Why Amazon Can't Make A Kindle In the USA

[Warren Stupidity]

Source: Forbes

Amazon couldn’t make a Kindle here if it wanted to
Decades of outsourcing manufacturing have left U.S. industry without the means to invent the next generation of high-tech products that are key to rebuilding its economy, as noted by Gary Pisano and Willy Shih in a classic article, “Restoring American Competitiveness” (Harvard Business Review, July-August 2009)

The U.S. has lost or is on the verge of losing its ability to develop and manufacture a slew of high-tech products. Amazon’s Kindle 2 couldn’t be made in the U.S., even if Amazon wanted to:

The flex circuit connectors are made in China because the US supplier base migrated to Asia.
...

More at link.

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/08/17/why-amazon-cant-make-a-kindle-in-the-usa/

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The Plutocracy Party has sold us out big time. Anyone care to guess what the end game plan is?

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. K&R

:argh:

[RKP5637]

2. Yep, and it's not just manufacturing, R&D is leaving too. In the big picture, America

is positioning itself to be obsolete. Other countries can do just fine. We had a good run of it after WWII, but the great society we once had here has been squandered, torn apart by endless corruption, greed and a failure of leadership at many levels.

Yep, the end game is those holding the wealth and power in this country do not give a F about America and its future. They, will do just fine. They will push their money and bullying around the world pushing there way in to rob other countries blind. It's all part of the game they play.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. Read the article - they discuss that.

It is all connected. We are losing/have lost our ability to compete across the board.

[Donnachaidh]

5. and people wonder why all the re-training is for *service* industries

We're being converted to 3rd world status. The working class will be the future nannies and waitpeople of the uber-elites.

[RKP5637]

8. Excellent article. IMO the common thread is cost of labor. If, the

global cost of labor were consistent, there would often be no value in outsourcing. IMO until the world labor markets pretty much balance, the drain will always be to the lower cost labor market. As the article points out so well, many don't get the expertise goes away too. The discussion on solar panels and the administrations' failure to recognize building solar panels does NOT create jobs here, for example, was so well said.

Also, my strong belief has always been a society needs to provide jobs at all levels, from the lowest to the highest, so the entire spectrum of workers, talents and educational levels can be fully employed and contribute to the society.

Where we are now is total BS. We need to seriously rethink the paradigm in America of just what is it we are trying to do. Right now greed rules, and that is obviously devastating this country.

We need bold leadership to get out of this mess and so far I just don't see it at many levels.

Excellent Article!!!

[cui bono]

26. That's why we need tariffs on imports.

Then it wouldn't be so lucrative for them to outsource. Take out the incentive to ruin the US.

[RKP5637]

27. Yep! Exactly! n/t

[valerief]

28. But then it wouldn't be lucrative for them, and making rich people richer is the most important

thing in the world.

[Romulox]

12. R&D needs to be near production in order to be efficient.

"Made in China, Designed in California" never made sense in the long run.

[RKP5637]

16. Exactly! We teamed together constantly for R&D, production and service from

conception through end of life. It was one constant interdependent model seamlessly teaming together. Many many times we had engineering meetings from all three areas together with marketing, sales and education. Today, we have a completely fractured system.

[onehandle]

4. The Kindle is made by the factories in China that make most every device we buy.

And in fact make components, if not the entirety of every electronic gadget out there, including PCs.

The only reason that Apple is always in the headlines associated with Foxconn, it that they are the industry leader.

These aren't 'Apple factories' that suicidal workers work in, they are everybody's factory. Including Amazon.

Sad, but true. I wish it wasn't so.

[rug]

6. Borders and patriotism mean nothing to capital unless it needs a war.

[RKP5637]

9. Yep, that pretty well sums it all up! n/t

[sfpcjock]

7. And on another note: Dylan show had a letter from a small biz restaurant

that said they can only break even because of all of the taxes. When Boner/Cantor/Ryan/McCon-job the Turtle talk about "small business" they are referring to $30 billion pass-through "S-Corp" small business like Bechtel which paid $0 taxes--they have less than 100 owner parties so their fake charter lets them call themselves small business. They are nothing but a campaign cash scam for Repuke-nicans. Totally phony, as Tim Russert would have said.

[baldguy]

10. This shit didn't start last year .... it started 40 yrs ago.

The destruction of American manufacturing is the result of a well thought-out, well executed long-term plan to weaken our economy.

By multinational corporations.

[NNN0LHI]

17. I know

[Plucketeer]

33. The wealthy will be MORE than happy to return jobs to the USA

Just as soon as American workers become desperate enough to work for wages equivalent to what Chinese labor gets paid. That's been the plan all along.

[high density]

11. The end game isn't good for most of us

Corporations want consumers to buy tons of things from them, so that the business can grow its earnings every quarter, but at the same time they don't want to employ anybody at a decent wage. This equation simply doesn't work.

[Dragonfli]

22. That only leaves one thing that could be the plan, replace US consumers with overseas markets

This country will become a serfdom wherein 98% will live in squalor without hope of ever getting out.
Unless the unchecked greed is stopped, somehow I doubt that is even possible anymore.

