On 11/19/2010 04:30 PM, Ignoramus16986 wrote:
On 2010-11-19, Tim wrote:
On 11/18/2010 05:30 PM, Hawke wrote:
On 11/18/2010 5:00 PM, Ignoramus5827 wrote:
I visited SK Hand Tool factory in Chicago. It is a surprisingly big
complex of large, old, slightly mysterious, industrial buildings. I
was there to pick up a card cabinet.

What I saw there was forklifts that moved metal crates full of tools
(sockets, socket extensions, wrenches, cabinets etc) and dumped them
in a big metal dumpster. Turns out that the new owner (Ideal
Industries) that bought assets of bankrupt SK tools, does not want
those goods and decided to scrap them. They are declining all
offers to buy that stuff.

The manager of SK tool personally accompanies the dumpster to Gary,
Indiana, to make sure that the tools are all dumped into the scrap
furnace and not pilfered on the way.

Pretty much everyone over there is shocked at this. I was, too. It
reminded of of the Soviet Union, where that sort of waste abounded and
"not giving a ****" was the new religion. The only difference was that
in the Soviet Union, all that stuff would certainly be stolen there,
and here I am sure that everyone honestly played their part and
everything that was supposed to be destroyed, would be destroyed.

i


The anti government people need to learn a lesson from this. This is a
"business" decision. We all hear from the right wing constantly how
great private enterprise is and how inefficient and wasteful the
government is. Well, that is a crock, of course.

Actually, "of course", it's half a crock -- since _any_ big organization
is inefficient and wasteful, it's a pretty short leap to come to the
conclusion that government, business and your friends the unions are
_all_ inefficient and wasteful.

I am somewhat buying the arguments advanced here, that state that
Ideal Industries was not sure of the quality and completeness of the
inventory, and did not want that stuff to hit the market and tarnish
the SK brand name that Ideal intends to revive.

If that is indeed why Ideal is melting this stuff down, I have to say
that I applaud that decision and it is most honest, if painful, and
not a dumb wasteful decision.

I have seen plenty of inefficiency here, but it is still a far more
efficient place than Soviet Union, were as I said, "not giving a ****"
was the new religion.

Much of the Chinese industrial success is based on two factors, one is
that their workforce agrees to work for little pay in appalling
conditions, and another, that they are willing to trash their
environment in order to keep that workforce employed.

I personally expect that degradation of their environment will be a
strong limiting factor in their future growth as a nation.

The continued willingness of their workforce to agree to little pay and
appalling conditions is cracking around the edges, too -- China seems to
be turning into a Russian-style post-communist oligarchy, with fewer
personal freedoms and lots of lip service to "communism".

It's going to be hell if they blow up, instead of fading or quietly burning.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html