Yea, like a certain entity that spent $632 million on a website that doesn't work. Wonder who's pocket that wad of cash ended up in ?
I think both or you are correct, but the Good Ole USA has fallen way behind in manufacturing capabilities compared to other countries and the only really true quality parts are coming out of the smaller shops that charge for their work...............some that come to mind are Bryant cranks, Cunningham rods, but you pay a very high price.........I've been using Crower products most of my life and when I replaced my cam last year the first one they sent me had to be returned. It seems some of the younger generation just doesn't really care about quality or customer service.....and it's not all their fault because the direction of any company comes from the top.................IMHO
A lot of the business decisions to move offshore, boost production numbers - in many cases - sacrificing quality, where done before the generation running things now where even born. So ur right - most of these problems/issues are not their fault .... IMO. A lot of those companies who went in that direction have gone past the point of returning to quality product, returning to mfg products in the USA and still satisfy shareholder profit.
We still have the capability here, but the problem lies at the top, just as your last sentence states above. The oil & gas business is proof of that. It's booming and expanding, and has been for the past ten years.
Unfortunately we don't have capacity to be a world leader in manufacturing. As proof of the steel industry...........we used to be the biggest producer in the world.................we are fourth behind China, Europe and Japan....................the reason.............it would cost too much to modernize our factories to complete with the top three...simple economics 101...........a lot of the factories haven't been modernized since the 60's...........again.....why? As for the gas and oil industry...........we are third in the world behind Russia and Saudi Arabia............again, the reason............most of cracking facilities are old, where Russian and Saudi are spending billions of dollars per year to modernize..................why haven't we modernized before now, simple economics...............it takes a ton of money.....and what would the shareholders say about spending billions of dollars.............you guessed it. I've been selling into the manufacturing field for over 30 years, and I've seen a steady decline in the amount of money big corporations want to spend on modernization..........hence they are leaving the good ole USofA and going somewhere where labor is cheaper and they can make an even bigger profit.............because our government (both state and Federal) have their thumbs up their B#@...........
You haven't kept track of what's going on in oil and gas then. We've gotten to the point where our domestic production has supassed oil imports now, all due to shale oil production in Texas, the Dakotas and other areas. Steel production could be grown to surpass any other country, but our regulatory environment prevents that from happening.(but Louisiana has had a new steel plant come here, if it's not yet in production it soon will be) Refineries have been upgraded and expanded constantly in the past ten years as well and it's still going on. We no longer have a lack of refining capacity here. You're in N. Kalifornia, come down to Texas and Louisiana and see it for yourself. We've been living the boom, not riding the overall economic malais instuted and kept going by Obama. If you don't have a job here, you don't want a job.
Ok, you are certainly right about extracting oil from used wells and shale oil production, but as far as steel................we don't have the machinery to increase or even grow to more than 3rd/4th place in the world market. Have you been back East lately..............even if the government relaxed its environmental constraints............the "Old Factories couldn't handle the load", as they would need billions in upgrades..........something the struggling companies can not afford.........maybe 20 years ago when they had the capital. We still have a long way to go if we want to be a world leader in manufacturing again. Two years ago when I was in China, their government made if real clear that China was going to surpass the USA in manufacturing............and this has been their goal since the early 90's. If you could see the change that has taken place there........you wouldn't think it had been possible in such a short time..........not touting China, but they are a lot more determined to be "The" world leader in manufacturing. Enough said.
I'm not discounting China and the rest of the world, just sayin that we could become a leader again, if not the leader. But a lot will have to change in government to allow that to happen. It's not that we can't do it, we can if we're allowed.
California smog laws have killed foundries here. One of my customers was running a foundry in National City until the state required them to meet emissions requirements that were impossible under the technology that existed at that time. So they were forced to move their manufacturing "offshore". First to Mexico where they were scrapping 60% of parts because they were so far out of tolerance that they were not salvageable. Then to India, Malaysia, Vietnam, then finally to a new factory in China. Protuction got gradually better as they moved around until they finally got to a point of seldom requiring much more than an occasional touch up to meet specs. So now everything should be good, right? Good parts coming in from China, low costs, company should be making good money. But they are not. The U.S. government put a 100% tariff on the imported parts because U.S. produced parts cost more to produce. So, a company who was providing good paying jobs to skilled workers can't meet impossible government demands has to offshore their production to stay in business. Then the government fines them for producing parts that they were no longer allowed to produce here. Net result, they no longer make the parts that they used to and the price for the replacement parts is more than twice what it was before. Business greed never came into the equation.
California won't be a part of that resurgence. They keep putting more obstacles in the way of any business here. The nuclear power plant near Oceanside is being scrapped because the lawsuits to get permission to restart is would have cost more than the projected revenue from restarting it. Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant is also facing an uphill battle to be allowed to renew their operating license. The refineries in CA are routinely picketed and face constant law suits trying to shut them down or force them to spend billions just to stay operating. Water was diverted from power generation to keep a non threatened, non native fish alive rather than being diverted to power and irrigation in the central valley. Sometimes, government is the problem rather than corporate greed.
Yea, the Twin teeets ? :HandshakeMy son used to live right next to them. I just got back from a trip out to 29 Palms. West Texas is nothing but wind turbine generators and oil wells now. There's more wind turbines generating electricity in Texas than Kalifornia. We dropped down to Beaumont pass the other day from the palms and most of the wind generators there were sitting still, despite the nice breeze blowing thru the pass. Not so in West Texas. There are litterally thousands of 400 ft tall generators spinning within sight of I -10 and I-20 out there. We drove from Carlsbad N.Mexico back to Big Spring Tx last night, nothing but hundreds of new oil wells lining that 170 mile stretch of highway now. And more being drilled. Texas is single handedly beating the pants off of the Saudis in oil production now.
