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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

From my music Blog: Making Goods in China

I try to not let politics nor religion creep into these pages about music.  Music should be a happy, non-divisive place, and both politics and religion are often tools used for both . However, something needs to be said about making  musical goods in China...

There are any number of really good arguments of why musical equipment makers shouldn't do this: patriotism, putting Americans to work, we've heard them all.  But one I've haven't heard and have been thinking about is how the manufacturers are trading short-term profit for long-term longevity.

When a company has something produced offshore, they have to specify what they want made.  That often means the American firm has to teach the Chinese company how to make it, along with any proprietary technology that company specifically developed and used in manufacturing.  Now, the Chinese are long known for industrial espionage, outright stealing of American technology.  However, by manufacturing American goods using American technology for an artificially low price, industrial espionage becomes unnecessary.  That technology is handed over to the Chinese (and other countries as well), and the American manufacturer, in buying the cheaply-made good,  pays for the pleasure of giving away his secrets.

This idea wasn't dreamed up in a vacuum.  I spoke with a bass guitar manufacturer who glowingly told me how he straightened out mistakes made on the production line in a Chinese factory. That line made instruments for nearly every major manufacturer in the US.

Eventually, I believe the Chinese manufacturing bubble will burst.  American lawmakers and manufacturers seem to be slowly coming to their senses, so more and more things will begin to be made in the USA again.  But by then, the horse is out of the barn. The Chinese will have the technology, expertise, and brand new factories with which to make these same goods on their own, without the Americans at all.  And then the fun starts...

American manufacturers will see their goods duplicated and sold worldwide for about one-tenth the price they now charge.  Only in this scenario, the difference will be that American manufacturers won't see any profit at all, only the theft of their ideas marketed globally. I suspect they'll have one hell of a time surviving.

So, manufacturer, if you're looking for quick profits, make hay while the sun shines.  And buyer: know that you're a part of it. If you don't tell the manufacturers, either directly or by voting with your dollar, you're complicit. I recently refused delivery on a bass because it was made in China (the manufacturer's website, which I researched before purchase, said differently). Eventually I bought American.

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Never was, never will be.



Monday, November 14, 2011

How to Use History

If prior generations of Americans were the one who created this great country, shouldn't we take a hard look at what they did to make it so good, rather than flail in our ignorance? For example, our parents are considered the greatest generation.  How did they become that way? Maybe their parents had it right.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Common Sense

Occupy Protests Plagued By Reports Of Sex Attacks, Violent Crime | Fox News

As much as I despise the nonsense flowing from this "protest," I find there is valuable information to be had from it that we can all use. All of it ironic.

You've no doubt heard the ironies about how the Occupiers want to bring down big business, yet they use their products every moment. But there's much more.

The most important irony is the personal culture created within the camps themselves. Most of the Occupiers are some flavor or degree of anarchist, therefore it stands to reason that the camps themselves are without law or regulation. And without any such structure, reports are seeping out of violent attacks, much of it sexual in nature. Rapes seem to be happening more and more often, so much of a problem that the Occupiers have set up a separate area that are "women only." So much for a government-less society.

I am reminded of John Locke and his book Common Sense from the days before America's independence. Locke said that without adequate government "life would be nasty, brutish, and short." The Occupiers are proving that Locke had, indeed, common sense.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Occupy: Increasing the Ranks of the Poor in the Name of Equality

The Occupy protests, oh my. They have creative slogans and names for themselves, like "The 99%." I find that very telling.

They call themselves The 99% because they feel as though they are part of and represent 99% of Americans who are not uber-wealthy. I think it means more of what they are after: 99% of everything created, made and earned by the so-called 1%.

If one follows their math, the 1% are at the top of the financial food chain and make the most money - obscene amounts of money. However, the 1% are also the people whose work product are things which enrich our lives, such as iPhones used by the Occupiers, communication networks used by the Occupiers, the internet used by the Occupiers, the clothing worn by the Occupiers, the food eaten by the Occupiers, even the tents occupied by the Occupiers. In short, the 1%, because of their capitalization and the way capitalism works, created everything of value in this country - even everything of necessity. That they made it super-rich is a definitive by-product of all of it.

It's capitalism, baby; were the Occupiers stoned when they covered that in school? And this is where their attack is: not at the rich, but at the heart of capitalism. The Occupiers want it all, not just the things made by the 1%, but all their profits as well. The 1% will be among the poor. We will then have "The 100%," none of whom have anything - no product because the wealthy have no capital with which to produce things, and no wealth because they have nothing to sell. Everyone is equal; there is nothing built, there is nothing to buy. Everyone has nothing.

So the hypocrisy of the left is rich once again. Let's take everything that the rich have, and give it to everyone else, and expect the formerly-rich to continue to make the things that make us happy, then strip them of their profit once again. That's even if they have any remaining capital to create anything.  Capitalism is the the goose that laid the golden egg, and will be long dead.

If you did that to my dog - if you took away his bone - you'd have stitches.

As it should be.