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The Problem with DHS's Plan to 'Buy American'
An anonymous reader points out a Cnet report on the
Homeland Security Authorization Act, which would require that more than 50 percent of the components in any end product bought by the Department of Homeland Security be produced or manufactured in the U.S., writing "The Pentagon has agreements with 21 countries that waive the act, but an amendment that just passed the House would prevent the DHS from waiving the 'Buy American' restrictions. "The president of the Information Technology Association of America observed that this means the DHS may 'have to learn to do without computers and cell phones,' since he could not think of any manufacturers of those devices that would meet the 50% threshold."
What about things like uniforms? I know most cheap bulk clothing is manufactured in East Asia.
Well this is one of those things that shows how the government is out of touch with reality and of what goes on outside of theory. all good and maybe 'faith based' government is like this. believe it and it will come true?
I remember a US school district dumped apple laptops for schools because they werent made in the US.
Wonder which US-made laptops they picked up instead. mattel?
Yes, but it's usually high end and thus out of reach of the masses.
... etc
... etc.
... but in China you can just dump these chemicals out the back.
examples:
Bose Wave Radio
McIntosh audio equipment
Apple's XServes
IBM servers and mainframes
Cisco Routers
Netopia Routers
AMI Motherboards
Lots of commercial electronics for things like autos, CNC machines, telephony
The same goes for electrical components that you don't see like Illinois Capacitors, TadCom resistors, several OEM power supplies
The real reason that so much industry has moved overseas to places like China and India, is that there are very loose environmental and worker safety rules. Manufacturing electronics involves toxic chemicals that are very expensive to dispose of in Germany, US and Japan
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|rip/\/\aster
Which is most likely why they picked it for a "Buy Home brands " initiative .
the DHS never really apeard to be a main gouvernment brach dealing with the national security , after all you have several organisation who already partake in that function. It is as QUANGO organisation set in place to put peoples minds at rest.
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
American Cell Phone Company buys cell phone part pre-assembled from China for $20 and battery from Korea for $10, then does final assembly here and charges $61 wholesale to the gov't.
By value, it's over half American-made.
If 51% mass is the problem, bundle it with an American-made car battery and charging device.
You may think this is funny but crazy rules call for crazy workarounds.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I worked at walmart for a while after college -- The people there were just miserable, and I dont mean shitty people, actualy most of the people were pretty nice, it was just like being on the ship of the damned. The smarter among us knew where the ship was headed, the less aware didn't. And the undertext was always, dont tell anyone. Management was stupid, but they could spot the smart people -- who didn't generally last long. I got along by pretending to be not stupid, but not smart either. They want someone just smart enough to stock their shoes, electronics, etc, and not be trouble -- but stupid enough to believe their lies. They lied constantly, did rotten (and sometimes illegal) things, and just generally made your life shit. The guys who had been there for 15 years, were worn to the nub by life. I was originally thinking of trying to become the store manager or something -- I was *BY FAR* the most educated employee with a BS, but after a while my conscience started to bother me. I *literally* felt by working at this company I was selling out myself, the country, and my own interests.
I quit after a few months when they decided to make me permanant... my back was hurting so bad from the labor that I couldn't sleep more then 3 hours at once (i'd wake up with knotted muscles, have to stretch for 20 - 30 mins, then go back to sleep) And it wasn't like I could afford the walmart insurance, which IIRC was about 30% of your wage (7$ an hour).
The other thing that struck me (coming from a household that made over 200k a year) was how poor the people working there were. I remember one girl bragging abuot how well she was doing -- she had a dvd player and a ps2.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
What will become of them?
Eventually there'll be no more small farms to confiscate through eminent domain or blighted land clauses (or steal through various social programs). At that point, it'll be cheaper to turn an abandoned strip mall or abandoned factory into something else than it will be to force 50-60 millionaires out of their $500,000 homes (sitting on an entire half acre each!).
Like most everything else, this is a cycle. We'll eventually have to choose between un-improving/un-developing (what a dumbass term those real estate people have) land or not eating. The lesser sadness of this is that when we come back around to this point in the cycle, we'll be much worse off, because some things done to land can ruin it for tens of thousands of years (assuming we don't end up like the folks in ``I Put My Blue Genes On'' where there's no humanity left).
The greater sadness is that I see this now; you also see this now; hundreds of people see this now, but they're mostly the ones doing the small farming which doesn't lend itself to gaining the political power necessary to stop this.
Hear me Oh My Representitives! It's only cheaper to bulldoze that forest to make a factory if you don't consider all the factors! That abandoned factory on the edge of town is really the cheapest place to put your new factory. Preserve the small farmer his land!
I wish you would explain that to the Corps of Engineers! At least, the a$$holes I have to deal with... We use "commercially available" products to install our HVAC systems (they could go down and buy them from most any parts house themselves), but we certainly DO have to comply with Buy American when doing the job. Or so they say, and since they control the purse strings...
