On 1/28/2013 8:14 PM, RussellMc wrote: > > At a minimum you have used an unfortunate term there. > American (or even USA) workers have not too much direct responsibility fo= r > whether they make products or not. > Sure, step back a level or few and all are partakers in the overall > situation, but it is the producers who do or don't produce in the US (or > Amaerica) that are responsible for the decisions to do so or not. Well, outsourcing has certainly affected the American worker. To some=20 extent (great extent, actually) it has affected me. I'm an electronics=20 technician with over 30 years of experience. I can repair vacuum tube=20 equipment as well as the latest surface mount circuit boards. However,=20 I no longer service consumer-grade equipment, as it isn't even=20 economical. Most consumer grade stuff is essentially junk. It works=20 for a couple years, but that is OK since that is all it's designed to do=20 before it's time for the next upgrade. I'm just being cynical when saying we can't build stuff here. I'll=20 admit to being a bit irritated when I look at an Apple product and see=20 the "Designed in California and Assembled in China". I read where=20 Steve Jobs once said that it would add a total of about $50 to the cost=20 of an iPad, iPhone, etc to buy one assembled in the USA. I can only=20 imagine the tens of thousands of jobs that could potentially be had -=20 good paying jobs with benefits. Can we build it here? Most high schools no longer even have electronics=20 classes. Most kids today have little to no interest. Some say that the=20 miniaturization of today's electronics and the use of SMD components=20 killed the hobbyist. SMD soldering skills can be learned. If these=20 (myself) 50-year old eyes can solder 0402 sized components with the use=20 of a magnifier visor, most could also learn. Ultimately, profit - not just profit to grow and sustain your company,=20 but profit to pay a CEO 400x the wage of an average employee may have=20 killed off much of our manufacturing. Now the CEO can get that wage=20 while exploiting the workers of Foxconn that work in dormitory factories=20 with nets outside the dorm windows. Pardon my rambling. :-) Joe, N6DGY > Skit was funny enough in its way. If focus is more on whiners than on > points raised then points may be well enough made. Actual points made wer= e > either silly (as intended) or directed at the US fron end manufacturer an= d > not the workers or even the Chinese factories per se. Interestingly, hulu > allowed me to view it - in almost all other cases they say I am not in th= e > US and bar me. In this case I can view it and THEN hule says that I am no= t > in the US and that they have barred me. Well done hule. I copied the emai= l > to my wife. Up front hulu said that she was not in the US and banned barr= ed > her from access. Maybe if I post hulu links inside emails from PICLIst or > ??? I can view then and then be barred ? :-) > I don't generally find humor in skits like this. We Americans tend to=20 be rather arrogant and feel we are superior to the people that=20 manufacture our junk. If we were smart, we would beef up our schools=20 and once again teach the sciences and technology. The rest of the world=20 is passing us by, and we may soon be like those countries we like to=20 make fun of. Joe, N6DGY --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .