• Guardian Almost Makes Sense

    From john larkin@21:1/5 to All on Sun May 4 09:01:56 2025
    which is shocking.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/02/american-reindustrialization-manufacturing

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Cursitor Doom@21:1/5 to All on Sun May 4 18:18:43 2025
    On Sun, 04 May 2025 09:01:56 -0700, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
    wrote:


    which is shocking.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/02/american-reindustrialization-manufacturing

    I would normally hit the 'next' button when someone links to a
    Guardian article, but as you say, they're right for once with this
    one. Lots of countries in the West were sold the same lie about
    swapping manufacturing for services. Mrs Thatcher told the British
    that the old 'smoke stack' industries would have to go abroad and be
    replaced by smart services. Those peasants in the Far East, they were
    told, would take over all the shitty, manual jobs whilst the British
    would get cracking with the clever stuff like manufacturing silicon
    chips. Problem was, the peasants in China and Taiwan didn't get the
    memo. The British lost a huge amount of manufacturing alright, but the
    service economy which replaced it was - for the most part - low paid
    and low skill. Some economists who could see the issues with this said
    at the time: "we can't as a country make a living from shining each
    other's shoes" - and that's the prediction which *should* have been
    listened to.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From bitrex@21:1/5 to Cursitor Doom on Sun May 4 14:03:55 2025
    On 5/4/2025 1:18 PM, Cursitor Doom wrote:
    On Sun, 04 May 2025 09:01:56 -0700, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
    wrote:


    which is shocking.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/02/american-reindustrialization-manufacturing

    I would normally hit the 'next' button when someone links to a
    Guardian article, but as you say, they're right for once with this
    one. Lots of countries in the West were sold the same lie about
    swapping manufacturing for services. Mrs Thatcher told the British
    that the old 'smoke stack' industries would have to go abroad and be
    replaced by smart services. Those peasants in the Far East, they were
    told, would take over all the shitty, manual jobs whilst the British
    would get cracking with the clever stuff like manufacturing silicon
    chips. Problem was, the peasants in China and Taiwan didn't get the
    memo. The British lost a huge amount of manufacturing alright, but the service economy which replaced it was - for the most part - low paid
    and low skill. Some economists who could see the issues with this said
    at the time: "we can't as a country make a living from shining each
    other's shoes" - and that's the prediction which *should* have been
    listened to.

    It wasn't the right in the US rioting at the WTO conference in Seattle
    in '99.

    The right didn't care. Stocks were up, dot com boom was in full swing,
    and so long as the cops were beating down some "hippies" it was fine,
    ship all the jobs to China, we have a White House blowjob to focus on..

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From bitrex@21:1/5 to bitrex on Sun May 4 14:12:04 2025
    On 5/4/2025 2:03 PM, bitrex wrote:
    On 5/4/2025 1:18 PM, Cursitor Doom wrote:
    On Sun, 04 May 2025 09:01:56 -0700, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
    wrote:


    which is shocking.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/02/american-
    reindustrialization-manufacturing

    I would normally hit the 'next' button when someone links to a
    Guardian article, but as you say, they're right for once with this
    one. Lots of countries in the West were sold the same lie about
    swapping manufacturing for services. Mrs Thatcher told the British
    that the old 'smoke stack' industries would have to go abroad and be
    replaced by smart services. Those peasants in the Far East, they were
    told, would take over all the shitty, manual jobs whilst the British
    would get cracking with the clever stuff like manufacturing silicon
    chips. Problem was, the peasants in China and Taiwan didn't get the
    memo. The British lost a huge amount of manufacturing alright, but the
    service economy which replaced it was - for the most part - low paid
    and low skill. Some economists who could see the issues with this said
    at the time: "we can't as a country make a living from shining each
    other's shoes" - and that's the prediction which *should* have been
    listened to.

    It wasn't the right in the US rioting at the WTO conference in Seattle
    in '99.

    The right didn't care. Stocks were up, dot com boom was in full swing,
    and so long as the cops were beating down someĀ  "hippies" it was fine,
    ship all the jobs to China, we have a White House blowjob to focus on..

    Actually _maybe_ Pat Buchanan piped up about it at the time, I can't
    recall.

