Impressive machine. As an Italian, I am pleased to see that the casting machine for Tesla is supplied by an Italian company.
Living in Italy, sometimes it's hard to see why the country is still in the top 10 economies in the world, due to the fact we lack mega-corps and global consumer brands (luxury aside). The truth is that Italy is all-in on small businesses, with thousands on niches companies that fill a very specific spot in the world supply chain. I really hope that this model proves to be sustainable and we can find a path to growth again at some point.
- arkitaip 6y agoEU has a total lack of vision when it comes to in-region manufacturing. Imagine if the Union decided that 50% of all goods would have to be made in the Union within 20 years...
- zodiakzz 6y agoBut sadly: Imagine the fuel it will give to the Euroseptics because of any (short term) inconvenience. Then EU ceases to exist.. task failed successfully.
- drnex 6y agoThe freedom to purchase goods regardless of where they are made is better for consumers, and everyone are consumers.
- arkitaip 6y agoI would say this is one of the great myths of globalization and that we should offers consumers plenty of competitive offers from the EU primarily.
- luckylion 6y agoHow do you make companies competitive? If you just shower them with money, you often get the opposite result: they can't compete because they rely on subsidies and don't need to compete on the market. If you then force (or "heavily encourage" with tariffs etc) other companies to "buy local", you're hurting those other companies by having them buy the product that's unable to compete.
- astrange 6y agoThe way to make a good company is to make people in other countries want to buy your stuff, not just the locals. See "How Asia Works".
- vkou 6y agoNearly everyone also works for a living, or depends on someone who works for a living. Would you also argue on that same basis that strong labor protections, and high wages are better for nearly everyone? If you intend to cite negative second and third order effects as a counterargument - have you considered whether or not any negative second and third order effects might be applicable to yours?
- sumedh 6y agoSo it does not matter if the good are made using slave labour working in inhumane conditions?
- Barrin92 6y agoOur companies would start so suck because manufacturers would have less of an incentive to compete globally and instead start selling locally. This is why US cars went to shit after the protectionism of the 80s and it took pretty much two decades to recover. The reason why Italian and German small businesses are so innovative is because the global market is hyper-competitive.
- mc32 6y agoProtectionism of the 80s was a response to the complacency of the 60s that slowly eroded preeminence in the 70s due to demand for economy cars which Detroit was loath to produce. Moreover, Detroit cars didn’t get worse but rather stagnated in comparison with Toyota/Deming’s continuous improvement model.
- mikestew 6y agoI was an auto mechanic in the 80s. American cars in that period were no worse than they ever were. But they weren’t any better, either, which is why Toyota, Honda, et. al., ran rings around them on quality. As you point out, there was no drop in quality but rather stagnation that looked quite poor in light of a Honda Civic. To be fair, that ‘81 VW camper in our driveway doesn’t fair much better. I’d rather rely on an ‘80s Chevy Citation to get me home than that piece of parts-bin shit. Part of the problem for a lot manufacturers were 70s-era emissions controls, which is a small part of why a 4000 lb. vehicle has an engine that put out 68bhp.
- jimmaswell 6y agoWho says 90s American cars are bad? They're the majority of cars my family has had and they've been fine. I really like my 99 Grand Cherokee 4.7. Almost 200k miles and still running fine. Powerful, comfortable, practical, reliable enough and easy to work on when something needs to be done.
- smolder 6y agoI'm familiar with some 90s Ford vehicles that came equipped from the factory with a disdain for problem free operation. Constant histrionics from those cars.
- africanboy 6y agoEurope has the same number of Fortune 500 companies than North America. The largest market for European companies is Europe itself.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- rsynnott 6y agoThat would lead to an increase in consumer prices, a decline in quality of consumer goods due to lack of competition (look at the rubbish the British car industry used to get away with due to protectionism prior to European accession...), followed by public outrage and either a swift reversal of the policy or the collapse of Europe. And there would obviously be retaliation. Europe makes a lot of the world's things-for-making-things (like this casting system, say). The market for that sort of thing would shrink due to retaliatory protectionism, and the quality would get worse due to in-Europe protectionism. In general, closed-off markets tend to produce poor quality consumer and industrial goods, priced too high.
- dilyevsky 6y agoDecided how? If by banning imports that wouldn’t work too well
- AtlasBarfed 6y agoYou "manufacturing" would become assembly of parts made elsewhere. That's what the latter stages of "Made in America" labelling consisted of.
- xupybd 6y agoWe get all of our industrial machinery from Italy. We're on the other side of the world, in New Zealand, and have a strong preference for an Italian brand.