[Supersedeas]

43. Capitalist value effeciency and growth over people--you're right

the equations don't work since their precious numbers possess no sense of patriotism or empathy for people.

The Corporation feed on profits and growth.

[nashville_brook]

13. free trade means we're free to buy shit from elsewhere

we can all just deliver pizzas to each other.

[democrat2thecore]

19. That's funny

and incredibly sad at the same time.
Pizzas and Wal-Mart greeters.

[Fuddnik]

39. We'll gladly pay you Tuesday

If you manufacture us a cheeseburger today.

Wimpy saw it coming.

[Quantess]

14. The end game plan.

Never doubt for a second this wasn't all planned.
At least, not the general skeleton of the plan.

[southernyankeebelle]

15. It will be interesting when these american companies overseas get

in the middle of their wars because I think the world is ready, just like WW2. I wonder how these companies are going to run back home?

[RKP5637]

18. I think we should change the locks, leave 'em there! n/t

[russspeakeasy]

32. Good idea ! If you leave, you can't come back..

:beer:

[progressoid]

20. USA! USA! USA!

:banghead::banghead::banghead:

[Necronomiconomics]

21. Amazon funds right-wing ALEC

Should we continue to $upport the corporatio­­ns that sponsor the radical Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's legislatio­­n? Written for him by ALEC.

Check out the corporatio­­ns funding ALEC. Including Amazon.com ... Thanx Amazon!

http://thi­­nkprogres­s­.org/pol­it­ics/201­1/0­8/05/2­8882­3/ale­c-exp­osed­-corpo­rat­ions-fu­nd­ing/

[DeSwiss]

23. K&R

"At the beginning of World War II the US had a mere 600 or so first-class fighting aircraft. We rapidly overcame this short supply by turning out more than 90,000 planes a year. The question at the start of World War II was: Do we have enough funds to produce the required implements of war? The answer was no, we did not have enough money, nor did we have enough gold; but we did have more than enough resources.

It was the available resources that enabled the US to achieve the high production and efficiency required to win the war. Unfortunately this is only considered in times of war. In a resource-based economy all of the world's resources are held as the common heritage of all of Earth's people, thus eventually outgrowing the need for the artificial boundaries that separate people. This is the unifying imperative." ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=z17cV8Hh9bo&vq=large">Jacques Fresco

[JHB]

24. Another argument for high tax rates on high incomes

If you'r already in the income stratosphere, what will you get more from: cutting costs 20% and having Uncle Sam take ~80% of the extra gravy you'd stick in your pocket, or build the longer-term value of the companies you own/invest in?

[Motown_Johnny]

25. If you want to know the end game then start reading more Dickens

Reductions in the surplus population and work houses both play a part.



They want to take our country back.

[Mimosa]

29. How can we get back our country?

Why do the rich want to destroy us?

[Skidmore]

30. Nearly all the products we consume here are from somewhere other

than the US, including produce and other food stuff. This needs to be a broader discussion other than for Amazon technology.

Besides, doesn't Steve Forbes love himself some capitalism?

[Mimosa]

31. Just discovered classic Dixon Ticonderoga pencils now made in China!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixon_Ticonderoga_Company




Almost NOTHING is still made here in the USA, including cosmetics. Even frozen foods are often being imported. :(

[KoKo]

37. All Frozen Brocolli is grown in Mexico or Guatemala, including Whole Foods brands...

Check out Birds Eye, Green Giant and see where it all comes from. Even the fresh is being imported in part from those countries.

[gtar100]

34. No end game plan.

Just the natural result of short-sighted thinking. Business owners and investors saw the profit they could make by moving manufacturing jobs to Asia (or elsewhere) so they did it. They weren't thinking about the consequences to the United States. They weren't planning to make the vast majority of people poor here. They just didn't care. It didn't factor into their equations.

What looks like a well thought-out plan on the part of the plutocracy is really just the inevitable consequences of their policies that they base solely on their short-sighted greediness.

[russspeakeasy]

35. Makes me glad I'm old. The next 30 years will be a dirty and bumpy road.

:evilfrown: Just sorry the grandkids will have to live through it, or fix it.

[obxhead]

36. Bullshit!

Impose fair trade taxes on these products. Within 12 months production would be in full swing within our borders and a jobs problem would be a thing of the past. The deficit would be erased shortly afterward as well.

The downfall :sarcasm: is the plebes would shrink the gap between the rich and poor by 2%

[moondust]

40. +1

Blame it on the flex circuit connectors. As if there can only be one possible source for the things. :eyes:

[Warren Stupidity]

42. read the article - a long list of stuff the kindle needs, its entire BOM -

none of it made here.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

38. This is an issue of national security

If we had to fight a world war today, even a conventional one where no sides dare use nuclear weapons, we couldn't retool all our industry to a war footing the way we did under Roosevelt. We simply don't have enough industry for that now.

[tclambert]

41. I was gonna ask don't our weapons systems depend on the highest high-tech?

If we can't build the highest tech eletronics and computers here, what do we put in our ships and planes? Do we buy critical components from foreign powers? We cannot depend on the Chinese for our defense!