    Sort of like JD Vance, Buchanan could write is his own books which were
    often insightful in their way, but then the punchline was the usual disappointing ultranationalist white power gobbledygook.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jeroen Belleman@21:1/5 to Cursitor Doom on Sun May 4 20:41:39 2025
    On 5/4/25 19:18, Cursitor Doom wrote:
    On Sun, 04 May 2025 09:01:56 -0700, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
    wrote:


    which is shocking.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/02/american-reindustrialization-manufacturing

    I would normally hit the 'next' button when someone links to a
    Guardian article, but as you say, they're right for once with this
    one. Lots of countries in the West were sold the same lie about
    swapping manufacturing for services. Mrs Thatcher told the British
    that the old 'smoke stack' industries would have to go abroad and be
    replaced by smart services. Those peasants in the Far East, they were
    told, would take over all the shitty, manual jobs whilst the British
    would get cracking with the clever stuff like manufacturing silicon
    chips. Problem was, the peasants in China and Taiwan didn't get the
    memo. The British lost a huge amount of manufacturing alright, but the service economy which replaced it was - for the most part - low paid
    and low skill. Some economists who could see the issues with this said
    at the time: "we can't as a country make a living from shining each
    other's shoes" - and that's the prediction which *should* have been
    listened to.

    I was still in high school in the early 70's when my economy teacher
    tried to sell us the merits of a service economy. I was puzzled: How
    can an economy that doen't *produce* anything material survive in the
    long run? A little over half a century later, here we are: It can't.

    It's surprising it took that long, is true.

    Jeroen Belleman

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From john larkin@21:1/5 to jeroen@nospam.please on Sun May 4 12:29:29 2025
    On Sun, 4 May 2025 20:41:39 +0200, Jeroen Belleman
    <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:

    On 5/4/25 19:18, Cursitor Doom wrote:
    On Sun, 04 May 2025 09:01:56 -0700, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
    wrote:


    which is shocking.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/02/american-reindustrialization-manufacturing

    I would normally hit the 'next' button when someone links to a
    Guardian article, but as you say, they're right for once with this
    one. Lots of countries in the West were sold the same lie about
    swapping manufacturing for services. Mrs Thatcher told the British
    that the old 'smoke stack' industries would have to go abroad and be
    replaced by smart services. Those peasants in the Far East, they were
    told, would take over all the shitty, manual jobs whilst the British
    would get cracking with the clever stuff like manufacturing silicon
    chips. Problem was, the peasants in China and Taiwan didn't get the
    memo. The British lost a huge amount of manufacturing alright, but the
    service economy which replaced it was - for the most part - low paid
    and low skill. Some economists who could see the issues with this said
    at the time: "we can't as a country make a living from shining each
    other's shoes" - and that's the prediction which *should* have been
    listened to.

    I was still in high school in the early 70's when my economy teacher
    tried to sell us the merits of a service economy. I was puzzled: How
    can an economy that doen't *produce* anything material survive in the
    long run? A little over half a century later, here we are: It can't.

    It's surprising it took that long, is true.

    Jeroen Belleman

    With cheap PCs and terabit fiber links, we can export our services to
    India and China too.

    About the only US "service" that the world wants to buy is superhero
    movies, and they aren't so good lately either.

    We are designing, but not fabbing, ICs, but other people can design
    ICs now.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From bitrex@21:1/5 to john larkin on Sun May 4 16:20:24 2025
    On 5/4/2025 3:29 PM, john larkin wrote:
    On Sun, 4 May 2025 20:41:39 +0200, Jeroen Belleman
    <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:

    On 5/4/25 19:18, Cursitor Doom wrote:
    On Sun, 04 May 2025 09:01:56 -0700, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
    wrote:


    which is shocking.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/02/american-reindustrialization-manufacturing

    I would normally hit the 'next' button when someone links to a
    Guardian article, but as you say, they're right for once with this
    one. Lots of countries in the West were sold the same lie about
    swapping manufacturing for services. Mrs Thatcher told the British
    that the old 'smoke stack' industries would have to go abroad and be
    replaced by smart services. Those peasants in the Far East, they were
    told, would take over all the shitty, manual jobs whilst the British
    would get cracking with the clever stuff like manufacturing silicon
    chips. Problem was, the peasants in China and Taiwan didn't get the
    memo. The British lost a huge amount of manufacturing alright, but the
    service economy which replaced it was - for the most part - low paid
    and low skill. Some economists who could see the issues with this said
    at the time: "we can't as a country make a living from shining each
    other's shoes" - and that's the prediction which *should* have been
    listened to.

    I was still in high school in the early 70's when my economy teacher
    tried to sell us the merits of a service economy. I was puzzled: How
    can an economy that doen't *produce* anything material survive in the
    long run? A little over half a century later, here we are: It can't.

