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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerica’s Dirty War Against Manufacturing
Id love to make this product in America. But Im afraid I wont be able to.
My host, a NASA engineer turned Silicon Valley entrepreneur, has just conducted a fascinating tour of his new clean-energy bench-scale test facility. Its one of the Valleys hottest clean-technology startups. And hes already thinking of going abroad.
Wages? I ask.
His dark eyebrows arch as if I were clueless, then he explains the reality of running a fab -- an electronics fabrication factory. Wages have nothing to do with it. The total wage burden in a fab is 10 percent. When I move a fab to Asia, I might lose 10 percent of my product just in theft.
Im startled. So what is it?
Everything else. Taxes, infrastructure, workforce training, permits, health care. The last company that proposed a fab on Long Island went to Taiwan because they were told that in a drought their water supply would be in the queue after the golf courses.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-18/america-s-dirty-war-against-manufacturing-part-1-carl-pope.html
mojowork_n
(2,354 posts)Sounds like a whole lot of excuses, from the sorts of folks
who are secretly sitting on piles and piles of cash, waiting
to play the next round at the Wall Street Casino.
As manufacturing has fallen off, "finance" has exploded.
The pay-off is quicker and it's so 'scientific.'
That's the problem, and this first part of the series doesn't
really address that directly.
AmericaIsGreat
(630 posts)He can take his fab to China and not have to worry about taxes, and workforce training, and providing healthcare. God forbid an employer ever provide those things. He can pay people $8 an hour and leave it that.
And I'm supposed to feel sorry for him?
Mopar151
(9,965 posts)Heavy industry fouled its own nest in this country - I've seen it firsthand, in the mills and shops of New England. But - government, and the service industries used that, and similar issues to bleed money from manufacturing like a vampire. You think it's a coincedence that Marvin Bush is in the hazardous waste landfill business? Or Rick Perry's buddy, who built a nuclear waste landfill on land leased from the state?
There was an article in INC magazine about the costs of a business startup in Norway vs. the US - "Socialist" Norway comes out ahead in many respects, because the social safety net actually lowers wage burden for a startup, the population as a whole is better educated, and the government can be more infrastructure-friendly, because they are not as committed to "impact fees" to generate income as well as funding the necessary infrastructure improvments.