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Completely agree that our industries have failed, but not quite ready to give up and become entirely dependent on foreign tech. How can we fix American industr

Completely agree that our industries have failed, but not quite ready to give up and become entirely dependent on foreign tech. How can we fix American industry?

analog31 1y ago
Industrial policy. Every prosperous country has an industrial policy that includes generous support for basic research, and reasonable immigration. And it's not all that bad. We're something like the number-two industrial country in the world.
to11mtm 1y ago
It's a difficult question, because there's both the labor cost difference as well as the environmental cost difference. Plenty of things aren't made in the US anymore simply because the cost of producing them without becoming a superfund site are too high vs a country that's willing to either just designate the whole thing as forever industrial wasteland (or decide that the long term societal damage of pollution is worth the gain at this time). Pragmatically, the sanest thing we might be able to do is find a region of the country that is remote enough in every way and turn it into a free for all industrial park so long as workers aren't exposed to excessive danger.
const_cast 1y ago
> How can we fix American industry? Well first off, I think we need to implement basic accountability. American industries routinely fail in the long-term because they're allowed to. They know they're basically invincible and can absolutely run their companies into the ground and leadership will fly away with too much money than what they know to do with. The American school of business is make short-term decisions now, over and over again, forever, until you eventually blow up. This is how basically every company is run. It's an almost debt-driven mindset. It's a greedy algorithm. Take on any amount of loan now, and say "fuck it" when it comes to interest. When the chicken comes home to roost, who cares, you can leave. That's why American industries will be competitive for a couple decades and then quickly be so far behind it seems it's impossible for them to catch up. They get a tiny little taste of market success, and they immediately stop investing into their future and start cashing in right now. We're even seeing this with Tesla.

Completely agree that our industries have failed, but not quite ready to give up and become entirely dependent on foreign tech. How can we fix American industry?

analog31 1y ago

Industrial policy. Every prosperous country has an industrial policy that includes generous support for basic research, and reasonable immigration. And it's not all that bad. We're something like the number-two industrial country in the world.

to11mtm 1y ago

It's a difficult question, because there's both the labor cost difference as well as the environmental cost difference. Plenty of things aren't made in the US anymore simply because the cost of producing them without becoming a superfund site are too high vs a country that's willing to either just designate the whole thing as forever industrial wasteland (or decide that the long term societal damage of pollution is worth the gain at this time). Pragmatically, the sanest thing we might be able to do is find a region of the country that is remote enough in every way and turn it into a free for all industrial park so long as workers aren't exposed to excessive danger.

const_cast 1y ago

> How can we fix American industry? Well first off, I think we need to implement basic accountability. American industries routinely fail in the long-term because they're allowed to. They know they're basically invincible and can absolutely run their companies into the ground and leadership will fly away with too much money than what they know to do with. The American school of business is make short-term decisions now, over and over again, forever, until you eventually blow up. This is how basically every company is run. It's an almost debt-driven mindset. It's a greedy algorithm. Take on any amount of loan now, and say "fuck it" when it comes to interest. When the chicken comes home to roost, who cares, you can leave. That's why American industries will be competitive for a couple decades and then quickly be so far behind it seems it's impossible for them to catch up. They get a tiny little taste of market success, and they immediately stop investing into their future and start cashing in right now. We're even seeing this with Tesla.