tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post4849847762370475295..comments2024-03-15T21:00:27.008-05:00Comments on Geezer with a Grudge: Getting Cranky about PatriotismT.W. Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078254371483458356noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-1991999008202132152009-09-21T13:08:34.808-05:002009-09-21T13:08:34.808-05:00Used to be that if you wanted a GREAT American mad...Used to be that if you wanted a GREAT American made bike you could buy a Goldwing, that is until Honda closed their plant in Ohio. We can't even grow our own vegetables now because the geniuses in DC have shut down the water supply to most of the farms in CA for a Smelt...and for the last 6 months we've been importing vegetables from China. We can't even grow our own crops. Some great "Change" going on here since the last election.Life On Two Wheelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11518727391076001763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-82865865846673461292009-09-18T14:01:03.376-05:002009-09-18T14:01:03.376-05:00Thanks Kevin. That means a lot coming from you.
I...Thanks Kevin. That means a lot coming from you.<br /><br />I think some of the reason that we seemed to have lost touch with how little is actually done here is that it happened so slowly and right after so much was accomplished. At least to me, since I was in manufacturing during the period, the 80's were a time of accomplishment for a lot of American manufacturers. What was left of American manufacturing embraced quality control and management techniques. We were even a point of quality manufacturing for a collection of Japanese companies. The late 80s and early 90s seemed to be a moment of comeback for American manufacturing and innovation.<br /><br />Management, however, didn't care much for that period because all of the concepts that were being applied required management focus, hard work, and ability. The touchy-feely Tom Peters crap and all of the Harvard MBA idiocy was pretty much worthless to companies that actually made products and managed inventory and trained workers and engineers. The impact made by a charismatic Finance doesn't require any skills other than the ability to "invest" in politicians and a half-baked plan to fudge accounting numbers.<br /><br />NAFTA and the end of the 90s felt a lot like giving up on all those hard won lessons and the American working class. It's hard to feel sorry for the workers and their lost or unwanted skills, since they seem to regularly vote against their own interests. What we are capable of now, compared to where we were heading, is also disappointing.<br /><br />It appears that Japan is going down similar crooked paths. In his book, Made in Japan, Akio Morita predicted that Japan's second or third generation away from the great manufacturing founders of the 1950s would be as useless and uncompetitive as Henry Ford IV.T.W. Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04078254371483458356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-25419057047848993962009-09-18T13:59:25.538-05:002009-09-18T13:59:25.538-05:00I enjoyed reading this and wonder why more people ...I enjoyed reading this and wonder why more people aren't aware that the<br />US is turning into France - a place with a light film of manufacturing,<br />but which is mainly a farming nation. I can still buy a US-made board,<br />a loaf of bread, and lettuce that has traveled 3000 miles here from The<br />Valley.<br /><br />Patriotism and all the rest of it have devolved into people shouting<br />slogans and acting aggressive. This is disappointing.<br /><br />KCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-686740029609628232009-09-18T12:50:28.798-05:002009-09-18T12:50:28.798-05:00My thoughts exactly! In my business, we really try...My thoughts exactly! In my business, we really try hard to patronize other local businesses or at least ones in the U.S.A., but sometimes you just can't put out your own quality product if you do so. Some miffed vendors will then complain to us that we are not supporting local jobs when their product is not as good and costs twice the price, plus they can't deliver it as fast. Make a great product, price it well, and deliver it on time and U.S. companies get my business every time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com