5 ms·
> "efficient" MBA eloi outsourced everything to morlocks a long time ago. This is the biggest weakness of the West - and it all stems back to "share holder val
by DrBazza 5y ago
> "efficient" MBA eloi outsourced everything to morlocks a long time ago.
This is the biggest weakness of the West - and it all stems back to "share holder value".
Companies, US ones, in particular, seem to have some absurd drive to pay endless dividends to shareholders, and drive 'value' via share price, by appearing to be profitable.
In other words, get stuff from the cheapest provider.
It didn't help that at the same time people like Carl Icahn came along and stripped a company that was cheap to buy, but also sat on a pile of cash. And again, if he could 'drive value' for the share holders, said company was a target.
Eventually state-level politics appear - artificially low-prices Chinese goods because the CCP fix the exchange rate, or subsidise an entire market to corner it globally.
Rinse repeat, and that's where we're at now.
- Workaccount2 5y agoPeople don't realize that the US defense budget is practically the only thing keeping American manufacturing alive.
- 3pt14159 5y agoEh. Manufacturing has never gone down in GDP terms. It just seems to have gone down due to layoffs as a result of further mechanization of production.
- Scoundreller 5y agoMassive consumer demand helps too.
- toss1 5y agoYup, and it's even more directed than that. Western MBAs and politicians think they know that manufacturing is just a fungible commodity and think that we're exploiting cheap Chinese labor to 'drive shareholder value'. While they have this myopic focus on quarterly results, the CCP has a 100- and 500-year plan, and is happily exploiting that myopia for strategic economic and military value, including subsidizing massive undercutting of entire industries in order to kill all but their own. The result is that they are gaining the deep know-how of manufacturing, the ability to compromise their adversaries' military gear at the component level, and the ability to choke off supply chains. Although there is still barely time to repair this, it will go down as a strategic blunder of historic proportions.
- mach1ne 5y agoThis was the case some 10 years ago, but Chinese labor is no longer cheap. The wealth brought in by making China the factory of the world drove the income level of its middle class up and now there are few advantages in manufacturing your products in China. Western manufacturers are constantly pulling their factories back from China, many having gained an ultimate net loss from moving in in the 90s and now relocating again.
- toss1 5y agoYes, they have made a net loss, and meanwhile transferred an insane amount of technology to China. But those managers got their bonuses and are long-gone... And sure Chinese labor isn't as cheap, they've moved up the value chain some, but it is still cheap enough compared to US wages to make items and ship them here - particularly with China's lax environmental and labor laws. The relocations to even cheaper labor-rate counties are still an improvement, as at least they aren't creating all levels of strategic disadvantage...
- reaperducer 5y agoand it all stems back to "share holder value". Which is just a business buzzphrase for "Greed." The West is being eaten alive by its own greed, and the Chinese are just watching us do it.
- WesolyKubeczek 5y agoChinese are just as greedy and corrupt, make no mistake.
- rafale 5y agoIt wouldn't be so bad if we outsourced to countries that are ideologically compatible with the West. The problem is China. Not outsourcing itself.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]