Of Course Applebee's Is Going to Replace Waiters With Tablets

[MADem]

109. Nonsense. Thinking business as usual will prevail is "propaganda."

And why are you so fixated on the "lower classes?" No one is gonna send a job mopping floors overseas, and no one, particularly, wants to DO that job, either. In a vibrant economy, that kind of work is for a retiree looking to supplement a fixed income to take a nice holiday, or someone who is intellectually impaired. The future insists that people with brains start using them--and people who do not want to learn, or who are not able to afford to learn, are going to be left behind. THAT's where we as a nation need to put our focus.

The answer is education. For older workers, job retraining. We need to make it readily available -- and affordable. We also need to ensure that benefits are portable--they stick with the worker, not the job.

When cars came in, it was a bad, sad day for horse groomers, buggy whip makers, carriage manufacturers and repairmen, and saddle/bridle makers. The ones who liked the work and could adapt to a smaller market share kept doing the work--the others went into other lines of work. People started making CARS instead, and with cars came repair shops and gas stations.

A door closes, a door opens. It's called progress. If you think schlepping food at a couple of bucks an hour (and depending on the mercy of "tips" to get up to minimum wage) is a "livelihood" you have a different idea of the concept than I do. This kind of work needs to go back to what it used to be--transition work between "real" jobs, college student work, part time 'pin money' work--not the work that keeps a family in food, shelter and clothing, because it doesn't do that very well at all.

Twenty years ago, jobs constructing and repairing windmills were hen's teeth. Now they are becoming more common every day. New technologies bring new jobs. Innovation is the path to a vibrant economy.

As the Chinese standard of living rises (and it is doing that), their wage advantage shrinks. It won't happen over night, but already there are businesses in USA that are moving their operations back home, because the expense of dealing with unreliable quality control half a world away, shipping costs, and damages/loss to product enroute to market is just not worth it.

2009: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970203946904574302052610981892

Some companies are driven to establish manufacturing plants in China because they want to take advantage of the country's cheap labor and duty-free zones. The minimum wage in China is less than $1 an hour, compared with $7.25 an hour in the U.S. This strategy may be of particular interest during an economic slump when businesses are being pushed to cut spending. Like the first strategy, the companies taking this approach seek only to source products from China, not to compete in the local market itself. Many U.S. and European furniture makers have pursued this strategy to keep their costs low.

There is a trade-off, however, between employee skills and lower wages. A university degree doesn't necessarily mean the same thing in China as it does in the U.S. For example, while China graduates more than 300,000 engineers a year, less than 10% are able to work at international engineering standards. Thus, while salary costs in China often are lower, the skill level and the resulting quality and productivity levels are likely to be considerably lower for many vocations as well.

2012: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304587704577333482423070376

U.S. manufacturing has become attractive for some companies as Asian wages have surged over recent years and the wage gap between the U.S. and China has narrowed. The drop in the dollar over the past decade has also made U.S.-produced goods more competitive. And higher oil prices have increased the cost of shipping goods across oceans, making domestic manufacturing more appealing.

Nevertheless, China and other Asian nations remain very competitive on many products. Once expertise and supplier networks become entrenched, as they have for such things as smartphones in China, it is very difficult to move them. The U.S. also suffers from a shortage of trained workers in some areas vital for manufacturing, such as engineering and operation of computerized machinery. U.S. corporate taxes are higher than those in most other industrial nations.....

Global companies still are expanding production capacity in Asia to serve those fast-growing markets. But more are questioning the logic of trying to meet North American demand from Asian factories, says Dr. Simchi-Levi. Companies are moving toward a regional-manufacturing model, he says, in which Asian plants serve Asian customers, North American ones serve Americans.

2013: http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/economicdevelopment/as-costs-in-china-rise-some-manufacturing-jobs-return-to-usa/2152677

I-Con Systems, a Seminole County company that makes plumbing control systems for correctional institutions, had been manufacturing its components in China for about a decade when CEO Shawn Bush began thinking about moving manufacturing operations back to Florida.

Like most other manufacturers, Bush says he was originally lured to China by lower labor costs, but had encountered a number of problems in dealing with his overseas manufacturer, including the language barrier, a lack of consistent quality and a time lag in receiving material....."We had a large shipment that was delayed by a vendor, and when it was received, it did not pass our quality control," says Bush, who was unable to communicate with the vendor to explain the issue and get it corrected in a timely fashion.

After scrambling to save the customer and the project, Bush decided that the offshore relationship was not working and began acquiring equipment, personnel and the skills to bring the key items in-house to his factory in Oviedo....

http://www.slashgear.com/foxxconn-seeks-to-move-high-end-device-production-from-china-to-us-24306670/

Foxconn — accused exploiter of student laborers, rumored catalyst for alleged PlayStation 4 sabotage, installer of suicide nets for bullied workers at its exploding plants, and outgoing manufacturer of iPhones and other electronics — wants to open a Foxconn-branded plant for high-end electronics like smartphones and tablets in Arizona, USA. Foxconn chairman and president Terry Gou recently met with Arizona governor Janice Brewer, Unwired View reports, to discuss setting up shop in her state. The news first appeared in the Chinese press. (UPDATE: The company is also investing in a Pennsylvania plant to the tune of $30 million.)

The tide goes out, the tide comes in. It's the nature of the beast. Anyone who seriously believes that rank "protectionism" is going to preserve a vibrant middle class is high. We have to suck it up and be competitive, and the way to do that is to focus on providing a good education to our children--an educated workforce is a quality workforce; and providing retraining as needed for people who are transitioning from one line of work to another. There hasn't been "company loyalty" to any one organization for many years now; not since Reagan. Younger people, especially, regard job switching as normal, whereas in my day you found your "niche" and stuck with it, pretty much, if you could.