I think the Trump administration should make the case that working in a toy/shoe/cell phone factory is a better job than working at Walmart. It's not. And it can't pay better than working at Walmart. Why would it? The more you pay the mass market factory worker, the higher the price of the final product, and the lower the sales of that product at Walmart.
The administration should instead view mass market factories in Asia as distribution channels for US-designed high margin products. They are part of the selling process for Windows (95% gross margin), graphics chips (60% gross margin), Pentium chips (55% gross margins), Snapdragon chips (50% gross margins), items which us QCOM's wireless patents (80% gross margin) and DRAM and NAND chips. They are downstream from the item the US is selling, they are not in and of themselves of great value.
The admistration is trying to make the distribution of these high margin tech products inefficient, it's really really foolish. There are many ways to employee the "working class" which pay better and are more rewarding than assembly lines.
Why Trump wants Americans to work in factories? Why is that a superior job to the gazillions of other jobs out there? It not. Factory work is physically challenging, mind numbing work that is not desirable. Do the same one minute process for 4 hours, over and over and over and over and over and over and over (repeat) and it's obvious to anyone that what I'm saying is true.
Put your shoes on, ties the laces, untie the laces, take the shoes off. Do that 2,000 times in a row, and you'll understand factory work. And it's the same the next day, week, month, year, as long as you work in that factory. Who the hell would WANT to do that rather than work in Walmart?
And it gets worse. Your manager's job goal is to have you able to do the shoe thing 2,100 times in the same amount of time that it took you to do it 2,000 times, without paying you more money. That's how the factory becomes more efficient - work you harder for the same pay. |
