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The simple truth is that due to decades of lack of investment, chronic individualism, poor vocational schooling and inflated university degree costs, US workers
by shortsunblack 3y ago
The simple truth is that due to decades of lack of investment, chronic individualism, poor vocational schooling and inflated university degree costs, US workers cannot compete. They are less competent, less disciplined, less skilled. Some of this is due to no fault of their own, while some of this is also due to the culture. This manifests in every facet of American industrial capacity -- from "toothpick and tissue paper" home construction to most basic manufacturing like injection moulding, where moulds are used far past their serviceing periods to churn out margins.
- barry-cotter 3y agoAmericans capable of being productive at TSMC cost too much for TSMC to afford. They can get better paying jobs with better work life balance, easily. Japan has a similarly terrible work culture and is much poorer than the US, like Taiwan, so TSMC has much less cultural mismatch to deal with.
- VirusNewbie 3y agoThis is a great response that sounds convincing. Right now high IQ hard working americans can choose law, finance, medicine or software for a pretty high ROI. I think this is less true in other countries, so those capable folk might be more evenly spread throughout various engineering fields.
- rayiner 3y agoThis is true. My parents wanted a doctor and an engineer. And while my brother and I both got STEM degrees, we ended up in law and finance, because those fields pay way more. I’m convinced that this is bad for your average American. It’s good for the small slice of the population making high salaries at banks, law firms, advertising companies, etc. But that drives financialization of the economy, which is probably worse for the average worker. It might be better for the median American to cut down those industries and shift the economic mix to industries that create more solid middle class jobs.
- dctoedt 3y ago> It might be better for the median American to cut down those industries and shift the economic mix to industries that create more solid middle class jobs. Serious question: How, exactly?
- VirusNewbie 3y agoHopefully some of the large, profitable companies will eventually see it as an existential threat to have such a dependency on a single nation, and subsidize paying high comp for chip engineers and even manufacturing. This already happens to some degree slightly higher on the stack. For example firmware engineering is not generally a high paying subfield of programming, but at FAANG companies the comp is very high.
- rayiner 3y agoKnowledge work by its nature seems to be winner-take-all and not generate well paying jobs for people who aren’t cognitive elites. California and New York are good examples of this—the finance and tech bros with sky-high salaries drive up the price of everything, to a degree that outstrips the modestly higher salaries those industries pay to ordinary workers. Contrast that with something like oil and gas, or sophisticated manufacturing which needs large numbers of moderately skilled workers. In absolute terms these industries generate less wealth. California’s GSP per capita is more than 25% higher than Texas’s. But middle class people are moving from California to Texas (and Georgia and Tennessee)—not the other way around. Or instead of Texas, consider Germany. I’d posit that it’s better for Germans that the country excels in manufacturing rather than finance or tech.
- dctoedt 3y agoBut returning to my question: As Lenin asked: что делать (what to do)?
- selimthegrim 3y agoHe was riffing on earlier books’ titles.
- resolutebat 3y agoOne data point that supports your assertion: Japan has 29 lawyers per 100k population. The US has 4,000.
- dmurray 3y agoSource for this? The ABA [0] gives a much more believable figure of 1.3 million "active lawyers", which is almost exactly 400 per 100k. So I suspect you are off by an order of magnitude, but perhaps you have a different way of counting lawyers. [0] https://www.abalegalprofile.com/demographics.html https://www.abalegalprofile.com/demographics.html
- shiroiushi 3y agoMaybe the GP added an extra zero by accident, but 29 vs. 400 is still a huge difference, more than an order of magnitude.
- bg24 3y agoAgree. Nitpicking just one important things. A small % of US workers can compete. That's why we see best-in-class companies born in US. But mass workers... NO. So you are correct.
- VirusNewbie 3y agoWhy does this not apply to software?
- ohnoitsahuman 3y agoBecause a spark of genius is better than rote diligence in software. Say what you want about Americans, but few of them are wickedly clever and intelligent at the same time.
- selimthegrim 3y agoWhat’s the difference?
