Why Amazon Can't Manufacture a Kindle In the US 598
theodp writes "Ever wonder why all those job listings for Amazon subsidiary Lab126 — the internal group behind the Kindle and, by all accounts, an upcoming Android tablet — have travel requirements? Over at Forbes, Steve Denning explains why Amazon can't make a Kindle in the U.S., and why that really does matter. 'The idea that there is a lot of outsourcing going on is hardly news', writes Denning. 'The idea that it is irreversible and destructive of the economy's ability to grow is less well known. Even so, it's not exactly new news: the HBR article that I cite is two years old. What is really new news is that (1) these fairly obvious truths haven't yet dawned on economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, CEOs, accountants, politicians, among others and (2) the way to manage in a radically different way to deal with these issues is now more fully articulated than it has been before.' Denning concludes his trilogy-of-management-terror by noting that the decline is also occurring in software."
Even Dell is feeling it (Score:4, Interesting)
Dell told its 905 workers there that the factory will be closed by January in a cost-cutting move that will send more of the company's manufacturing overseas.... Analysts said they expect Dell will transfer much of the work now done in North Carolina to lower-cost contract manufacturers in Asia, who already make PCs for Dell's rivals.
Re:What? (Score:4, Interesting)
An impartial observer does not care by definition, thus your question is a red herring.
Put up protective tariffs and make it difficult to send money from the country, but easy for people to move in. You know, what we had in the past when everything went well and the opposite that we have now, when everything is going straight to Hell.
Good riddance. If they aren't doing anything for us, why would we want them around? Away with them, so new companies can rise in their stead to actually benefit us.
Good. With any luck, it kills off the multinationals, thus restoring economic power to where it belongs: in the hands of national governments and through them Us the People.
It's about time we grew a spine and fought back against these rich assholes who would have the whole of humanity compete on who can grovel best before them.
Re:Outsourcing (Score:4, Interesting)
I work for a Chinese company in China. If you think you can get software developed cheaper here you're a moron. Then again, most senior management these days are morons, so cool, keep on sending that money guys.
Want to know what's wrong with China? Talent pool is so over-utilised through insane investment that anyone who can implement Pac Man in C expects to be CTO, I myself am paid triple what a doctor with 20 years experience is paid. You can't get a team of more than 1 programmer who isn't a mouth breathing idiot because the second will inevitably have far better opportunities. China just doesn't have that pool of programmers who grew up coding and are eager to be paid for it, so they'll make do with what they have. I imagine India is the same. The west has an absolute glut of talent due to the sheer number of people born in the 70s and early 80s that grew up tinkering and couldn't imagine doing anything else, it's moronic not to exploit it, I imagine China will once it is even richer.
Re:Comparative Advantage... (Score:4, Interesting)
The average American is worse off? Funny, I didn't see Iphones, PCs, drugs that actually work, etc. in the 1950s?
http://american-business.org/uploads/posts/2011-03/1301047846_work-time-in-minutes-required.jpg [american-business.org]
Re:China's currency (Score:4, Interesting)
Wrong. The Yuan is artificially pegged by and to US debt, and in turn they lock it to the USD. The PRC artificially pushes the yuan's value lower in order to remain hyper-competitive. The Japanese do exactly the same thing in a different way, they buy USD in order to push the yen's value lower. Anyone who's ever done currency trading even a small amount learns this truth of the markets very quickly.