This leaves us in a bit of a bind. Most foreign-made items we use DO have an American made option, but it is - horrors! - an INFERIOR option. One we would never use otherwise. Luckily, the more critical components are made by companies that the DOD has on their exceptions list, but it still means we have to deal with the paperwork verifying that.
As for soil reclaimation, the situation is better. There has been a lot of research into high-temperature composting, which breaks down toxic leftovers in the soil. Alas, if that soil contains heavy metals, as is often the case, then those must be removed by other means. All of this is quite labor-intensive, and therefore expensive, but some brownfield sites have been turned into parks and gardens this way. I, for one, would love to see a rejuvenated Rust Belt. I'd also like to see the people responsible for these messes be forced to clean them up, rather than socializing the problems that capitalists created, which is what we're doing now.
"OH SHIT, THERE'S A HORSE IN THE HOSPITAL!"
I am not the first person to point out here that very few electronics are made in America anymore. But I would like to point out that many people in America don't understand this, and that it is kind of counterintuitive and that various otherwise intelligent people's inability to understand this is causing some bad economic mistakes to be made all along the line.
I was born in 1979. I still remember when items like televisions, VCRs, Microwaves and the like were luxury items. For people born earlier, especially in the depression, the idea that goods like these often are literally not worth the space it takes to store them. Many people don't understand that televisions and stereos are mass produced in countries like Taiwan that 20 years ago were third world countries, and that Japan is past us in technology, Taiwan is pulling even, and countries like Malaysia are waiting to catch up.
The micro and macro effects of these are causing big ripples in our economy. If the pricing of housing goes up, and the price of consumer goods stays the same, what does that do? If you own an independent electronics retailer, and you sell televisions and stereos at 100 dollars each with a 10 dollar profit, how many do you have to sell to afford a standard 300,000 family home?
And, if the US is running a 60 billion dollar a month trade deficit, what is it going to sell to make up for that? Heavy manufactring used to be our bread and butter, but we would have to export (for example), 600 million tons of steel a month to make up that deficit. Pretty much the only thing the US has a clear edge in manufactring these days is commercial aircraft. But the people who are making economic policy don't realize this just because it contradicts their experience when they were growing up.
Okay. I have had my say.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
World banks are actually very concerned that this might happen. However, our saving grace currently is that other countries have invested too much money in our economy. They can't withdraw their money; if they did then what you described would be very likely to occur.
As pointed out in popular movies such as Fahrenheit 9/11, Saudi money comprises a couple percent of the US economy. That's a lot. About as much as Wal-Mart.
If that money went away we'd be feeling it very hard. But, I think there's a 90% chance that doesn't happen.
Think of it as a game of chicken. The US and other countries are in a game of chicken. We all know that our currency is quickly losing real value, but people are too afraid and too dependent on the US economy to "pull out". Japan might be a big electronics buyer itself, but many more of its products are shipped overseas, primarily to the USA. If our market of consumers disappeared, so would their production economy.
The game of chicken continues until one of two things occurs. (1) Other countries pull out of the US. A cascade effect occurs and the world is in a depression. (2) Other countries don't pull out and slow, steady inflation causes US foreign debts to be effectively erased.
Lots of powerful companies are banking on #2 to happen. If #1 happens, everyone loses, but if #2 happens, it's really the poor people, the factory workers and sweatshop slaves, in 3rd world countries that lose out.
I thought I was the only one this cynical. I have gone back to school to earn a second B.S., my third college degree -- I already hold a B.S. and a M.A. In addition to the science and math curriculum I'm studying Chinese; for reasons that you should find self-evident. I was in Beijing in 2000 and have friends who have been to China even more recently and it is clear that the well paying and rewarding work is already-in or will be in Asia. And when I'm done with school I will hold a B.S in Fine Arts and Communications, a M.A in Design and Writing, a B.S. in Math and Chemistry, a Ph.D in Computational Chemistry and speak fluent Mandarin. And that will qualify me to go anywhere I damn well please and earn a good living, which will likely not be in my country of origin; USA.
You should print this out and mail it to yourself certified so you can prove your "I told you so" points.
I don't have quite such a dire view as you do, though. Of course, the thing with economics is when we realize the worst that could happen, we can prevent it from happening. The fact that the government knows that Weimar inflation is possible, makes it improbable.
However, the current government, to say the least,
seems to have the habit of ignoring reality. The thing is, the American economy actually can survive quite high trade and budget deficits for a while...but not forever. I believe that if we are lucky, as the American dollar gets weaker, imports will get more expensive and manufactring will be cost-feasible in this country. Thats the good version. The bad version is some type of shock hits the global economy, people panic, people pull money out of the economy, the US can't find a way to fianance its debt...and general badness follows.
For my own "I told you so" points, I wrote about this happening in May of 2003:
The Two Tiered Economy
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.