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What Fruits Will Reduced R&D Bear For The U.S.?
lucabrasi999 writes "Here's an interesting
commentary from Mike Tarsala at CBS.Marketwatch.com regarding R&D spending by U.S. companies as it compares to overseas firms. It compares today's US tech firms to the Big Three Automakers of the 70's, while saying the overseas tech firms are similar to the Toyotas and Hondas of the 70's. In other words, US Tech firms are about to be taught a lesson in global capitalism. I think Mike is 100% correct. What do you think?"
I learned a long time ago in eco 101 that the reason Japanese companies often did so well during recessions is that when times got tough, they sunk more money into R&D and borrowed from the bank when they needed to. They would take a loss, knowing that it would be more than compensated for in the future.
It seems that American companies are trashing their R&D divsions and trying to cover up for it by making themselves "more efficient." With "efficiency" meaning layoffs, cutbacks and product reductions.
"Times are tough" doesn't seem like much of an argument for allowing a company to atrophy. But it's the argument all these C*Os are making. Why are we still paying these idiots to ignore broad economic trends and basic numbers? Is it because they look sharp in those $10,000 designer suits?
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Err.. i think (not really sure) that the u.s. already has a trade deficit (ever looked where your t-shirt were made lately). Secondly, being (french) canadian, i think that minimum wage is a good thing and i am gratefull to the unions for other things like the 5 day work week and a safety in the work place. The problem is that unions usualy are as greedy as the companies.
Lg is the old GoldStar from Korea. LG=Lucky GoldStar. Still crappy TV's!
Here's a computer manufacturer that has every manufacturer scared, including Dell: Legend. In less than 5 years they've gone from nothing to owning PRC and having a good position in APAC relative to EVERYONE (IBM, HP, Dell, etc.).
Oh, and they haven't yet started doing real internal R&D. That's coming aggressively now and they are the engine of PRC computing...if you haven't heard of Happy Linux, you ought.
How about the fact that every major US computer manufacturer has relocated R&D (and in some cases validation) to Taipei or PRC? Doesn't that scare the hell out of you?!
Here is the mapping:
Dell -> Quanta (in Taipei)
IBM -> MSI and Gigabyte
HP -> Various and lead the migration in desktop
Gateway -> Quanta and others
Sense a trend here by any chance...
"... but you can love completely without complete understanding." - Norman Maclean, "A River Runs Through It"
That's a far too simplistic analysis.
Myth 1) Population rules all, which is why China (#1 population) and India (#2 population) should have the most powerful economies in the world.
Reality) China's GDP ranks 7th, behind that of the US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, and Italy. India's is 12th.
Myth 2) The United States, because of all of those damned immigrants and teenage mothers, is increasing its population at a staggering rate.
Reality) The predicted population ranking in 2015 will still be in order of size: China, India, the United States. The annual population growth rates of these nations between 1995 and 2000 are .90%, 1.69%, and 1.05% respectively. Accurate predictions for, say 2040, are hamstrung by the repeated failures of earlier population forecasts, as this paper delineates.
Larger population does not equal strongest economy. Japan has the 9th largest population and 2nd largest economy. Enormous Russia has the 6th largest population and 15th largest economy.
Population densities, education, economic infrastructure, and a variety of other factors are far more imporant than simple comparisons of size.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
The majority of R&D has been done by the US government, not by corporations.
Wrong. In the US 70% of R&D funding is done by corporations.
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/databrf/sdb99357.htm
Saying the japanese do it better is just a faulty argument
Actually, anecdotal evidence with a sample size of one is a faulty argument. Check a Consumer Reports. The Japanese (and soon, the South Koreans) do do it better.
No, saying your Mustang is representative of the US Auto industry is a faulty argument. I'm glad you enjoyed your anecdote, but it's just a single outlying data point.
Every serious analysis of manufacturing quality (for example, the annual Consumer Reports list) shows that Japanese makers on average are way ahead of their US peers.
It never ceases to amaze me the ignorance of people so willing to call others dolts and morons.
For the last time, SUVs are not cars. They were started as cost cutting measures to sell trucks to morons
Actually, their history is just as traceable to station wagons as they are to trucks. More recently they are using unit body chassis like cars more then truck frame rail chassis.
They predate safety, emmisions and milage measures. And BTW, the milage and emmisions restrictions more direclty correlated to the SUV popularity then safety.
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OnRoad: Safely reporting the SUV war from the middle of the road.
Actually, most of it has been poured into capital-works types of projects - lots of infrastructure improvements, that kind of thing. The fact that their economy is still in the crapper is just more empirical evidence that that sort of Keynesian pump-priming simply doesn't work in the real world.
Now, if Slashdot really is populated by bankers (and economists) these days, that last sentence ought to be good for picking a fight ;)
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
It probably costs close to a billion dollars a day to have them sit around at home. There's a trillion dollar defense budget each year. Divide by 365. That's several billion dollars per day no matter what they do.
My other first post is car post.
Stem cell research involves single undifferentiated cells. While there may be some who believe that stem cells should not be obtained from unborn foetuses, this has no bearing whatsoever on the morality of stem cell research per se. Stem cells can be obtained from placentas quite ethically (my wife intends to donate hers) ... but as I understand it the so-called "moralists" in the USA are blocking this too. So what is it, do people seriously believe that stem cells - undifferentiated single cells with no nervous system - are equivalent to people?! The cell cannot suffer. It has no nervous system. It is no more a who than a stick of celery.
Stem cells are as important to medical science as the transistor is to electronics. Blocking stem cell research would stymie medical progress, basically, forever.
That's $1.2 billion over five years, and that includes $500 million already pledged by Bush to the Freedom Car Initiative (a continuation of the 80mpg car research project started by the Clinton administration 10 yrs ago). A hundred million or two a year is peanuts in the Federal budget. (story here). Fuel cell research will probably need 10 times as much money before it's ready for production.
Interestingly enough, it was the British who came up with the "Made in..." label. Here's a quick reference I found:
Buy American?