Manufacturing overseas
The NYTimes has an interesting article titled “How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work” using Apple as a case study regarding China, the US, and manufacturing. It really illustrates the complexity of manufacturing regarding the US and other countries. The big takeaway, for me, is that it is not simply about wage costs when various companies move to China or overseas for manufacturing. They talk about supply chains, ramp up capability, time to market. But that is not what stuck out the most for me.
Companies like Apple “say the challenge in setting up U.S. plants is finding a technical work force,” said Martin Schmidt, associate provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In particular, companies say they need engineers with more than high school, but not necessarily a bachelor’s degree. Americans at that skill level are hard to find, executives contend. “They’re good jobs, but the country doesn’t have enough to feed the demand,” Mr. Schmidt said.
I’ve heard talk about technical schools here and there over the years and the need for them. And it makes realize even more how the US economy, how the employment structure has changed. We have the service industry, some infrastructure industries, and then we have the “professional” class of workers. If the US has mostly moved beyond a manufacturing based economy what have we become? I am not smart enough, nor know enough about economics to say but it does give one food for thought. Can we sustain what we have become and will the middle class survive it?
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