THE CHAIN LOCKER
See this link about Apple's move to China: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1
A story out of my own family's past, echoed in today's headlines: back in the '80s the company my Dad worked for, CTS, moved many operations to Singapore for the same reasons detailed in this article.
Dad was an engineer for CTS who went to Singapore to guide the establishment of the new plant, and I was able to visit them there. He marveled at the Singapore government's support of tech industries & engineering education, sharp young freshly-trained engineers available for a fraction of US wages, uncomplaining 12-hour work shifts by skilled workers, and radically lowered rate of rejects. CTS also saw a radically lowered cost of operations in Singapore.
Of course, after about two years in Singapore, Dad came home and suddenly faced early retirement. He fought it off for a while, but finally - along with a slew of other US engineers - had to go. Fortunately for Dad, he was old enough to retire - younger engineers weren't, and simply found themselves out of work. And that was 30 years ago. The fact that Apple held on until 2004 says that they tried, at least to stem the tide. To have held out longer would have crippled the company.
I'm no expert, but I don't think either Mitt or Obama, no matter how badly they would like to "create" good-paying American jobs, can do so in any predictable way. I don't think the US can restructure her economy to reclaim those particular lost jobs. It will take The Next Big Thing (whatever that turns out to be) and like most of these transformations, it will probably take us by surprise.
The only good move I can see at this point is to invest in education. That's what Singapore did in the '70s & '80s, paying for higher education for any student who showed the talent and discipline to work at it, including post-grad work at universities abroad. It's one of the factors that drew Dad's company to Singapore and made that little "tiger" ready for anything - and prosperous today.
I don't think draconian cost-cutting to "make America competitive again" will get that done! We need to think beyond that now.
Dad's gone, but I can see him nodding his head.
See this link about Apple's move to China: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1
A story out of my own family's past, echoed in today's headlines: back in the '80s the company my Dad worked for, CTS, moved many operations to Singapore for the same reasons detailed in this article.
Dad was an engineer for CTS who went to Singapore to guide the establishment of the new plant, and I was able to visit them there. He marveled at the Singapore government's support of tech industries & engineering education, sharp young freshly-trained engineers available for a fraction of US wages, uncomplaining 12-hour work shifts by skilled workers, and radically lowered rate of rejects. CTS also saw a radically lowered cost of operations in Singapore.
Of course, after about two years in Singapore, Dad came home and suddenly faced early retirement. He fought it off for a while, but finally - along with a slew of other US engineers - had to go. Fortunately for Dad, he was old enough to retire - younger engineers weren't, and simply found themselves out of work. And that was 30 years ago. The fact that Apple held on until 2004 says that they tried, at least to stem the tide. To have held out longer would have crippled the company.
I'm no expert, but I don't think either Mitt or Obama, no matter how badly they would like to "create" good-paying American jobs, can do so in any predictable way. I don't think the US can restructure her economy to reclaim those particular lost jobs. It will take The Next Big Thing (whatever that turns out to be) and like most of these transformations, it will probably take us by surprise.
The only good move I can see at this point is to invest in education. That's what Singapore did in the '70s & '80s, paying for higher education for any student who showed the talent and discipline to work at it, including post-grad work at universities abroad. It's one of the factors that drew Dad's company to Singapore and made that little "tiger" ready for anything - and prosperous today.
I don't think draconian cost-cutting to "make America competitive again" will get that done! We need to think beyond that now.
Dad's gone, but I can see him nodding his head.
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