Japan has the best robot tech. Probably has something to do with their cultural fascination with the things: Gundam Wing, X-Force, RoboTech, and hundreds more...

A lot of the problem with manufacturing here in the US are the outrageous demands of the labor unions. Look at the costs of an automobile and you can see it.

China doesn't have labor unions - just communist unions.

The other thing they don't point out, however, is that the quality of items manufactured in China is crap. They have terrible QA rates. My dad does manufacturing outsourcing in a couple of the major cities outside Hong Kong and that's his constant fight: manufacturing to acceptable tolerances.

So yes, China is cheap. Problem is you get what you pay for.

We have been an Empire for quite a while. Might as well use appropriate terminalogy. After all, its' kind of funny when some Third World sh*thole dictator for life is called a "president." It's just as funny when we call a Deity taking a $60M vacation "the President."

Hear Hear!

I am not as duped as you think. GOP is a statist, socialist camp with religion. Democracts are a statist, socialist camp without religion, but with Sunday services. There are no viable alternatives, except for a total collapse and a civil war, which may happen. As to the mock voting that we go through, Trump may (emphasize "may") be truly sick enough of the system to try to change it. Cruz is perhaps a good constitutionalist, but has less of a chance of winning and is way too deep into religion, as is Carson. I would label Trump as a realist - not perfect, but is there a better choice? (realistic choice, as much as the rigged voting can be considered realistic).

Imagine Walmart, that buys most of its stuff from China. Prices would immediately go up, sales volume would go down, and employment at walmart would drop due to fewer customer orders. Same thing with our small company. We only exist because our customers want the prices that we can only provide if we buy from china a lot of our subassemblies and parts. If we raised our prices to accommodate more tariffs, our volume would most certainly drop, and we would be forced to lay off one of our 5 assemblers. Cant see how that helps the USA

That was a good post on how nimble chinese factories are. In my experience I can get injection molded parts in about two weeks from receipt of an IGS file, with excellent quality and within specifications. I could never get that in the USA, not even if we did it ourselves (we have a molding machine but no moldmaking department). I buy nearly 75% of our subassemblies from china far cheaper than we can do them here. I can get complete electronic subassemblies made there cheaper than it would cost me to buy parts here.

Majesty is for kings and queens.
Highness is for lower peers of the realm.
Clearly Donnie feels everyone else is beneath him, therefore HRM.
(grin)

https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...

One of the key signs of the dissolution of the state. The last 15 + years have marched along the path toward totalitarianism. Whenever a republic, or pseudo repiublic has gotten a little ripe and started its decline, it has never been able to turn around and get back up the hill. Can the USA? Doubtful, but this country has been unique, so possibly it can perform uniquely. Odds are against it, but I'm no prophet.

And pigs fly,
For Galt's Sake when will you GOP voters realize you have been conned for generations and trump is just another statist con-man? Everything he has done in the past contradicts your conclusion.
The GOP is truly the party of FAITH and faith alone.

Actually...I believe the correct usage is "HRH" Donald Trump. Of course...it has been about 240 years since we've needed to care.

First Trump has to understand the problem and want to fix it instead of having a goal of expanding his power and wealth. Trump has a history of looting for personal gain. That will be his legacy.

No, the libertarian, for example, is a real third party. Regardless of party, Trump has compromised integrity and would sell out the people (as he did his partners) without a second thought.

A lot of companies use automation for many reasons. Stateside they avoid some labor costs. In other countries with lower labor cost they still use robotics and automation for better Quality. Eventually I see USA robots competing with Asiian and Latino robots. The humans will only inspect, pack, and fulfill orders. Then our benevolent government will most likely impose a productivity tax on our robots to replace the waning income stream from Social Security taxes. At that point, our government will once again put us at a disadvantage.

To a large extent this is a mismanaged outcome of Adam Smithe's "Invisible Hand". Through the force of equilibrium we should be living more like the Chinese and they more like the Americans. Both our governments create market distortions that prevent free market forces from working. Theoretically, the best way to help the US economy and middle class would be to raise the standard of living for the Chinese and 3rd world. The the pressures of equilibrium would be satisfied. How can there be this force? Just as capital seeks ROI, goods and services exchange in an unhampered way. People with corn trade it for ammunition. People with too much ammo trade for moonshine whiskey. The guy making whiskey now has too much ammo, but he nneds corn to make whiskey. Unless a government steps in a creates a market distortion it all levels out like water seeking it's own level. IMHO the reason for all the trade problems is governments distorting the markets for the self centered interests. I just saying...

How do I find that post?

Trump made his financial fortunes on the sickness of American politics. Now that he has more money than one can take with him, there's still a possibility that he is truly sick of this process and is willing to correct it. He certainly knows how it works and he knows how to stop it. He has no need to enrich himself any more, so at least there's a higher probability that he is honest at this point of his life.

Ford has had a long standing corporate policy to build a plant in countries where they sell vehicles. This policy goes back decades. Henry Sr. was around when they started it. It was a factoid in one of the history channels documentaries. It gave them a way to avoid tariffs that those countries might impose. They already have plants all over the world, so I don't think Trump is one to anything except something to stir the masses with.

The only way to do that and do it right would to make the USA a good country to do business in again - by making the US Business Friendly. I think his plan is more of a "get rid of the government hinderances, intervention, and taxation" than a Mr. Thompson/Wesley Mouch/Cuffy Meigs Stalinist approach.

Harmon's example (above) is an excellent example of this, and why China is beating the tar out of us in Manufacturing... Not only does our Government have it's pork-grabbing hands out at every (and I mean EVERY) juncture, it has busness so tightly regulated, threatened, fined and taxed, that even IF we could hire someone for a fair wage, and have them, like the Chinese workers above, on call to do what needs to be done RIGHT NOW, they would prohibit it as the "nanny for the worker's protective and collective bargaining rights". We have gone from the nation that can do to the nation that must get permission from our masters in Government... and grovel at their feet for permission to barely scrape our businesses by.

And if this reminds you of how things ran in the USSR - or China - and you're surprised about that, then you haven't been paying attention for some few decades.

IF - this is the big if - Trump can get Government's big, fat, obtrusive nose out of Businesses behind, and let them GET TO WORK (like we did decades ago) without forcing on them all kinds of moralistic and socialistic programs, rules, laws, and regs they HAVE to follow, then he will succeed, and yes, to quote him, "Make America Great Again".

Trump is as close to a third party as is possible.

By contrast or, rather, similarity, Reagan was incredibly ignorant of business practices and technologies that he spoke about. Nevertheless...

Retired me is buying an affordable box of bullets each and every month.
Just in case.

Government must get out of the way. That means a reduction to the size it was (per capita) in 1912, before prohibition created the federal police, before the income tax wrecked productivity, before the federal reserve act destroyed competitive banking and rigged capital markets. Eliminate all federal programs added after 1912.

I understand your difficult quest, dino.
I haven't researched Cruz detailed programs and promises extensively. His religious side neither impresses nor causes me to reject him.
I am convinced that anyone who represents the GOP will be chosen by the party insiders and will have a compromised integrity.
If we don't lead, no one will. The only peaceful action open to us is to reject the statist party(DemGOP) and vote for a third party candidate who has not been compromised.
Otherwise, buy a reloading press and lots of components because dictatorship and martial law will be inevitable.