Morning Metro: Ponce Market Recycling Debris, Another Big DeKalb Lawsuit, and the Impossibilities of Domestic iPhones
Decatur Metro | January 23, 2012
- Ponce City Market recycling EVERYTHING, rail line running through building will be restored [AJC]
- DeKalb lawsuit could cost county millions it doesn’t have [AJC]
- Outwrite’s final event this coming Tuesday [Patch]
- Old Fourth Ward Park expansion now open [CL]
- Creek flooding in the Medlock Neighborhood [MANA]
- “What would it take to make iPhones in the U.S.?” Short answer: HAHAHAHA! [NYT]
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
Latest from Decaturish
Re: Apple This line pretty much says it all:
“Mr. Saragoza was too expensive for an unskilled position.”
I hate to say this, but perhaps Americans are not worth as much as they like think that they are? He only wound up taking the no-benefits position after all his other options ran out, but ultimately that’s what the market determined he was worth (for now.) Not enough jobs, and too many people pushes people in his situation out, and there are thousands of him if not millions.
Side note daydream: What if we stopped shoving college down every American child’s throat and saddling them with debt, and had some sort of (get ready DawgFan!) government-backed, prestigious electronics programs for students who are bright and excel, but don’t necessarily want to go traditional college. The American school of (cellphones, cameras, tv, computers…) that would allow Americans to be more competitive in the actual product-making factory technology skills. They still wouldn’t be able to make iphones (or whatever product) as cheap as China, but you have to start somewhere.
Of course when you throw in all the variables of unions, American entitlement, Chinese workers willing to work those 12 hour shifts for little, and corporate profit, nothing will ever change.
I agree that we need to stop pushing college – I’m genuinely curious to see what happens over the next 10 years as my kids reach that decision point. I’d prefer we begin taking the stigma out of vocational tech, and start training kids for useful occupations prior to age 18.
I’ve read a number of articles over the last week related to Apple’s overseas manufacturing. All of them bemoan the loss of American jobs and manufacturing capacity, but few if any look at the benefit to Apple’s US consumers, of which there are many, many more than there were factory workers, who’ve benefited from the lower cost, higher quality standards, and faster product cycle advantages that the overseas factories have enabled. I would no more expect Apple to blindly manufacture products in the US, than I would trade my car for a horse to employ US-based ferriers or throw away my washing machine to hire a US-based housekeeper.
The manufacturers, unions, and their politicians have done a fantastic job of convincing most Americans we need to “protect” US manufacturers and jobs – we should all recognize that “protecting” these interests comes at the expense of the rest of us. The US is the highest manufacturing output of any country in the world, though more of our manufacturing is for higher-margin, finished goods – much of what we import are raw materials that go into those goods.
I for one am tired of being forced to “protect” the weak and uncompetitive – the sooner they have to stand on their own two feet (or not), the better off we will all be.
Don’t forget that it costs more to manufacture in the US because we don’t let all of the Gluppity-Glupp and Shloppity-Schlopp go into our rivers. At least not as much as we used to.
Yes, but those are only byproducts of thneed production – who buys those anymore?
Apparently a lot of people.
http://www.mysnuggiestore.com
Mr. Boh
This may have been covered in another time and place, but, that is one natty picture you have there. I take it you are from Baltimore?
Why thank you. I am indeed from the Land of Pleasant Living.
I love your use of an oxymoron!
I don’t entirely disagree about shoving college down everyone’s throats, especially given the cost benefit analysis in today’s market. But, your perceived void is already filled by the private sector by the numerous technical schools, and you can’t create prestige simply with government involvement. Futher, the market forces you mention dictate shipping the work overseas, and there are less factory jobs everyday due to automation. Robots build TVs (although they have to br programmed by humans).
Here is an alternatiave proposal. Why not streamline college (or at least offer a streamlined program for those students who know what they want to do)? You want to be a computer programmer? OK, no history or science classes. Out in two years. You want to be a doctor or dentist, focus on science. Or, maybe colleges can get rid of the requirement that each student take 4 to 6 electives (the easy A entyomology class I took wasn’t exactly life changing). It would reduce the time spent in college and the costs, and/or students would receive more education which would be directly beneficial. For those who still haven’t decided on which path to follow, they can still take the core classes and follow a more traditional route and curriculum. I can tell you without a doubt that I don’t remember one freaking thing from Geology 101 or 102 which I took to fulfill my science requirement. But, I was forced to pay for it b/c some tenured beauracrat decided that I couldn’t receive a degree from the business school without 2 quarters of science (colleges were still on the quarter system when I attended). The idea obviously has flaws, but it may allow for a hybrid college education/training program and help keep costs down.
