Integration

TheBlueMarvel · 08-22-2021, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Primacron

Just to chip in on the production in the US thing. As living standards increase, cheap labour isn’t sustainable so at some point it will move elsewhere - Vietnam, then wherever else.

That said, people in Asia and Europe aren’t going to accept higher prices just to make Americans feel better about themselves so if nothing else production runs will decrease in size making the price per unit higher.

Exactly true regarding sustainability and Apple's Foxconn scandal (suicides and violations of Chinese labor laws, just to name a few) serves to highlight the conundrums faced as a nation industrializes and improves their standard of living. Industry perpetually seeks attractive hubs for manufacturing and I could see a pivot to Vietnam, India, and, eventually, Africa. As much as we citizens of 1st tier industrialized nations sit aghast when we learn of what it takes to provide the consumer goods we buy incessantly (the human cost isn't hidden and is relatively easy to find, provided one cares to even look), there is a beneficial side to these international relationships. The level of poverty in developing nations is of a type that many individuals in 1st-world countries can scarcely even fathom and the manufacture of consumer goods for our consumption - even at pennies an hour - serves to elevate their citizens out of abject poverty. Of course, as the lot of workers in the host nation improves, the conditions of the negotiated relationship become less attractive just as it did years ago on American assembly lines.

I also agree that decreasing production runs is one way to control costs - less is often more. However, I also think robotic innovation is reaching such breathtaking heights that I have to imagine we are approaching yet one more inflection point in industrial manufacturing. Low skill human-drudgery is on its final legs for both practical/cost reasons and social ones. Boston Dynamics just showed off Atlas; a pinpoint parkouring, backflipping robot that just might usher in our demise on many fronts as humans. Skynet beckons, squishy humans.

Get you some new skills everyone, the future cast its steely gaze on us 5 days ago and I blinked...

08-22-2021, 06:05 PM	#73108
TheBlueMarvel MarvelLegends/DCUniverse Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: On the metaphysical plane of celestial BOOM BAP! Posts: 6,019	Quote: Originally Posted by Primacron Just to chip in on the production in the US thing. As living standards increase, cheap labour isn’t sustainable so at some point it will move elsewhere - Vietnam, then wherever else. That said, people in Asia and Europe aren’t going to accept higher prices just to make Americans feel better about themselves so if nothing else production runs will decrease in size making the price per unit higher. Exactly true regarding sustainability and Apple's Foxconn scandal (suicides and violations of Chinese labor laws, just to name a few) serves to highlight the conundrums faced as a nation industrializes and improves their standard of living. Industry perpetually seeks attractive hubs for manufacturing and I could see a pivot to Vietnam, India, and, eventually, Africa. As much as we citizens of 1st tier industrialized nations sit aghast when we learn of what it takes to provide the consumer goods we buy incessantly (the human cost isn't hidden and is relatively easy to find, provided one cares to even look), there is a beneficial side to these international relationships. The level of poverty in developing nations is of a type that many individuals in 1st-world countries can scarcely even fathom and the manufacture of consumer goods for our consumption - even at pennies an hour - serves to elevate their citizens out of abject poverty. Of course, as the lot of workers in the host nation improves, the conditions of the negotiated relationship become less attractive just as it did years ago on American assembly lines. I also agree that decreasing production runs is one way to control costs - less is often more. However, I also think robotic innovation is reaching such breathtaking heights that I have to imagine we are approaching yet one more inflection point in industrial manufacturing. Low skill human-drudgery is on its final legs for both practical/cost reasons and social ones. Boston Dynamics just showed off Atlas; a pinpoint parkouring, backflipping robot that just might usher in our demise on many fronts as humans. Skynet beckons, squishy humans. Get you some new skills everyone, the future cast its steely gaze on us 5 days ago and I blinked... Last edited by TheBlueMarvel; 08-22-2021 at 07:00 PM..