5 ms·
this applies to an entire national economy, Silicon Valley was successful due to having hardware and software right next to each other, same thing for US manufa
by ren_engineer 3y ago
this applies to an entire national economy, Silicon Valley was successful due to having hardware and software right next to each other, same thing for US manufacturing in general when we were a powerhouse.
We then let our government get bribed by Wall Street to allow outsourcing everything for a few decades of short term profit. Now China has the manufacturing ecosystem that allows them to innovate more efficiently
- voakbasda 3y agoYup. Speaking as an embedded engineer, outsourcing at least some manufacturing to China (or other Far East empires) is often the only road to profitability with modern hardware. Doing so significantly impacts the momentum that can be achieved.
- lostlogin 3y ago> Doing so significantly impacts the momentum that can be achieved In a good way or a bad way? I can think of a few success stories that are dependant on China’s manufacturing prowess. I’m typing this on an iPhone.
- abestic9 3y agoBoth/neither, I would suggest. Offloading manufacturing reduces risk, but requires you to have better oversight in other areas before actually shipping. From what I've seen, businesses will often hire someone with specific experience dealing with Chinese manufacturers in their specific vertical, for example PCBs/electronics, tooling like injection molds, or textiles.
- wolverine876 3y agoHow is China's economy doing? Also, the US economy is running near full capacity; what would you have the US move offshore in order to bring manufacturing onshore? Or would you allow more immigration and foreign investment?
- kranke155 3y agoThe US economy is running at full capacity, but it could be that the some part (20-30-40%) capacity is being used in absolutely poor performance areas.
- wolverine876 3y agoWhy would we think the productivity of those resources would be higher for manufacturing?
- nobodyandproud 3y agoI didn’t interpret “poor performance” as “productivity”; rather, as “low-value”.
- kranke155 3y agoBasically. If you brought back manufacturing to some parts of America it would likely lead to economic growth. Instead we have the offshoring to cheaper countries.
- wolverine876 3y agoWhy do we assume that? Manufacturing economies were high-growth in the mid-20th century; we don't want to return there.
- kranke155 3y agoRead the book “How Asia Works” by Joe Studwell
- nobodyandproud 3y agoOne reason: Our ability to prototype, build out ideas, and in general innovate is more complicated and less scalable. The fastest international delivery isn’t comparable to driving 30 minutes to shop for the parts needed for some wild idea (etc.), but that market no longer exists in the US. In addition to delays, that makes R&D more specialized and therefore more expensive; not to mention the local loss of expertise by the sellers of the components. Just trying to build some Arduino ideas: I’m looking at $$, planning, and days of shipping. No opportunity to try something out on the spur of the moment.
- callalex 3y agoThere is something to what you say, but the continued success of both Apple Silicon and Nvidia processors seems completely opposed to your statement. How do you reconcile those two things?
- nobodyandproud 3y agoThe cost is a near-monopoly, as the level of strong-arming required is only possible if the loss of business—from shoddy, corner-cutting work—is otherwise catastrophic to the outsourced supplier. Example: You mention NVidia as a success—and they are—but reliable middle-tier builders like EVGa simply could not remain in business in the graphics card business. Eventually only NVidia will be supplying their own GPUs and cards. This in turn significantly drives-up the cost of hiring good local talent if the need ever arises; as TSMC discovered when setting up shop in the US.