How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work

[M5W]

I work in the plastic injection mold industry and I can tell you it's hard to complete with offshore companies who can offer 10x your workforce and have them working 24/7 (except for chinese new year lol ) on your molds and have them shipped out in a couple weeks. We have been forced to go overseas and develop relationships with chinese mold shops to compete with the growing demand to lower tool costs by who ? GM, FORD , CHRYSLER. The big 3 , Detroit car companies, literally will send us part data to quote and will request we don't even quote to build it in North America. We have been plagued with tooling that comes in half assed , and then blessed with tooling that comes in almost better than our own built here. The reason that industry everywhere is failing and moving overseas ? GREED. The higher ups in big companies can't take making hundreds of thousands of $ when they could be making MILLIONS . I'm not saying a company shouldnt be profitable, but how much do CEO's and execs need to make a year ? And how do they make that much ? By having there products made cheaper and selling it for the same price as if it was built here. It only makes sense for the guys making millions, and yet they expect the people the lay off and close factories to still buy their products. With what ? The money your paying to someone else overseas ? If you want to bring back american ecomony , bring the jobs back here. Don't pay yourselves absurd paychecks and bonuses, make a legit paycheck and pay workers that keep the money you pay them in NA, living and buying things here. Money is constantly sent overseas and how much do we see come back to us ? If you pay your worker , he takes that money and buys products made here, the money spent here stays here and the economy gets stronger because you have more people working making and buying products made here and the money stays in our banks and in our pockets.

[Kershaw]

but this is the same Kershaw that posted about not being able to hit a nail with a hammer

wait, hold up. you didnt realize that was a parody thread and i was making fun of someone else's thread? just swap hammer with adelle, dude.... even the first post was identical.

LOL. i guess the joke was on you!

and mechanically inclined does not mean experienced. still learning. and learning sometimes gets expensive.

also, im kind of miffed z31maniac hasnt chimed in about the amazing flowery designy bs i made him. :(

[Fusion]

Btw not sure if anyone mentioned all the jobs indirectly associated with the phone, not only accessories, but especially the billions that are made in apps, most of which stay in the US.
Like someone else wrote, Apple outsourced the "dirtiest" job, not the most important one.

[Vedubin01]

i quickly demonstrated that i'm very mechanically inclined.

Hey I dont mean to bust your balls here but this is the same Kershaw that posted about not being able to hit a nail with a hammer and just had his car catch on fire due to lack of maintenance? Not counting other cars if I remember correctly.


Im laughing with ya, not at ya :)

[mrsleeve]

^

On that we do agree

[Kershaw]

i do believe i've never seen honda civic taillights look so good.

[Fusion]

^ That is AWESOME and exactly what I mean.

Oh and don't forget that even though the iPhone was assembled in China, there are tons of small companies selling US made accessories and employ lots of people.
Just look at what people have thought of on Kickstarter, and I think most of the manf. for those products stays stateside.

[rwh11385]

^ And that actually leads me to think that in the future we may see more small/one person "manufacturers". Groups of people that are able to create things in a very specific niche.
The price of precision machinery and things you thought you'd only see in huge manf. company are going down year by year. Just like barely anyone could print quality photos 20y ago, today you do it yourself. Proof being not only Makerbots, but even aerospace transitioning from goverment projects into private ventures, and small team car manufacturers.

I think we'll be seeing the decline of huge manufacturers aimed at a small series of high quantity products, and the uprise of thousands of tiny ones, each making special low quantity products while being able to quickly and cheaply diversify and customize their product range. Of course each company will need atleast one engineer and probably a designer, so unemployment in the sector won't be hurt, but could actually benefit from it.

I'm especially excited about companies like this:

http://www.local-motors.com/

As much as I laugh most of time at 'crowdsourcing', this is awesome. People contribute design ideas and collaborate. You help build your own vehicle in 'micro-factories' and can customize then modify, all while utilizing the supply chain of major automotive OEM and 3-D printing / rapid prototyping for custom pieces.