    It's surprising it took that long, is true.

    Jeroen Belleman

    With cheap PCs and terabit fiber links, we can export our services to
    India and China too.

    The US still produces a lot of stuff, we're e.g. 4th in the world in
    steel production.

    It doesn't require a lot of workers to be 4th in the world in steel
    production these days.

    About the only US "service" that the world wants to buy is superhero
    movies, and they aren't so good lately either.

    We are designing, but not fabbing, ICs, but other people can design
    ICs now.


    A modern multi-billion dollar fab in e.g. Taiwan probably operates with
    fewer full-time employees on the payroll than your local Macy's. Not
    much more than 50 people on site per shift.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From bitrex@21:1/5 to Jeroen Belleman on Sun May 4 16:27:25 2025
    On 5/4/2025 2:41 PM, Jeroen Belleman wrote:
    On 5/4/25 19:18, Cursitor Doom wrote:
    On Sun, 04 May 2025 09:01:56 -0700, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
    wrote:


    which is shocking.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/02/american-
    reindustrialization-manufacturing

    I would normally hit the 'next' button when someone links to a
    Guardian article, but as you say, they're right for once with this
    one. Lots of countries in the West were sold the same lie about
    swapping manufacturing for services. Mrs Thatcher told the British
    that the old 'smoke stack' industries would have to go abroad and be
    replaced by smart services. Those peasants in the Far East, they were
    told, would take over all the shitty, manual jobs whilst the British
    would get cracking with the clever stuff like manufacturing silicon
    chips. Problem was, the peasants in China and Taiwan didn't get the
    memo. The British lost a huge amount of manufacturing alright, but the
    service economy which replaced it was - for the most part - low paid
    and low skill. Some economists who could see the issues with this said
    at the time: "we can't as a country make a living from shining each
    other's shoes" - and that's the prediction which *should* have been
    listened to.

    I was still in high school in the early 70's when my economy teacher
    tried to sell us the merits of a service economy. I was puzzled: How
    can an economy that doen't *produce* anything material survive in the
    long run? A little over half a century later, here we are: It can't.

    It's surprising it took that long, is true.

    Jeroen Belleman

    I have a relative who works at a business college, count the number of
    BMWs, Mercedes, and Ferraris in the parking lot vs the number of them at
    the average steel mill circa 1985 you'll see how the "service economy"
    sold itself.

    You're there grinding your life and health away for a lower middle class
    salary while your buddy in sales at the local car dealership just made
    $47,000 in commission alone in 1985 dollars that year and you're like
    "huh that's interesting"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dan Green@21:1/5 to bitrex on Mon May 5 00:54:07 2025
    On Sun, 4 May 2025 16:27:25 -0400, bitrex <user@example.net> wrote:

    On 5/4/2025 2:41 PM, Jeroen Belleman wrote:
    On 5/4/25 19:18, Cursitor Doom wrote:
    On Sun, 04 May 2025 09:01:56 -0700, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
    wrote:


    which is shocking.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/02/american-
    reindustrialization-manufacturing

    I would normally hit the 'next' button when someone links to a
    Guardian article, but as you say, they're right for once with this
    one. Lots of countries in the West were sold the same lie about
    swapping manufacturing for services. Mrs Thatcher told the British
    that the old 'smoke stack' industries would have to go abroad and be
    replaced by smart services. Those peasants in the Far East, they were
    told, would take over all the shitty, manual jobs whilst the British
    would get cracking with the clever stuff like manufacturing silicon
    chips. Problem was, the peasants in China and Taiwan didn't get the
    memo. The British lost a huge amount of manufacturing alright, but the
    service economy which replaced it was - for the most part - low paid
    and low skill. Some economists who could see the issues with this said
    at the time: "we can't as a country make a living from shining each
    other's shoes" - and that's the prediction which *should* have been
    listened to.

    I was still in high school in the early 70's when my economy teacher
    tried to sell us the merits of a service economy. I was puzzled: How
    can an economy that doen't *produce* anything material survive in the
    long run? A little over half a century later, here we are: It can't.

    It's surprising it took that long, is true.

    Jeroen Belleman

    I have a relative who works at a business college, count the number of
    BMWs, Mercedes, and Ferraris in the parking lot vs the number of them at
    the average steel mill circa 1985 you'll see how the "service economy"
    sold itself.

