Thursday morning links

Inshoring: Do you remember when local industries supported the infrastructure of local communities: schools, roads, sanitation……just another thing our betters (financial sector) gave away, along with billions in proprietary information and hard-won manufacturing know how.
I’m not surprised that the offshoring was, in part, the product of a ” bandwagon effect”. Disconnecting the shop floor from the marketing and design functions is a negative as the GE tankless waterheater story, below, illustrates. “We got the water heater into the room, and the first thing [the group] said to us was ‘This is just a mess,’ ” Nolan recalls. Not the product, but the design. “In terms of manufacturability, it was terrible.”
A worthwhile read: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/12/the-insourcing-boom/309166/2/

#1 Exasperated on 2015-02-12 08:31 (Reply)

Inshoring: Do you remember when local industries supported the infrastructure of local communities: schools, roads, sanitation……just another thing our betters (financial sector) gave away, along with billions in proprietary information and hard-won manufacturing know how.
I’m not surprised that the offshoring was, in part, the product of a ” bandwagon effect”. Disconnecting the shop floor from the marketing and design functions is a negative as the GE tankless waterheater story, below, illustrates. “We got the water heater into the room, and the first thing [the group] said to us was ‘This is just a mess,’ ” Nolan recalls. Not the product, but the design. “In terms of manufacturability, it was terrible.”
A worthwhile read: I cant link the artilce but it is in the Dec 2012 Atlantic re: the "Insourcing Boom"

#2 Exasperated on 2015-02-12 08:33 (Reply)

Sorry for the double post. I get an error message re: spam and tried a second time.

#2.1 Exasperated on 2015-02-12 08:36 (Reply)

You can really tell in the WaPo article on Walker's college years, they wanted some juicy dirt. Instead we learn he was late to French class (cue Obama and the Charlie Hebdo rally). And their was the college election attack flyer where his campaign said his opponents ideals were, wait for it, "vague". This enraged the campus media.

Oh, and there was that failed first campaign in the real world. The one where he ran as a Republican against a seasoned African-American female candidate in a deep Democratic area. Walker, failed to finish college, failed in his college elections, failed in his first Quixotic campaign for the state legislature. Jeez, get a load of this guy.

Also, in the Spring of his Senior year, he was "34 credits", nearly a quarter shy from graduating, this triple major student was. How terrible in a time when students take 5, 6 years to graduate. BTW, is most students are going to need 5 or 6 years to get through college don't we need some labels beyond senior for their class?

And yet, after 6 years as President, we know nothing of Obama's school days. And they've only found a handful of people who even remember seeing at those schools. Progressive Media, activate! Damn it, out of smug.

#3 JK Brown on 2015-02-12 08:49 (Reply)

If WaPo knew that he was 34 hours short of graduating, they must have some idea of what is on his transcripts. I guess they must have been leaked. Sort of like the divorce records of Obummer's early political rivals. Somehow NOTHING of Obummer's gets leaked.

#3.1 mudbug on 2015-02-12 09:48 (Reply)

I get a kick out of people who lament the loss of American manufacturing jobs. Putting lug nuts on a Chevrolet is not a job that most young Americans would aspire to and that is the best case scenario for manufacturing jobs. Most are dirtier, more dangerous, and pay a lot less. I think if all of the goods produced in China for domestic U.S. consumption were suddenly produced here, it would be very tough to find people who would not turn up their nose at these opportunities. Most young Americans would rather make coffee at Starbucks and pretend they have a budding music career.

#3.1.1 DMW on 2015-02-12 10:25 (Reply)

From what I see on TV, factory jobs tend to be a lot cleaner these days. I can remember as a crumb-cruncher in the '30s seeing my Dad, uncles and a few aunts who worked mainly in GM-related factories in central Indiana come home from work looking like those pictures you see of coal miners coming out of the mine. My Dad moved up (?) to a job as a greenhouse laborer, and after 20 years saved enough and could borrow enough to buy his own greenhouse spread.

