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Future of U.S. Manufacturing Begins with Education
Nation of Change ^ | January 29, 2012 | George Koo

Posted on 01/29/2012 4:15:40 PM PST by lyby

In his State of the Union, President Obama stressed the importance of keeping manufacturing in America. The reasoning is that in order to continue to innovate and develop the next generation must-have products, the US needs manufacturing that uses leading edge technology. Nothing wrong with the reasoning, but it may be too late.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationofchange.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: learning; teaching
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To: 1rudeboy

Apparently, you cannot read nor comprehend the English language... Back up and attempt to re-read and process my comments regarding the article...


41 posted on 01/29/2012 6:48:15 PM PST by lyby ("Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe." ~ Galileo Galilei)
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To: lyby

Oh, I’m with you: the article seeks to rejuvenate American manufacturing by advocating that we spend more money on the arts.


42 posted on 01/29/2012 6:51:03 PM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

Then, F**K OFF, #1RUDEBOY.

Unless, of course, you have something of SUBSTANCE to contribute.


43 posted on 01/29/2012 6:51:15 PM PST by lyby ("Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe." ~ Galileo Galilei)
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To: lyby

Education ancedote of the weekend for me:

20ish cashier at the grocery asked me “what are these?” when I handed her a couple of silver dollars for the purchase.


44 posted on 01/29/2012 6:54:17 PM PST by Rebelbase
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To: lyby
You want "SUBSTANCE?" How about this?

To meet the required budget cuts, schools are forced to cut out arts, music and other non-core courses and after school activities. Bare bones programs leave students uninspired as they sleep walk to graduation, not much wiser than when they started. Teachers waved the students through, rather than making sure that the lessons took hold.

Of course, there are pockets of exception. Perhaps 5 percent of Americans can afford to supplement their local school budget and help raise the quality of education for their children, or send their kids to better quality private schools. But that leaves a lot of untrained minds that will be hard pressed to realize their full potential.


45 posted on 01/29/2012 6:55:33 PM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

WHAT?! You are delusional. I TOTALLY DO NOT AGREE WITH THE ARTICLE. Another case in point that you must be illiterate or delusional...


46 posted on 01/29/2012 6:56:39 PM PST by lyby ("Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe." ~ Galileo Galilei)
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To: lyby

Sorry, you threw me at, “Quotes from the spot on article.” How was I supposed to know that you meant the exact opposite?


47 posted on 01/29/2012 6:58:26 PM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

WOW! Some people are totally out of touch with the real world - at least the public school in which I teach. I strive everyday to motivate my students and encourage them to seek better lives...to study and learn the mathematics (and life skills) that I am trying to teach them... “Whatever we learned yesterday, we must know today because we WILL use it tomorrow.”

What a PITY people, apparently like YOU, have NO CLUE what the life of a teacher is like today...

There is a curriculum I am expected to - and DO - teach and RE-TEACH. However, there are the proverbial “brick walls” that I encounter everyday... not unlike you and your comments.

This is not a perfect world, and I can only pray that I reach SOME ONE... for “Mathematics IS the language with which God has written the universe.” ~ Galileo Galilei

And with this, I bid you au revoir; vaya con dios.


48 posted on 01/29/2012 7:13:52 PM PST by lyby ("Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe." ~ Galileo Galilei)
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To: 1rudeboy

IF you had read the next comment and subsequent comments, you would have realized... The first comment was from a cousin who is a PhD and for whom I have little regard politically... I thought his “take” would make for a “spirited” debate... Little did I know... :-)


49 posted on 01/29/2012 7:22:35 PM PST by lyby ("Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe." ~ Galileo Galilei)
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To: DuncanWaring
I saw that article, too. What really caught my eye was the statement that labor costs are not the primary factor in the loss of American high-tech manufacturing jobs to Asia. What's really been driving this is that companies like Apple, Dell, HP, etc. can make rapid changes in their supply chains in places like China, Korea and Singapore because: (1) the workforces in those countries are much more flexible, and (2) it doesn't take a long time to get a factory built or re-tooled in those places.
50 posted on 01/29/2012 7:35:15 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested.")
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To: Regulator
Automation has nothing to do with offshored labor, genius.

My point was that Automation allows the U.S. to manufacture more goods than ever before. Automation allows us to do this.

As to why manufacturing jobs have declined, I would put more blame on tax and regulations than on unions; that only because less than 7% of the private sector workforce is unionized. In general starting up a manufacturing business doesn't even involve unions, what it does involve is the local planning and zoning boards, state environmental departments, OSHA, building codes, American with Disabilities Act, Employment Regulations, Workmen's Comp, EPA, state, local and federal taxes, Banking Regulations, Sarbanes-Oxley, Product Liability Torts, etc.

The above list comes from personal experience in the business that I am part of outside of the airline industry. We distribute products. Some of the products we would prefer to manufacture here, but the regulatory barriers are just too high. It would be small scale manufacturing so unions are not on the radar, but the regulator sure are.

The amount of regulation and red tape that must be overcome is amazing. I've had my personal run in with the wetlands wackos (c.f. SCOTUS Sackett v. EPA) to educate me.

As for the Railway Labor Act, I didn't vote for it, nor am I a fan of the union; just publicly off the reservation.

51 posted on 01/29/2012 7:51:39 PM PST by ALPAPilot
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To: BfloGuy
What has that got to do with H1B? Nothing, actually.

Actually, it does.

H1b is just a different side of the same coin.

That coin being "People from desperately poor countries living and working in conditions that Americans haven't put up with for a century".

Either they come here and work for half the going rate, or they work in their home country at a tenth the going rate, and have to put up with being rousted out of bed at midnight to start a 12-hour shift on a cup of tea and a biscuit.

52 posted on 01/29/2012 10:18:55 PM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: lyby

The overall goal of the article is to send more taxpayer money to the stinking cesspools called “public” schools.

From there it goes to teachers.

From the teachers it goes to unions via union dues.

From unions it goes to the DNC.

From the DNC it goes to Democrat political candidates.

Successful Democrat political candidates then send more taxpayer money to government employees, including schools.

There’s the Democrat economic “food chain”.


53 posted on 01/29/2012 11:17:28 PM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: DuncanWaring

I work in electronics manufacturing in the US and I can tell you that most of the H1B workers I have worked with are highly motivated and noen of them worked for 1/2 of what I worked for.

I cannot say that under cutting of salaries does not exist, but it did not exist in the companies I worked for. Salary was performance drive.


54 posted on 01/30/2012 7:17:35 AM PST by jrestrepo (See you all in Galt's gulch)
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To: jrestrepo

That may be, but salary undercutting does exist.

That story I told about the GPS tester at $33/hour is probably half the going rate.

$33 per hour works out to about $60k per year, no benefits.

That’s not even “new grad” pay.


55 posted on 01/30/2012 7:56:43 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: DuncanWaring

In 1994, my starting salary as a fresh-out engineer was less than $40K + benefits. I made a little more than some of my counter parts because of my skill set.

I work with techs now that make about $20/hour + benefits that are not H1B. I know how much they make because they (for some reason) shared it with me.


56 posted on 01/30/2012 8:09:05 AM PST by jrestrepo (See you all in Galt's gulch)
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