Not to mention that, if the country they outsource to just simply steals their product, they’re out of business entirely.
either government over regulation and over taxation
or unions
kill american jobs.
This is what I never understand about the people who tout the Bush tax cuts as a big economic stimulator. Unless my memory fails me big corporations used those cuts to pay to move their manufacturing base overseas. Anyone remember “transitioning to a service economy”? For some reason we don’t hear that phrase anymore.
As for the prosperity I would venture to guess Barney Frank had more to do with it than George Bush. Barney’s loosening of credit had homeowners across the land using their equity as a piggy bank and we saw where that ended up leading us. Our prosperity was built on credit cards, not tax cuts, and in the long run it’s been a disaster.
I’m not against tax cuts. I just don’t see how they helped or how the GOP can reasonably expect businesses to suddenly start manufacturing here again if they cut them more or make the present ones permanent. I see them just moving more away.
Lenin welcomed the corporate "useful idiots." He badly needed them to build the economy lest there be another revolution-- against him this time. When things were going well be planned to ask the "useful idiots", "Got any rope for sale?"
But Lenin died and when Stalin took over he rid the U.S.S.R. of the scary free market which had quickly grown to about half of the total economy. It scared the hell out of the commie ideologues.
Red China ain't that stupid. Deng studied NEP. Their commie ideologues and families are most of the billionaires.
.. but nevertheless the NEP end game is to take everything the useful idiots have and kick 'em out.
That will happen if for no other reason than there are 800 million or so very, very, very poor and very, very, very restless Chinese who need the money -- more than the useful idiots need money -- else the Chi-coms face revolution. That scares the hell out of billionaire Chi-com commie ideologues.
And lots of luck to American corporations getting Congress to give them TARP money to compensate -- there will be revolution here if they try it.
The problem is, the U.S. government is becoming the same way, and often not even for the money. The EPA alone can run roughshod over a companies hopes and dreams, to say nothing of random, 'helpful' bureaucrats and politicians.
Bottom line, it's easier from a long term planning prospect to negotiate with, bribe, or threaten a fellow corporation in Communist China than it is to do so against the most powerful government in the world.
I wouldn't know what to expect, trying to deal with the U.S., other than they'd be happy to drive me bankrupt if they decide I'm not 'too big to fail' or otherwise part of their team. I'd know exactly what to expect in China, and how to deal with it. Because they *want* to do business, they just want to get the better end of the deal.
I consulted at a Chicago-area firm which decided to outsource 600+ jobs to China. The study was performed some two years earlier, led by the CFO, and was shelved due to an unwillingness to take the risk. This attitude shifted when profits became more elusive (it is in the tech industry, which is known for its business cycles).
They shifted production and laid off almost all manufacturing staff. In the first six months, costs were roughly what were expected. However, new contracts were required with suppliers and such and by the seventh month, costs were already up 40% over what was expected. This only continued as resources and labor became more elusive.
My last understanding as I left my time with them was that they had regret over what they had done, as the benefits were not realized as expected. Now, to their credit, Illinois is union-crazy, so they were getting away from that beast, so kudos for that.
I wouldn’t outsource to China because I couldn’t trust that I had control of my intellectual property or even my equipment, once there. If I can’t touch it without flying half a world away and that is expected to be my primary facility, I wouldn’t do it.
I’d set up shop in Texas, Arizona, or Oklahoma, instead.
Because the financiers, shareholders and accounants live from quarter to quarter. Profits at all costs is the name of the game. They run the corporations; not the workers, the engineers, the executives, or the consumers. They could care less where or who makes the product, as long as the product sells and makes them money with the largest margin possible. If in the world some country legalized slavery again, every corporation on the planet would beat a path to their doorstep. The closest thing they have to that is china, which is why they choose to do business there. Don’t believe me? Float the rumor that the PRC is putting a minimum wage law into effect, and watch them jump like rats off of sinking ship.
There’s a groundswell building to buy American.
IMO a manufacturer could take advantage of that.
Problem is hardly anything is made in the USA anymore.
Certainly anything you are likely to need and buy.
That includes pharmaceuticals and foodstuffs..
Outsourcing has probably served their needs in the last couple of decades quite well.
On the other hand, you are an "insider" and understand what makes the whole company tick and you know there are going to be some losses which have a high probability of occurring in any given overseas venture.
Bad parts is one. I think by now everybody has noticed MOST ALL serious airliner rebuilds are done HERE, not THERE. If they are done THERE, those planes never come back into American or European service ~ and there's a real good reason for that.
But, back to the owners. Let's use this example ~ USPS! Everybody in the USA old enough to talk imagines he or she KNOWS how to fix any particular postal problem. Many speak of getting rid of the deadwood, or eliminating Saturday delivery, or simply "cutting USPS loose to compete".
Insiders don't talk that way. They see nearly 600,000 employees who don't steal. Consequently when the owners suggest something about the workforce being "deadwood", that talk just falls on deaf ears.
The insiders know something about postal cost propagation and the detail that has to go into how it can be managed. For instance, delivery service. It's one thing to say "eliminate Saturday" and its quite another to ADJUST all the residential routes in the country to do that. Remember, the mail will still get delivered, just that more of it will be delivered on any given day. So, what does it take to get 200,000+ carriers to deliver that mail? Will each lose a few stops to make up for the increased time at each stop due to more mail volume?
Remember, we are talking, in the aggregate, of Hundreds of Thousands of Tons of Mail ~ not just a handful of letters.
Insiders know that some routes will need to be shortened and some lengthened. Not only that, this will occur at a rate SEVERAL TIMES LARGER than the normal rate ~ and that will take up quite a bit of supervisory time having those folks out on the routes doing the proper evaluation.
Next question, how much OVERTIME will cutting back regular service on Saturday create?
No doubt outside observers, the "owner class" in this case, would never think of that one.
Let me give you an example from China. Every job in most of the industrial cities has TWO OR MORE PEOPLE ~ that's right. You have some people who work the morning and some the afternoon, but only 3 or 4 hours per day. Other jobs of greater complexity have people working 2 or 3 days in a row for longer hours, then not working for a week or so (they may adhere to that older 10 day work "week" instead of the Western 7 day work "week".)
Fiddling around with who works when and where can and will cause quality problems which will put the company right up against the older Chinese ethic that "if it looks good enough, sell it" ~ I'm not even sure "insiders" normally anticipate that one, but the way you combat it is downstream "total quality control" ~ meaning BE PREPARED TO PROVIDE COMPLETE REFUNDS AND/OR REPLACEMENTS FOR EVERYTHING ~ including the box!
I suppose you could infiltrate some Sigma 6 folks into the Chinese workplaces but what good would that do?
The "ownership class", in general, cannot be trusted to imagine the cost problems created with the absence of real quality control at a foreign site. That's not part of their 'bottom line' ~ and many of them probably think the 10 pound hunks of iron and plastic are perfectly good products.
We have sent out production tools and our production abilities overseas. Not many tool and die makers out there under the age of fifty.