Amazing Forbes article on manufacturing: "Why Amazon Can't Make A Kindle In the USA"

[werepossum]

Well damn, having 4 feet of foam on a river down stream from a papermill was kind of getting to be a bitch.

While I do agree there are many regulations that have gone too far, conservatives seriously seem to think that corporations will be driven by the free market to make ethical decisions and it's simply not true.

Even in Tennessee we've had a river that caught fire, due to effluent from a North Carolina paper mill. One could tell miles downstream of the paper plant what dyes and chemicals they were using by the color and smell of the river water. We've also had a river absolute killed by a copper mine (the Ocoee River, killed by the Copper Hill mine runoff and smelting & acid plant output, and largely lifeless in its upper, riverine stretches even today) plus other rivers heavily impacted by such diverse causes as mine tailing acidification, mica silt, agricultural runoff (siltation and toxic herbicide/pesticide pollution), pig farm waste pond collapses, and recently a huge coal tar flood.

As a conservative I believe that most corporations will do the right thing, but some will not. Left unregulated, the unscrupulous corporations will always out-compete their more principled competitors. Same with individuals. And that doesn't even include people who don't realize what they are doing. It's hard enough to get farmers to realize they shouldn't pull their spreaders into the stream to wash out the left-over pesticide, let alone that they shouldn't wash their trucks and equipment like that. Left to their own devices, humans and human-controlled corporations can do an enormous amount of damage without bad intentions. Regulations need to be clear, simple and practical, but without them we would become Soviet-era Eastern Europe.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

The problem isn't that manufactuering and labor costs in Asia are too low. The problem is excessive government regulation, bureaucracy, and lawsuits have made American manufacturing and labor too expensive.

What specific regulations and lawsuits would you like to eliminate?

Would you eliminate the environmental regulations?

Would you eliminate the laws against racial and religious discrimination? Sexual harassment?

Would you eliminate laws that allow former employees to sue for slander and libel if an employer defames them when another employer comes seeking a reference?

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Is your solution to remove most regulation, bureaucracy and the ability to sue when a manufacturer is at fault?

What most of the knee-jerk anti-lawyer crowd doesn't realize is that if you eliminated liability for manufacturing an design defects (products liability) the overall costs would end up increasing. Because the businesses would no longer have an incentive to maintain safety standards and good design, the overall costs of accidents and injuries would increase. While the threat of litigation might increase some production and quality assurance costs, it reduces the amount of and the costs of accidents and injuries to consumers.

 

[Engineer]

The problem isn't that manufactuering and labor costs in Asia are too low. The problem is excessive government regulation, bureaucracy, and lawsuits have made American manufacturing and labor too expensive.

Bolded for LOL's.

Well, maybe you're right. Maybe if the currencies were on an EVEN playing field instead of being suppressed *cough*yuan*cough*, it wouldn't be nearly as bad as it is.

 

[Engineer]

What most of the knee-jerk anti-lawyer crowd doesn't realize is that if you eliminated liability for manufacturing an design defects (products liability) the overall costs would end up increasing. Because the businesses would no longer have an incentive to maintain safety standards and good design, the overall costs of accidents and injuries would increase. While the threat of litigation might increase some production and quality assurance costs, it reduces the amount of and the costs of accidents and injuries to consumers.[/FONT][/COLOR]

Don't worry. Remove healthcare from the equation and force the individual to pay 100% of their own and it wouldn't matter if one was injured, etc.

 

[Raghu]

Maybe if the currencies were on an EVEN playing field instead of being suppressed *cough*yuan*cough*, it wouldn't be nearly as bad as it is.

I dont understand the problem with China fixing Yuans value against the dollar. Commodities are the same price everywhere anyway.