On Sat, 16 Aug 2003 17:54:39 GMT, (Dave Mundt) wrote:


Yet another factor is the evolution of focus
in today's business world. Today, the attitude seems to be
"make as much money as possible for us and for the
shareholders and who cares what the product is". While
the purpose of business has ALWAYS been to make money,
it seems to me that 30 years ago, there was a pride of
product in that process. The atttitude seemed to be
more that of "Let's make a great product, that folks will
be REALLY attracted to, and make a ton of money off it".

That was one I really wrestled with as a design engineer. If I can
make something better without increasing the cost I want to. (Or,
even better, make an improvement that people are willing to pay more
for) That was my goal. My most recent boss had the mindset you have
been describing, seems odd for a director of engineering to not want a
particularly god product. "You don't have to be better than anybody
else, you just have to be as cheap or cheaper and not any worse." he
claimed that customers will look at the bottom line (now, not future
expenses) and buy what's cheapest. We argued a little with him and
somebody brought up Honda as an example and said they make good stuff
that really just keeps on running. My boss claimed that Honda's
success has nothing to do with the product, but that they had a
superior marketing department. Major downer for a design guy to get
this kind of stuff from a guy who is supposed to direct him. Hard to
respect someone like that. But, I think people like him in positions
like that are all too common in the US today. I honeslty think he
was'nt too far departed from a lot of his contemporaries. I belive he
and another middle management manufacturing director basically steered
our company into a direction where the plant was closed and re-opened
in chagao as an assembly only plant and all the parts were outsourced
(mostly overseas). I got laid off. Still looking for something good
in my area (unwilling to move yet, stubbern, lots of family here).
This manager of mine who believed in building an inferior product and
selling it cheap was hired at another manufacturin company, wonder if
they will go the same way......

Combining that with the fact that today's world is
a lot tougher for business, what with the increased
costs, smaller margins and almost cancer-like growth
of government bureaucracy, regulations and laws, really
forces the American businessman to outsource as
much of the work as possible. Paying an American
worker $15 or more an hour to sew pants might
destroy a business, whereas paying someone in
a Third World nation $5/day to produce the same
thing means that they show great profits.
Speaking of cancer, another factor in this whole
bag of worms is the attitude that the only way
a company can be considered "good" is if it shows
a growth of return in every Quarter. If a
company returns the same dividend for two or
three quarters in a row, it is looked upon with
suspicion, and, the stock's value may fall. It
has been my observation that the only thing that
grows continually is cancer...and we KNOW how
good that is for an organism.

Amen

The bottom line is that as long as Americans
follow the path where continual, growing returns on
investments; always searching for the lowest price;
and folks that work with their hands are looked upon
with scorn are the rules of the game, our jobs will
continue to vanish overseas.

Right now I'm using my hands to support myself (some woodworking, some
metalworking, some farm work), I know people in positions like I had
who don't know how to use their hands. Gonna be more competition in
the burger flipping (no reletive experience necessary) sector if
things keep going this way.

At some point, I expect that things will
collapse, simply because if all the revenue sources
are gone, we will not have the bucks to buy those
imports from overseas, and, our country will appear
weak enough to be easy pickings for one of the other
countries in the world. That will be a time of
serious chaos for America...and one that I am
not sure can be avoided.
Regards
Dave Mundt

I think about stuff like that and wish I was older. As it is I think
I'm gonna get to see things get a lot worse before I check out.

Dave