Hmmm…I think I’d like my doctors and corporate titans to have a passing familiarity with ethics.
Agreed, but true ethics aren’t learned in a classroom.
I wasn’t thinking prestigious merely because it would be American, but make it something selective, that not every high school graduate could qualify for. I don’t know a lot about the technical colleges, but I’m not sure if you even need a high school diploma to get into some of them based on some of the commercials I have seen. And even though more jobs will continue to be automated, right now at present, the article says Apple/contractors have 700,000 employees, even of you had the cut the number of jobs available in half to make up for the higher cost of labor, that’s still a huge number of jobs. I honestly don’t think there’s anyway to get the jobs overseas back anytime soon realistically (maybe ever), but at the same time I don’t think we should just throw in the towel either.
I miss “Shop” and “Home Ec”. Not to track kids but as a requirement for both girls and boys. Everyone should know how to hem the bottom of a skirt or pants, handle food safely, drill a hole in the proper place on a wall, and prepare and paint a surface, by the time they are an adult.
Is that blue mulch in the picture of the OFW park expansion?
It’s purple…. bright purple. And I’m told it was on purpose and permanent.
Good. Why should everything be brown or green?
Yeah, what the hell Nature??
Interesting choice. I’ll have to go down there and check it out for myself.
Asked if the Dekalb school system is putting money away in case they have to pay out, the chairman said, “Not to my knowledge, because we anticipate success in the courts.”
I dare anyone to find a hole in that logic. Rock solid.
Fascinating article about Apple and domestic manufacturing. One question I had that was unanswered regards the education of the Chinese workers. The executives say “mid-level skills” are needed that require less than a bachelors degree but more than a high school diploma. How are the Chinese workers getting this education? Has our technical college system failed in this country, or are there simply not enough young people being steered in that direction?
I’m more than a little surprised that no one finds it noteworthy that the Chinese government subsidized the costs of building a factory on the chance that the industry might get a contract, or that thousands of workers are housed in corporate dormitories and work up to 12 hour shifts six days a week, many for less than $17/day. Is everyone unaware of the conditions in these ‘corporate cities’ in China? Or the standard of living these workers ‘earn’? And a guy with an engineering degree and experience has an overblown sense of his value because he believes he might be worth $50,000/year? Wow.
The developers at the Ponce City Market really have the chance to do something wonderful and it’s potential to be jewel in the city is huge. I really hope they stay patient with their vision and succeed wildly.
+1
On a related Apple note, there was a fantastic This American Life episode recently on the somewhat mysterious Chinese company, Foxconn, that makes almost all Apple products. Absolutely fascinating. I highly recommend taking a listen.
Yes, I listened to it as well. I’m afraid some of the shine has left my iphone. (Love TAL)
Read the story on iPhones and this excerpt really stood out for me:
“A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started 12-hour shifts fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.
“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”
ummm…..funny….. pure capitalism kind of sounds like communism. Its wierd. Almost a different side of the same coin. Instead of centralized govt power its centralized corporate power. Seriously….what American is going to want to live a life like that? It sounds like our iPhones are made by modern day slaves.
That article was very disturbing to me.
Agree that free enterprise in China seems to be playing out like life on the commune. There’s lots of these paradoxes around. IBM corporate culture of the 1960s and 1970s always seemed like socialism to me. Military too. Likewise current conservative libertarianism seems akin to the radical left of the last century to me.
I’m a big fan of the moderate middle. Not happy with any economic or social developments that favor the extremes and threaten the middle.
I think Foxconn and Chinese capitalism in general needs to be viewed in context with the everyday conditions of the Chinese people. It’s all about context.
If Foxconn is so terrible, then why do people flock to get jobs there? Because they’re better off, one must assume. But why is that? Is communist China the reason for the poverty in that country or is it culture or something else? I think that’s the discussion that needs to be had before we even tackle the specific human rights issues with Foxconn.