    You're there grinding your life and health away for a lower middle class >salary while your buddy in sales at the local car dealership just made >$47,000 in commission alone in 1985 dollars that year and you're like
    "huh that's interesting"

    "Export or Die"
    Anyone remember that? More to the point, how many people forgot it!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Don Y@21:1/5 to bitrex on Sun May 4 19:59:26 2025
    On 5/4/2025 1:27 PM, bitrex wrote:
    I have a relative who works at a business college, count the number of BMWs, Mercedes, and Ferraris in the parking lot vs the number of them at the average
    steel mill circa 1985 you'll see how the "service economy" sold itself.

    You're there grinding your life and health away for a lower middle class salary
    while your buddy in sales at the local car dealership just made $47,000 in commission alone in 1985 dollars that year and you're like "huh that's interesting"

    Of course, *we* are all service economy providers. We may DESIGN
    things but we don't actually MAKE them. Just like the architect that
    designs a building but never touches any mortar.

    Services require a different set of "investments". Note how much
    money flows to "insurance" (assurance in brit-speak) which
    "produces" nothing. (it's an enabler)

    The youngsters being sold the "go into the trades" line will only discover their mistake when they get old and their body can no longer "service"
    the needs of that trade. Of course, by then, they will be so incredibly obsolete that "reeducation" will just be hand-waving.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Don Y@21:1/5 to Dan Green on Sun May 4 20:01:31 2025
    On 5/4/2025 4:54 PM, Dan Green wrote:
    "Export or Die"
    Anyone remember that? More to the point, how many people forgot it!

    The assumption, there, is that there will always be someplace
    that doesn't have all that your market ALREADY has.

    Or, that an artificial demand isn't created to stoke an
    economy based on consumption (I think Japan does this
    with their domestic autos)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bill Sloman@21:1/5 to john larkin on Mon May 5 15:37:22 2025
    On 5/05/2025 2:01 am, john larkin wrote:

    which is shocking.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/02/american-reindustrialization-manufacturing

    If a Guardian article almost makes sense to John Larkin, it has to have
    been dumbed down to an unusual extent.

    It leaves out one point that is usually made - successful
    industrialisation depends on investing a lot of capital in making each industrial worker as productive as possible.

    In England in the 1980's, Margaret Thatcher complained that English
    workers were less productive than their German counter-parts. Economists
    were able to demonstrate that if you controlled for capital investment
    per worker, English workers were actually more productive than their
    German counterparts where capital investment per head was the same.

    This didn't make the English workers better - it just reflected the fact
    that UK employers only invested capital where it paid off particularly generously.

    In America that capital investment was directed overseas, where the
    workers were cheaper.

    --
    Bill Sloman, Sydney

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From john larkin@21:1/5 to bitrex on Mon May 5 13:51:32 2025
    On Sun, 4 May 2025 14:12:04 -0400, bitrex <user@example.net> wrote:

    On 5/4/2025 2:03 PM, bitrex wrote:
    On 5/4/2025 1:18 PM, Cursitor Doom wrote:
    On Sun, 04 May 2025 09:01:56 -0700, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
    wrote:


    which is shocking.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/02/american-
    reindustrialization-manufacturing

    I would normally hit the 'next' button when someone links to a
    Guardian article, but as you say, they're right for once with this
    one. Lots of countries in the West were sold the same lie about
    swapping manufacturing for services. Mrs Thatcher told the British
    that the old 'smoke stack' industries would have to go abroad and be
    replaced by smart services. Those peasants in the Far East, they were
    told, would take over all the shitty, manual jobs whilst the British
    would get cracking with the clever stuff like manufacturing silicon
    chips. Problem was, the peasants in China and Taiwan didn't get the
    memo. The British lost a huge amount of manufacturing alright, but the
    service economy which replaced it was - for the most part - low paid
    and low skill. Some economists who could see the issues with this said
    at the time: "we can't as a country make a living from shining each
    other's shoes" - and that's the prediction which *should* have been
    listened to.

    It wasn't the right in the US rioting at the WTO conference in Seattle
    in '99.

    The right didn't care. Stocks were up, dot com boom was in full swing,
    and so long as the cops were beating down someá "hippies" it was fine,
    ship all the jobs to China, we have a White House blowjob to focus on..

    Actually _maybe_ Pat Buchanan piped up about it at the time, I can't
    recall.

    Sort of like JD Vance, Buchanan could write is his own books which were
    often insightful in their way, but then the punchline was the usual >disappointing ultranationalist white power gobbledygook.

    Vance? White power?

    His wife is Indian.

    (But my biscuit recipe is better than his.)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F10VIJjqJIs

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)