- teruakohatu 6y agoKiwi here, what is your business? (My email is in my profile, if you want to reply in private)?
- xupybd 6y agoI work for a flat pack manufacturer. We use CNC machines and the like to produce the furniture.
- pastrami_panda 6y agoYes there's a ton of "smaller" quality companies in Italy. I recently discovered IK Multimedia that make truly amazing audio products. They have a several sets of studio monitors that due to some engineering magic punch way above their league in terms of sound relative to speaker size.
- xiphias2 6y agoIt's fun to look at the largest companies' balance sheet in your country: Enel has a lot of hydro power plants installed in Latin America. Of course you won't see that living in Italy. https://www.enel.com/media/explore/search-press-releases/press/2020/04/enel-publishes-2020-first-quarter-group-operating-data-report https://www.enel.com/media/explore/search-press-releases/pre...
- w3ll_w3ll_w3ll 6y agoWell, Enel has a strong presence in Italy, Spain and Latin America. It's actually the second largest power company in the world after China's state company. It was the first company to use smart meters in 2001. But yeah, you don't see that from Italy.
- xiphias2 6y agoThe most amazing thing that I saw in Italy was when I just went to a random unknown small village there because I didn't feel good on the highway. It was so beautiful with statues and well kept gardens that people don't see by just going to the famous places.
- darkwater 6y agoI guess that's because Enel bought Endesa, its Spanish counterpart which already had presence in Latin America.
- ketamine__ 6y agoMy space heater is made by an Italian company.
- marshmallow_12 6y agomy corkscrew. I was wondering about it. and now i know.
- lormayna 6y agoI am Italian too and I am always surprise to see in how many niche sectors Italian companies are world leaders. We don't have many multinational companies, but specially in machanics, we have a lot of medium size companies that make best in class products.
- jdonaldson 6y agoItalians have this long tradition of turning complex engineering into an art. Despite the fact that the Renaissance has come and gone, the roots for it run really deep in Italy still. I hope the same thing will be said about Silicon Valley one day.
- philippoi 6y agoThe Romans were already quite good at it long before that, too.
- nimbius 6y agoAs a professional engine mechanic I would also say Italians have a sterling tradition of turning complex engineering into a rolling dumpster fire of repair and maintenance issues. Beautiful? yes, but not long for this world. Fiat seems to have outsourced their 500 abarth design to the devil himself with intercooler,turbo, and thermostat placements that seem to actively dare the customer to try to service these parts without removing the engine. on the other hand Maserati decided engines are just too hard, and outsourced the whole problem to Ferrari without any thought at all. a Primo engine mated to garbage undersized Hydraulic mounts and cheap stamped pot-steel tie rods. If you ever wanted a Ferrari experience well youll get one after about 40k miles as the idle will be as rough as a 458 on a cold track day due to the use of a cheap variator. And if you've got the dosh for a modern Ferrari theyre no better. the 599 eats belts, the F12 belts are routinely known to just fall off, and the knock issue in the 488 never saw a proper fix...you were just expected to have an engine crew that would replace your spark plugs when knocking occurred. all of them. EDIT: oh hey i forgot about the F430! the car that would eat its clutch if you ever drove it at an incline in reverse. about a six-thousand dollar part, and again your engine team was just expected to replace it as a consumable.
- m463 6y agoArduino.
- CalRobert 6y agoThat's really interesting, and heartening. When I've looked at places in Europe that could make sense to start a small business Italy is often described as having a high bureaucratic burden and generally being a challenging environment. Is that true? What do you think has caused small business to succeed?
- cunidev 6y agoDefinitely true. I would rather identify the problem (which is a wild guess) as having very similar burden between larger and smaller industries, meaning no particular protective measures, investments or auxiliary measures (e.g. simplified tax formats - which exist only to a smaller extent) are taken to ensure a newborn company can safely "hatch". Disclaimer: While Italian, I am no startup/industry owner, so anyone in the field could probably give a more insightful opinion.
- tim333 6y agoItaly has long had a reputation of having some talented and hard working entrepreneurs and an inefficient and somewhat corrupt government so I guess the ambitious try running small businesses and avoid the government to the extent that they can.
- nemo44x 6y agoYour bathroom fixtures and tile materials/tech are the best in the world.
- whb07 6y agoLast I remember, the regulations start to become extreme past 40+ people. So what you get is small businesses who choose to not go past that demarcation.
- jimmaswell 6y agoWith the reputation of the Italian auto industry, I can't share your enthusiasm. I trust the team at Tesla but I can't help "fix it again, Tony" echoing in my head.