#3.1.1.1 BillH on 2015-02-12 10:58 (Reply)

Seriously? It’s not just the loss of jobs, it’s the loss of companies, dividends, hard won knowledge and proprietary information, loss of innovation, competition, and creative destruction, the loss of corporate, individual income, state income, payroll, and local property taxes. Local property taxes support and they drive the need for local infrastructure (stoplights, roads, sewers) and teachers and police etc. Once the downward spiral begins, it is self perpetuating, self amplifying, and harder to stop. Ask the folks in the old rust bucket states or ride an Amtrak train. Not to mention the social costs, especially for men or the impact on national security.

#3.1.1.2 Exasperated on 2015-02-12 17:43 (Reply)

I apparently lack vision because I just don’t get how flea markets, beaders, and aroma therapy candle shops or Starbucks will make up for the jobs that generate “real wealth”. I just don’t see how dead end service jobs, stoop labor, or government (health, education) jobs are going to make up for the significant revenues and infrastructure that would have been generated and supported by the manufacturing sector.

#3.1.1.3 Exasperated on 2015-02-12 17:49 (Reply)

The DemProgs are out in force after Walker and college.

And they are certainly exposing their "college fetish".

Howard Dean was out saying that Walker's not getting that magic piece of paper makes him "unknowledgeable". (funny, I did a dictionary look up of that word on my Mac and all that came up was the Wikipedia entry for "Agnostic")

Apparently, to the DemProgs all of the benefits of college are withheld until the last few credit hours and somehow are only activated in the warm light shown upon the student on the graduation stage.

Why so subtle? If the knowledge and understanding only confer upon the final ceremony, why not something that marks the student like when Kwai Chang Caine move the massive pot of coals burning the symbol of his mastery into his forearms? Come on, students have done more to support the football or basketball team.

#3.1.2 JK Brown on 2015-02-12 10:38 (Reply)

34 credits is 2 semesters worth of credits, or was when I graduated from that university in the mid-70's. Ususl credit load was 17-21 credits a semester (Engineers sometimes took a few less).

Doesn't matter to me, though - I'd vote for Walker for President in a heartbeat.

#3.2 The Old Salt on 2015-02-13 01:16 (Reply)

Re: Tractors the owners cannot repair

I feel their pain. It's the same thing with cars.

#4 mudbug on 2015-02-12 09:50 (Reply)

...and car keys. Try getting a duplicate made of one of these new chip-loaded keys.

#4.1 BillH on 2015-02-12 11:02 (Reply)

I have a 12 year old Honda, when I first got it I was told that the Smart Key couldn't be immersed in water. Since I did a lot of Skin Diving and Kayaking I saw that as a problem. So the dealer made me a blank that could open the door, but not start the car. Perfect, real key hidden in the vechile and dumb key in the swimsuit or floatation vest.

Ten years later. My mother comes to live with me. I take her shopping and sometimes she gets tired and wants to go back to the car and rest while I finish. I got tired of unhooking the key or going back to open the door so I went back to the Honda dealer for another blank. I was told they were forbidden to make them anymore. Only the $175 Smarty keys are available. Arbitrary decisions that unnecessarily take money out of their customers pocket, who do they think they are? The US Government?

#4.1.1 John the River (Link) on 2015-02-12 16:58 (Reply)

I did the same thing with my 5 year-old Tacoma, only I went to a local locksmith for a $2.00 chipless key. Wonder if he can still make them.

#4.1.1.1 BillH on 2015-02-12 17:17 (Reply)

Buddy of mine once bought a Belarus tractor for doing a little gentleman farming. While this did not endear him with his Czech neighbors in the Texas hill country, it was educational in that everything on that machine was made to be taken apart under rough conditions. Things like filters could be disassembled and washed. Designed for a No Pep Boys for Miles and Miles environment.

Sounds to me like it's time for an open-source tractor movement. Open-source has changed the computing ecosystem. No reason it can't bleed over into agriculture. Besides, embedded systems programming is fun!

#4.2 SteveS on 2015-02-12 18:23 (Reply)

Time was when farmers did all their own repairs. This also resulted in a fertile crop for engineering schools of students who had already developed a good engineering sense by doing so many repairs back home on the farm.