- VirusNewbie 3y agoHmm, i’m speculating but I’m thinking even the entry level software engineer has a lot of room to possibly fuck something up. Even if your architect/staff engineer comes up with a fantastic system, there’s still the possibility of the jr engineer screwing up their tiny piece and implementing a 2^n solution and then the whole system crumbles. Conversely, there’s room for (constrained) creativity from the bottom level as well. This sounds quite different than say, chip manufacturing where I imagine there’s more or a binary “you did the thing” or “you didn’t”. However I have very little insight into the process so I’m likely over simplifying.
- fragmede 3y agointelligence is broad cognitive capability, while cleverness is more about being quick and inventive in solving problems or handling situations
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- rayiner 3y agoA small number of 10x engineers can make world-beating software. Meanwhile, for most other engineering and manufacturing fields, you need a large number of skilled (but not genius-level) workers working in careful coordination and giving it 110% over a sustained period of time.
- pylua 3y agoIt's not so simple. There were previous articles posted on here months ago basically saying that the building standards are much higher in the United States in terms of permits and certifications and that is what is slowing things down. Sectors are heavily regulated in the United States which comes with a very high price tag, however, they are often done for the right reasons. If American workers are expected to follow the rules but other countries have less strict rules with different tradeoffs, maybe the regulations need to be examined.
- fallingknife 3y agoIs there any evidence that the standards are actually higher and not just more expensive, time consuming,.and bureaucratic?
- KerrAvon 3y agoBoth things can be true. I’m sure there are ways to streamline the bureaucracy. But if you ignore Chesterton’s fence you get Superfund sites dotting the landscape. The rules exist for reasons.
- fallingknife 3y agoRules always exist for a reason but as often as not the reason is to justify the existence of bureaucratic gatekeepers and not the actual stated reason for the rule. Unless there is a lower incidence of workplace accidents and environmental contamination at US facilities as compared to equivalent Japanese facilities then the additional rules are pure dead weight loss. And I have not seen any evidence that our factories are any safer or cleaner than Japan's.
- pylua 3y agoSome rules are put in place to prevent situations that are extremely unlikely to occur in the first place, but are more catastrophic when they happen. Trying to compare incident rates would not account for how well rounded a system of rules really is. I would suggest that the best course of action would be to follow the advice of our fellow countrymen who drafted these rules, then ask other countries to follow it if they want to sale products in our country.
- supertrope 3y agoAmerican companies are higher up on the value chain. Fabless chip companies are more profitable than ones with fabs.
- VirusNewbie 3y agoUntil there’s an embargo or…a blockade. There’s probably value in sacrificing some profit for a hedge.
- GenerWork 3y agoBuilding houses out of wood isn't necessarily a bad thing. It may be a bad thing in Florida due to termites and the fact that reinforced concrete can better resist hurricane force winds, but in California it's a good thing because wood can flex in a potential earthquake.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- fragmede 3y agoWe have civil engineers making skyscrapers that can withstand earthquakes made out of steel and concrete and mass dampers. Wood can flex in a potential earthquake, that's true, they used that in Japan centuries ago, but we've got better materials and technology today. We build houses out of wood because it's cheap, not because it's any good. Noise travels through wood way too well and that makes urban living a nightmare. As we try to cram more people together, we need to build things out of materials that are better so that you can't hear your neighbors coughing at night through your shared wall.
- shiroiushi 3y ago>Wood can flex in a potential earthquake, that's true, they used that in Japan centuries ago, but we've got better materials and technology today. We build houses out of wood because it's cheap, not because it's any good. Here in Japan, houses are made out of wood, despite what you may have heard. They're not made of "better materials", though I'm quite sure they're constructed much better than stick-built houses in the US. Homes are only made of concrete and steel when they're larger, multi-unit buildings; the 3-floor single-family homes are all wood. For smaller structures, it's a great material; that's why temples and shrines built centuries ago are still standing today despite all the earthquakes. The main problem are just termites and fire, but fire is a problem with steel and concrete structures too. >Noise travels through wood way too well and that makes urban living a nightmare. Not a problem in a single-family home. And the thing that makes noise a problem is a lack of insulation between units, not the framing material.
- AussieWog93 3y agoAs opposed to Japan? US workers are pretty famous for being hyper-productive and highly skilled...
- CPLX 3y agoAmerican workers by any objective measure are at the absolute top for skills and productivity. Have you considered the idea that this story is being turned into anti-union propaganda?
- steve76 3y ago[dead]