On Dec 21, 2011, at 2:16 PM, John Sessoms wrote: > From: Bruce Walker > >> On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 2:14 PM, Bob W <p...@web-options.com> wrote: >>>> http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/economy-40/decline-kodak- >>>> offers-lessons-us-business >>>> >>>> A story on Marketplace, transcript and audio. Interesting reader >>>> comments also. >>>> >>>> Tom C. >>> they say it offers a lesson for US business, but IBM did the same thing - >>> twice (DOS and Oracle) - and has managed to recover. >>> >>> B >> But IBM merely had to hire and/or shift software architects and >> developers into the rebuilding project and jump-start it. The >> infrastructure for computer software is all there. >> >> This article is pointing out how, if you let entire product categories >> go, then the manufacturing know-how, the staff, designers, all the >> infrastructure goes too. Think about another category that was big up >> until the 1970's then disappeared from North America: televisions and >> hifi. If the US wanted to build that consumer electronics again, it >> would have to start absolutely from scratch. There's nothing there. No >> supply chain, no designers, no manufacturing, nada. All TVs and hifi >> stuff is now made in the Pac Rim somewhere. > > Most of your computer components too. There may be some assembly plants left > in the U.S.
It's a "tragedy of the commons" thing. For each business it makes economic sense to move aspects of production off shore to where labor is cheaper. After a while, nobody is building anything in the US anymore. Except for Toyota and Honda who now have some car plants here. Now, they're even trying to outsource writing software. At the moment, the problem is that few of the Asian programmers have the necessary mindset to write code well. Then there is the disconnect from managing projects with teams 8-12 timezones apart. Eventually, the software culture will develop in Asia while fewer and fewer American kids learn how to program, and we'll be left wondering how to support ourselves, with nobody left qualified to design or manufacture anything in this country. In the meantime, we can get stuff cheap at Wal-Mart. -- Larry Colen l...@red4est.com sent from i4est -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
