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And yet the US and Europe have lost millions of jobs to China over the last several decades. The fact that you bring up Japan tells me you don't really underst

And yet the US and Europe have lost millions of jobs to China over the last several decades. The fact that you bring up Japan tells me you don't really understand what has been going on. Which is fine. I get it. Most people don't. I wish I didn't. I have no choice but to see reality across my desk each and every single day. I can buy semiconductors from China for a third of the best price I can get in the US. Asking "Why?" you start navigating the many layers of the multivariate business equation in order to understand. Insulting me isn't going to change reality. Insulting me does not explain how we are where we are...a moment in time when we can't even make simple masks because we don't make the thread, cloth, rubber and machinery in the US and Europe. That's not a fantasy. And that didn't happen because of some imaginary character in a novel. And that will not stop because people like you prefer to respond to someone like me by insulting and ignoring them. Remember what you said here and re-evaluate in a decade or so. I don't see anything changing any time soon. Sadly, you'll have the opportunity to understand. It will likely be too late to do much about it. Just look at what happened to almost every single country in Latin America for a convenient time machine. My father used to manufacture products at scale in Latin America. In fact, I was with him this weekend and he told me the story again. The Chinese came in and made it impossible to operate at anything resembling a profit. Every single factory in his industry shuttered. That was about four decades ago. None of these industries have returned. Again. Fantasy vs. reality. Living in the former does not change the latter.

wpietri 6y ago
I haven't actually insulted you yet. You'd know if I meant to. That you perceive it that way seems to me of a piece with how you process everything else through the lenses of fear and threat.
- robomartin 6y ago
  There you go again. Attacking the person rather than the argument being made. Now I process everything through a lens of fear and threat. Never mind that I have lived the issues I speak of. I have been in manufacturing in the US for over thirty years. I have far more examples than what I have posted here. My family has been in manufacturing for at least two generations, on both sides, both my father and my mother were in manufacturing and my grandparents, on both sides, were in manufacturing, in at least two continents. The industries my family was exposed to spanned textiles, clothing, hard good, pharmaceuticals, consumer and industrial products/electronics and aerospace. Never mind that during this time I have worked with an associated with other manufacturers in all kinds of industries, not just mine. No. Never mind any of that. Never mind that I hear these cries from other manufacturers. A good friend of mine has a 100,000 square foot contract manufacturing facility in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. He has been in manufacturing for a decade more than I have. He used to manufacture the entire line of Hewlett Packard servers and, if I remember correctly, quite a few of their higher end workstation products. He is also yelling at the top of his lungs at what has been going on and just-about ready to give up, shrink down to a small office and make everything he is manufacturing today in China. Never mind any of that. I'm just a guy quoting stupid books and looking at the world through a lens of fear and threat. Sure. No problem. Go with that if it makes you happy. I should remind myself that most people have never held these cats by the tail. They can't possibly know or understand that reality. There's almost only one way to understand it, and that is to grab onto that tail and go for that ride.
  - wpietri 6y ago
    It doesn't make me happy. I feel kinda bad for you. I think there are even some glimmers of good points in there. But you have not participated here in a way that suggests engaging with you will in any way be worth my time.
    - robomartin 6y ago
      From your link in an earlier comment: "leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world." Insulting someone through links. I think that's a new one. Clever. And now you try to take the an invisible high road. Brilliant really. Once again. Attack the person, not the argument. While my college course in Logic dates back a few decades, I think that logical fallacy pretty much says, paraphrasing: Reality isn't changed by attacking the messenger. Hey man. Live long and prosper. Enough.
      - wpietri 6y ago
        If you want to invest your identity in being a fan of Ayn Rand enough that you feel personally insulted by somebody critiquing the behavior of her characters and her devotees, then that is your prerogative. Not one I feel responsible for, though. Again, you seem very wrapped up in your notions. To the extent that rather than dealing with the message, you're attacking the messenger.

wpietri 6y ago

I haven't actually insulted you yet. You'd know if I meant to. That you perceive it that way seems to me of a piece with how you process everything else through the lenses of fear and threat.

robomartin 6y ago
There you go again. Attacking the person rather than the argument being made. Now I process everything through a lens of fear and threat. Never mind that I have lived the issues I speak of. I have been in manufacturing in the US for over thirty years. I have far more examples than what I have posted here. My family has been in manufacturing for at least two generations, on both sides, both my father and my mother were in manufacturing and my grandparents, on both sides, were in manufacturing, in at least two continents. The industries my family was exposed to spanned textiles, clothing, hard good, pharmaceuticals, consumer and industrial products/electronics and aerospace. Never mind that during this time I have worked with an associated with other manufacturers in all kinds of industries, not just mine. No. Never mind any of that. Never mind that I hear these cries from other manufacturers. A good friend of mine has a 100,000 square foot contract manufacturing facility in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. He has been in manufacturing for a decade more than I have. He used to manufacture the entire line of Hewlett Packard servers and, if I remember correctly, quite a few of their higher end workstation products. He is also yelling at the top of his lungs at what has been going on and just-about ready to give up, shrink down to a small office and make everything he is manufacturing today in China. Never mind any of that. I'm just a guy quoting stupid books and looking at the world through a lens of fear and threat. Sure. No problem. Go with that if it makes you happy. I should remind myself that most people have never held these cats by the tail. They can't possibly know or understand that reality. There's almost only one way to understand it, and that is to grab onto that tail and go for that ride.
- wpietri 6y ago
  It doesn't make me happy. I feel kinda bad for you. I think there are even some glimmers of good points in there. But you have not participated here in a way that suggests engaging with you will in any way be worth my time.
  - robomartin 6y ago
    From your link in an earlier comment: "leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world." Insulting someone through links. I think that's a new one. Clever. And now you try to take the an invisible high road. Brilliant really. Once again. Attack the person, not the argument. While my college course in Logic dates back a few decades, I think that logical fallacy pretty much says, paraphrasing: Reality isn't changed by attacking the messenger. Hey man. Live long and prosper. Enough.
    - wpietri 6y ago
      If you want to invest your identity in being a fan of Ayn Rand enough that you feel personally insulted by somebody critiquing the behavior of her characters and her devotees, then that is your prerogative. Not one I feel responsible for, though. Again, you seem very wrapped up in your notions. To the extent that rather than dealing with the message, you're attacking the messenger.