This was a really interesting article. It's interesting the misconceptions that some people have about outsourcing and the perception that it's cheaper. When you factor in transport, the price of oil and rising cost of living everywhere in the world (especially China) it makes sense that less reliance on petroleum and outsourced labour actually works out better in the end. It was once standard for products to say Made in the U.S.A and then the outsourcing boom kicked in and people got used to Made in China for electronics or Made in Indonesia for a lot of shoe-wear. Buying a product made in your own country is currently considered a premium product purchase. For example buying a hand-wired guitar amplifier or even hand-made guitar that is built in the U.S commands a much higher price and some are happy paying it because the quality is considerably higher, attention to detail and intricacies like soldering and component placement.
I would really love to see the manufacturing world return to the mantra of, "this needs to be designed and built to last as long as possible", it won't happen but it would be nice to live in a world again where the best components and design decisions are made with the consumer in mind, not lining the pockets of CEO's. Once upon a time companies created products that lasted forever, I've seen televisions from the 50's with original picture tubes and components still working.
It's good to hear General Electric (a company I am not overly fond of) have started manufacturing products back in the United States again. Companies like GE returning jobs and manufacturing back home are the only hope this economy has.
there never was a time when everything was built to last.
sure, to this day you can find old stuff that is still working perfectly. but what you don't see is all the other stuff that has been discarded, thrown away, replaced. survivor bias at its best.
right now products need to adhere to safety standards, energy efficiency standards and have green certificates. if something breaks and just puts a minor scratch into you major lawsuits are going off.
in the past, you simply died in an accident (whoops, sorry about the electrocution or yes, our cars sometimes go up in flames).
I would really love to see the manufacturing world return to the mantra of, "this needs to be designed and built to last as long as possible", it won't happen but it would be nice to live in a world again where the best components and design decisions are made with the consumer in mind, not lining the pockets of CEO's. Once upon a time companies created products that lasted forever, I've seen televisions from the 50's with original picture tubes and components still working.
It's good to hear General Electric (a company I am not overly fond of) have started manufacturing products back in the United States again. Companies like GE returning jobs and manufacturing back home are the only hope this economy has.