Youtube about How it Works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azCRuwtE_n0

Starts @ 13:15 from Top Gear America - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_LlO1pd_TM

[Fusion]

^ And that actually leads me to think that in the future we may see more small/one person "manufacturers". Groups of people that are able to create things in a very specific niche. A technician may spend time assembling and a designer painting, but they'll be proud of their creation.
The price of precision machinery and things you thought you'd only see in huge manf. company are going down year by year. Just like barely anyone could print quality photos 20y ago, today you do it yourself. Proof being not only Makerbots, but even aerospace transitioning from goverment projects into private ventures, and small team car manufacturers.

I think we'll be seeing the decline of huge manufacturers aimed at a small series of high quantity products, and the uprise of thousands of tiny ones, each making special low quantity products while being able to quickly and cheaply diversify and customize their product range. Of course each company will need atleast one engineer and probably a designer, so unemployment in the sector won't be hurt, but could actually benefit from it.

[Kershaw]

yep. i like my job because it's a nice blend between design and working with my hands. i was hired as a designer/printer, but i quickly demonstrated that i'm very mechanically inclined. so, i build and install a lot of the signs i design. now i basically run the shop. haha. the owner is going to be so upset when i leave. which i'll be doing sometime this year.

[mrmckie]

i hate sitting in my cubical..lol

[mrsleeve]

how much longer will your body sustain you crawling around in pipes? (that's what you do, right?) do you have a plan for after 50?

well for 1 I should be mostly retired by then, or in a position of more responsibility and over sight than field work by then. Fuck I could cut back to 5-6 months a year and still be just fine right now. I EARN a very comfortable living, and get to take several months a year off mostly at my discretion. But there is a catch......................

2 My job is not really that hard on the body (what I used to do was much much harder on the body) I dont have to crawl in too often and that makes my job easier most of the time. The Ocuatards would consider it harder than what they want to do, and below them though. But too me, and how I was raised most days its a walk in the park.

3 I know and was mentored into this business by 2 guys one of which is 64 now, and the other came back out of 6 years of retirement, just because he wanted to go back to work for a while, he was 70, and put 3 more 3100 hour years in for the hell of it. Its not a body killer, but it will give you more aches than sitting in a cubical for 30 years, but on the flip side it keeps you in pretty good shape.

[Kershaw]

how much longer will your body sustain you crawling around in pipes? (that's what you do, right?) do you have a plan for after 50?

[mrsleeve]

You can still make great money the old fashion way too.

I am living proof of that.

[rwh11385]

And does anyone miss waking up at 4am and milking the cows? Sure, some people love it and won't leave it, and some professional farmers rake in a crazy amount of money. (And yes, some hipsters are farming organic - www.wwoof.org can give a trial of that) Likewise, some artists will remain in high-end manufacturing of furniture, or making crafts on Etsy... but I see the trend of fewer working class assemblers and more highly skilled / trained persons in manufacturing - just like how farming evolved. When you want into a plant, do you see many young people? Or mostly middle-aged or older? (I've seen a lot of plants and the older technology ones were slim on young people and most seem ready to retire in the coming 15 years... and do you see Gen Y replacing them?)

I think a misconception is American moving to a service economy means customer service, financial advisors, and other fluffy jobs. I believe technical services are included in those since they are involved with but not directly creating goods. (Engineers, IT, etc.)

With technology, the opportunities are changing - it's a great accomplishment but shifts the demand for certain educations or experiences. (And just because you learn X doesn't mean you can't do Y... a friend studied poli sci but programmed a financial investing program then made a company and sold it, and then became CTO of a logistics firm...) Experience is a key thing that people need, not just graduating with a degree but no work history. Technology has obviously made jobs at Google and Facebook, but I think there is a great potential for smarter data analysis (business intelligence like at IBM) which is vital since we have so much. Also, we still have cancer to cure and need scientists for that, as well as how to solve other health problems with doctors / medical research.

The thorn seems to snag those who don't evolve. The fortunate aspect is people enter and leave the economy as new ones are born and grow up while others retire. (Allowing individuals who are misaligned with needs to exit in time, but sometimes drastic cuts in need or shift causes despair) Whatever the demand/need, our Millennial generation has to step up to the plate and do what needs to be done. And not just expect a pat on the back and job well done because we got participation trophies all our lives.