#4.2.1 Gringo on 2015-02-13 00:22 (Reply)

Stephen Ambrose gave credit to those same farmers and their factory counterparts for winning WWII. The could keep equipment running with whatever was at hand.

#4.2.1.1 Exasperated on 2015-02-13 07:08 (Reply)

Re: Connecticut

This dovetails nicely with the article a few days ago how the state is dependent on a few rich people for their tax base. Sort of mirror of the US as a whole.

#5 mudbug on 2015-02-12 09:57 (Reply)

Companies moved production offshore to escape the higher costs that unions, taxes and regulation have caused. Simple as that. Level the playing field between workers and companies, reduce taxes and stop allowing the looney left to write regulations and it will make sense to produce American goods in America.

#6 GoneWithTheWind on 2015-02-12 09:59 (Reply)

Probably too late to bring back "Made in the USA".
We have lost more than one generation in the workplace and the interning and mentoring.

In the 60's and 70's I benefited from the experience of several older men who showed me how to properly use the specialized hardware that my industry used and you didn't see in school. I carried the heavy stuff and got to watch. Did a lot of running to the far end to check if things were working.
In the eighties I was the one training the new guys. By the nineties it was all don't train just hire a contractor to do it. New hires had to be already skilled, average age of the crew bumped up decade at least. Lay offs started with the youngest, by the ought's 50 and 60 year old guys were humping their own cables and lifting your own systems into place. We got together for Christmas and half the crew qualified for a senior discount.
A lot of young guys never got to advance to that next step. Another generation of workers never got started at all. Same thing I imagine in manufacturing.

One thing I noticed, when the company hired contractors from out of state, the youngest guys came from Texas. I guess the best advice I could give a young guy who wants to get started is, Go to Texas.

#6.1 John the River (Link) on 2015-02-13 11:33 (Reply)

Re: Marijuana and IQ in adolescents

I don't doubt the results of the study but I wonder what they used as a control group. From what I've seen, students do well for the first few years of school and then their performance declines culminating with the people we see on Water's World, Jay Walking, Mark Dice's and Jimmy Kimmel videos.

#7 mudbug on 2015-02-12 10:08 (Reply)

I might be your control group. My identical twin brother and I have different smoke histories. He did much smoking of the herb in high school while I was an occasional user. My IQ measures in the high 130s and his is around 110. Smart guy no matter how you figure it, but I suspect he lost a bit of his edge from the habit.

#7.1 Jeffersonian on 2015-02-13 01:05 (Reply)

ASIAN AMERICANS - In the western suburbs of Boston, there has been a substantial influx of Asian-American families over the last 5 years or so. They come for the excellent school systems. They are typically two-income families (where the parents are typically engineers, scientists, or IT professionals) and their kids study hard, are very polite, and very bright. But unlike their European-American counterparts, these don't play video games in the basement all day, hang out at night, rely on their mother to choreograph their every move, and peak in high school. These families are much more Ozzie and Harriet-like than the post-70s broken-home model of European-Americans they displace. One negative: They leave their Christmas lights up all year.

#8 DMW on 2015-02-12 10:17 (Reply)

The ATLANTIC is disturbed about 50 Shades? Those HATERS! Those MISOGYNISTS! Opposed to female/women's sexuality? FOR SHAME!

"The Black Man's Path Out Of Poverty" starts by staying in school and working hard at learning what there is to learn. If not, he's years behind already.

#9 Sam L. on 2015-02-12 12:23 (Reply)

Dr. Walter Williams explained years ago how to avoid poverty. Apparently people can't read and follow instructions.
Graduate high school.
Get married before you have children.
If you get married, stay married.
Get a job, any job. A minimum wage job is a stepping stone.
* Avoid engaging in criminal behavior.

#10 Ray on 2015-02-12 12:51 (Reply)

I am much more shocked by the idea anybody consider Clinton a viable candidate than I am Warren is leading the polls.

#11 b moe on 2015-02-12 16:06 (Reply)

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Thursday, February 12. 2015

Thursday morning links