[Elecraft] WSJ article
Dave Balla
orion129 at hotmail.com
Fri Sep 9 10:38:38 EDT 2005
There's enough blame to go around, but I'm blaming 1's and 0's. In my
opinion, it's the root cause of the world changing. Some call this
process Globalization. I know. I was there. I laid off hundreds. Then
I got laid off.
We can jam a lot of 1's and o's into a digital pipe and transfer it in
nanoseconds. We call it bandwidth. It's much easier now for a digital
receiver to read a signal sqare wave that goes up for a 1 and down for
a 0. Now we have digital video and satellite T.V. And so can the
poorest of nations around the world.
Satellite T.V. for the economically poor-the 'have-nots'-opened up a
window on the world. Now they saw for the first time what the
"have's" really had, how they lived, their freedom and culture, and
the cars and trucks they drove. Then the 'have-nots' decided they
wanted some of this and a better life. So they decided to work for a
meager wage and change. American companies liked this because their
stock holders wanted the stock to rise and pay bigger dividends.
Reduce labor costs was the mantra of the 90's. Send it to Mexico
where a welder makes 2.50 an hour versus 23.50 in the U.S. In 15
years Thailand went from a rice producer to being the second largest
producer of pick up trucks, and the fourth largest of
motorcycles.......in the world! We know where GM and Ford are right
now, don't we? One night while watching National Geographic Explorer a
shoeless peasant in the Amazon digging in the mud for gold nuggets
walked to his grass hut to check the spot price of gold on the New
York Stock exchange via the Bloomberg channel.
Many of the 'have-not' countries can't get all the jobs from the U.S.
or elsewhere, so are starting to get frustrated and mad at their
leaders. The Middle East is a good example. Amy Chua calls it "The
World on Fire." Who would have imagined that a lousy 1 and 0 would
have this impact on jobs and raw emotions.
Demand is up for these developing countries because they was big shiny
cars and maybe a pickup truck. Just like the millions in China are
buying right now. If Wal-Mart where a country, it would be the third
largest trading country in the world with China. The Chinese want oil
from the same place we get ours. And the other have-not countries are
going to want it some day too. More politics. See how 1's and 0's
got us into this? Who would have thunk it?
Then we hooked our computers to the Internet. More 1's and 0's
running around the world. Instant post offices. Instant transfer of
money to the have-not countries and withdrawl from failing countries.
Instant drawing transfers and engineering changes. Take software
development: In 1977 IBM was developing the same piece of software
AROUND THE WORLD. Programmers from Beijing sent their work over the
Internet at the end of each day to Seattle. Then they zapped it over
the net 5,200 miles to Belarus in Latvia. From there it went to
Bangalore, India who passed it back to Beijing by morning, back to
Seattle and so on 24/7 in a global relay that never stopped until the
project was completed. Think Ten Tec does this???? Have a
manufacturing problem in a foreign plant these days? Just get on a
video conference call. Sell your airline stock. NOW.
Globalization, exporting of jobs, foreign investment, huge increases
in demand, pressure from stock holders, Iraq, Afghanistan, the rise
and fall of ham radio manufacturers in the U.S.: I'm blaming 1's and
0's.
73's DAve, KW4N
_________________________________________________________________
From: N2EY at aol.com
To: n5ia at zia-connection.com,
kenharker at kenharker.com,lacosta at bcpl.net
CC: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] WSJ article
Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2005 06:18:56 EDT
MIME-Version: 1.0
Received: from mailman.qth.net ([63.238.179.60]) by
mc7-f20.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.211); Fri, 9
Sep 2005 03:20:11 -0700
Received: from mailman.qth.net (mailman.qth.net [127.0.0.1])by
mailman.qth.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7F6BA859C99;Fri, 9 Sep 2005
06:25:15 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from imo-d22.mx.aol.com (imo-d22.mx.aol.com
[205.188.144.208])by mailman.qth.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id
E1BD1859C14for <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>; Fri, 9 Sep 2005 06:25:06
-0400 (EDT)
Received: from N2EY at aol.comby imo-d22.mx.aol.com
(mail_out_v38_r5.3.) id z.1e6.436c1583 (4222);Fri, 9 Sep 2005
06:18:56 -0400 (EDT)
>In a message dated 9/8/05 5:14:53 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>n5ia at zia-connection.com writes:
>
>
> > Just look what the Walmart Super Stores and the Home Depot's
have done to
> > the local grocery stores and hardware/lumber yards. And what
Mc Garbage has
> > done to the local burger joint. It's the power of advertising.
> >
> >
>
>I disagree!
>
>It's the power of people's buying habits, plus the economies of
scale, plus
>competition.
>
>Wally World et al survive and flourish because people - customers
- take
>their business from the established stores and bring it to WW.
>
>The short-term gain is that WW can offer lower prices and a bigger
selection.
>The
>long-term consequence is that local businesses are wiped out.
>
>And it's not just local businesses. The big chains dominate the
>manufacturers,
>forcing them to cut costs or lose the contract. (Look what WW did
to
>Rubbermaid). They go "overseas" for products, forcing US
manufacturers out of
>business.
>And then folks wonder where the good jobs went...
>
>Also in order to keep costs down, quality is sacrificed. Also
serviceability,
>so that you have to buy a new one because the old one wasn't meant
to be
>fixable.
>
>--
>
>We saw a version of this happen in amateur radio 30-odd years ago.
The
>old-line US ham radio manufacturers were mostly pushed off the
shelves by imported
>rigs from Japan. The same happened in "consumer electronics".
>
>Fortunately a few US ham mfrs. survive, like TenTec. The success
of Elecraft
>is
>proff that at least part of the market looks beyond the price tag,
at things
>like simplicity, performance, serviceability, etc.
>
>We don't just vote at the polls - we "vote" economically every
time we buy
>something.
>
>73 de Jim, N2EY
>_______________________________________________
>Elecraft mailing list
>Post to: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
>Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
>
>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
>Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
More information about the Elecraft
mailing list