Cars. Most amazing thing I've ever seen! Must be typical over the entire industry today, I'd think. No matter how cheaply you can use foreign labor, these things earn no wages, make no mistakes, and produce better quality overall. If you do not feel like watching the whole thing, at least see the scene with the myriad of giant orange machines, about halfway through. Henry Ford's assembly line is STILL THERE, in concept, but there are NO WORKERS! Assembling new cars as if by magic. I have never seen anything so complex in my entire life! Frank
Wait until the day you come out of anesthesia and see those hovering above you, being controlled via cell phone by some M.D. on vacation in Sri Lanka.
There was a time when industrialists had to import workers for their manufacturing facilities, often from other countries. To that end, I remember staying at the American Club in Kohler, WI, in another life. Then and now a 5-star resort, The American Club was originally a place where foreign workers were schooled in the English language, other American studies and job training (for work in the Kohler plant). Today, industrialists buy, install, program, and maintain robotic machinery (e.g., lathes, mills, welders, etc.) and handwork is lost to knowledge work (building, testing, installing programming and maintaining robotics). In the case of auto manufacturing, the result seems to be better cars - certainly much better than the junk foisted on us in the decades following the 1960s.
It is interesting how we went from popping champagne corks when the car hit 100,000 miles to having 150,000 as our minimum expectation. I had a 1990 Volvo that was just a few hundred miles shy of turning 200,000 when a deer ran in front of it. Had I made it to 200,000 I had planned on going to the local dealer and getting a badge they give you every time you turn a fresh 100,000 miles...and I would have looked forward to my next badge. Regarding knowledge base working: there is so much to say on what it has done to this country culturally, and it's not all good. But if you believe what the National Association of Manufacturers puts out, there are about 500,000 manufacturing positions open at any given point in time because applicants cannot pass entry-level language and math tests. So the notion some have of bringing manufacturing "back to our shores" is not feasible.
@John Brunner Instead of studying things of a practical, useful nature, today's youngsters, young adults included, appear predisposed to spend every waking moment staring into an illuminated screen, where all is presented before them, requiring little real personal thinking. Frank
But they still got that H.S. diploma. These days, they don't even have to show up or take tests to pass.
Surfing 101. And they never get a drop of water on them. Imagine. Actually, I was referring to an incident that was uncovered at a DC high school maybe 4 years ago. They had a record graduation rate, and the teachers got $30,000 bonuses because of it. Someone smelled a rat (a local NPR affiliate), did some investigating, and found out that a big chunk of the students never even showed up for class or for tests. The teachers were ordered to give a minimum grade of 50% (lowest passing) on tests and classwork, even for no-shows. So the teachers had half the workload, they got $30,000 bonuses, they still scream "there's not enough money in the system," illiterate kids graduated high school, and when those kids crash & burn as adults it can be blamed on a bigoted America. Win/Win/Win/Win/Win
I had my prostate removed robotically in 2012, although the surgeon was a few feet away sitting in front of a computer. I was reading an article about robotic surgery a few days later, and it made the comment something like: If a surgeon can operate on you from the other side of the room, why not 1,000 miles away? That blew my mind, and that was almost 10 years ago -- several lifetimes in computer technology. I can't imagine where they are now. I worked at the Rochester Products division of GM from 1977-1981. They were using crude robots then in the die cast area. They replaced a job that any 12 year-old kid could do, but those workers earned (high) union wages with all the bennies. The UAW fought against the robots, but they were (and are) a result of their ridiculous wage and benefit demands. As my dad experienced in the Baker's Union many moons ago, "they priced themselves right out of a job." Of course replacing mindless jobs with robots opens the door to higher-tech and higher-paying jobs like building the computers, the software, and installing and maintaining everything. And we are seeing this same trend with ordering automation in chain restaurants, although it is not the fault of any union. The main reason is because minimum wages are being forced artificially high with arbitrary numbers that politicians pull out of the sky. They are destroying entry-level jobs where kids (as I was) learn responsibility, a work ethic, etc.
I agree with everything that you said. I tell you something else...those entry-level jobs motivated me to go to night classes to get my degree because I wanted something else for myself. ps: You did good work on those quadrajets pps: I once interviewed for a job with Nabisco when they built a plant in Richmond VA in the early 70s. Bakery & Confectioners Union, baby! My brother worked there. They vandalized his locker and his vehicle for "not joining."
Ha, my first job was being a weekend gopher and car-loader at a garden center at age 14 I think. Wow, I had my own cash in my pocket, I was rich! That was my only takeaway at that age. Had a few others after that before I got into the toolmaker apprenticeship in 1968. My best "entry level" was when I was 17-18 as a lot boy at a Pontiac dealer. The salesmen were sending me out on errands all the time, and I could snap plates on whatever used car I wanted. For some reason I always took GTOs or other hot cars. They took a '68 427 Corvette in on a trade, it wasn't even one model year old yet, and I got to drive it 20 or so miles to get dolled up. That was almost as much fun as going to the drive-in with my GF. It was a great job for a teen-aged gearhead. Those were the days. At RPD, being a moldmaker, I worked on the carb casting dies. Nearly all of them were what we called "mod quads," they were modified somewhat from the original cuz of pollution mandates. Maybe that union you mentioned was the union my dad was in -- it sounds familiar. He worked at a commercial bakery that a local grocery store chain owned. Him and my mom had two bakeries and sold the last one soon after I was born. So he went from running a small business to a union bakery, and hated it. I remember him saying, "The union protects the lazy and the incompetent." I saw the exact same thing at the UAW. I quit in disgust after four years. My life long buddy also worked there. We kept telling each other, "This place can't last." It took another 30 years (the 2008 GM bailout) but we ended up being right.