Comments by "mpetersen6" (@mpetersen6) on "What if America Never Exported its Industry?" video.

  1. There's another factor in place here. From my experience talking to Germans in particular but Europeans in general they are much more willing to pay more for locally made consumer goods because they feel the quality is higher and because these countries are smaller in terms of area they are more appreciative of the fact that buying goods from China for example may put their neighbor out on the street. On top of this tax laws in some of these countries encourage companies to upgrade and modernize their facilities. In the US tax laws seemed to penalize re-investment.
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  2. What does on expect when decision makers are taught from early on about how the US is a "post industrial economy". Well a PIE is soon to be a PFWE. Post a First World Economy.
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  3. Time stamp 4:42. I see you lifted the map from "The Nina Nations of North America". Their is one thing that the Great Lake states have in their favor that will pay off in the end. Access to cheap water. And if the South and West think they can get their hands on it good luck.
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  4.  DarkEternal6  Workers that belong to industrial or construction unions has been on the decline ever since the 60s. Even without moving production off shore the move by industry to states that actively discourage unions would have only continued. Every company that is unionized in the US that has problems its is always the union the gets the brunt of the blame. Yes they share in the blame but most of the blame should be laid at the feet of the management of these companies. In the end quality of the product is not only a function of the factory floor and workforce. It is also a function of management making decisions about just what the level of quality is needed. This can be as simple as the allowable tolerances in a product to the overall build quality that management sets. In the 1980s the build quality of US automobiles was terrible compared to the Japanese when looking at the fits of body panels etc. What most people do not understand is almost all cars left the factory with the fit of the various body parts (doors, hoods, trunks etc) inrelationship to the body as whole in tolerance. The Japanese simply set a tighter tolerance. As to the quality of interior pieces a lot of that can be placed on the cost cutting attitude that if the part is really good when it costs a dollar and crappy at 98 cents we will use the 98 cent part. In the 1980s Ford contracted AMC to manufacture final drive gears for certain vehicles. The finished Ford parts made to Ford specifications howled like a banshee. The ones AMC made for themselves ran at least 10 decibels or more quieter. Remember the decibel scale is a log scale. Every ten points is a factor of ten. Its these types of decisions made by management that greatly effect quality. And in terms of industrial workers represented by unions Japan and Germany far outstrip the US. The vast majority of union membership in the US is in the public sector today.
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