If American workers are expected to follow the rules but other countries have less strict rules with different tradeoffs, maybe the regulations need to be examined.
Unless there is a lower incidence of workplace accidents and environmental contamination at US facilities as compared to equivalent Japanese facilities then the additional rules are pure dead weight loss. And I have not seen any evidence that our factories are any safer or cleaner than Japan's.
No, that’s merely a reflection of your anarchistic and misanthropic worldview. Most people would not agree at all that “most rules” serve only to justify gatekeepers.
You are free to jump the fence and fall into the gorilla exhibit if you want but there is still a very good reason the rule exists. And the fact that you apparently see such rules as a “minority” speaks more to you than anything.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/aug/28/phoenix-mic...
When I read through it again it I realized many problems seem similar to common issues in software projects.
When companies have a choice to build in other countries then import product into the US, they will do that cost benefit analysis. If a country overly regulates and industry, it will just be made elsewhere.
When politicians pass laws that just cause jobs to be outsourced so they can say they are doing "the right thing" but not attempt to force other countries to follow, all you are doing is virtue signalling and killing jobs.
Don’t worry I actually have a degree in economics, you don’t have to explain why you think that.
Doesn’t mean it’s a model that corresponds with reality, or that dictates policy choices.
Tidbit: The biggest driver of cost overruns is delays in construction. Adversarial permitting, trades, and the courts allowing disinterested parties to delay projects drives this in the US.
Recent one I saw. 2000 sqft vacant lot filled with trash and weeds remains undeveloped because it would take years to get the variances and permits to build on it.
In my county we figured out that ' paid for in blood' was bullshit invented by corrupt inspectors and contractors and we voted to eliminate it. Draw a rectangle on a map and after that it's green light.
Whose blood wrote that regulation?
[0]Next to grandfathered buildings who just chain their dumpsters to the alleyway, of course.
I remember one guy's blog post, who described his life as a do-everything contractor, who did septic tank installations. What he needed for the job was a shovel and a truck to carry the tanks to the site.
Then came the regulators, and essentially made his job illegal. He had to apply for a permit, submit plans, conduct a survey, and need a crew of specialists with expensive equipment to carry out his job. Basically turned what would be a nice one or two man job with a nice margin into a whole expensive ordeal, which only big companies could do. The irony was that said big companies employed hordes of unskilled and underpaid rubes who they worked to the bone.
I think this is less true in other countries, so those capable folk might be more evenly spread throughout various engineering fields.
I’m convinced that this is bad for your average American. It’s good for the small slice of the population making high salaries at banks, law firms, advertising companies, etc. But that drives financialization of the economy, which is probably worse for the average worker. It might be better for the median American to cut down those industries and shift the economic mix to industries that create more solid middle class jobs.
Serious question: How, exactly?
This already happens to some degree slightly higher on the stack. For example firmware engineering is not generally a high paying subfield of programming, but at FAANG companies the comp is very high.
Contrast that with something like oil and gas, or sophisticated manufacturing which needs large numbers of moderately skilled workers. In absolute terms these industries generate less wealth. California’s GSP per capita is more than 25% higher than Texas’s. But middle class people are moving from California to Texas (and Georgia and Tennessee)—not the other way around. Or instead of Texas, consider Germany. I’d posit that it’s better for Germans that the country excels in manufacturing rather than finance or tech.
Compared to STEM research or an EE sure, but is this true compared to say, MD or FAANG software engineer?
(assuming the same level of competence. I don't think every L3 AMZN engineer could hack it as a surgeon or something).
The extra utility of LV and Prada products relative to their competitors is zero compared to the extra utility of Apple products, for example due to lower power usage and more longevity.
Also, FAANG is just a catchy acronym for high profit/profit margin earning businesses, that also includes Microsoft and a multitude of other businesses that pay well.
Most of those businesses are high profit/profit margin precisely because they target sectors such as finance and advertising that are of questionable social value.
Most of us here are aware of AWS being one of the primary profit makers of amazon, and GCP isn't far behind. You missed those very obvious business segment that sort of renders your argument moot.
Um, you should look up 'rayiner — he's now a lawyer but (from a former life) has better tech credentials than most.
Here in Japan, houses are made out of wood, despite what you may have heard. They're not made of "better materials", though I'm quite sure they're constructed much better than stick-built houses in the US. Homes are only made of concrete and steel when they're larger, multi-unit buildings; the 3-floor single-family homes are all wood. For smaller structures, it's a great material; that's why temples and shrines built centuries ago are still standing today despite all the earthquakes. The main problem are just termites and fire, but fire is a problem with steel and concrete structures too.
>Noise travels through wood way too well and that makes urban living a nightmare.
Not a problem in a single-family home. And the thing that makes noise a problem is a lack of insulation between units, not the framing material.
Those things aren't problems in Japan, those are problems with US culture. One big reason I moved to Japan was so I didn't have to be a multi-millionaire to get away from those things and many other similar problems with US culture.
Anyway, the point is that your prior post incorrectly implied that Japan does not have wood houses, which cannot be farther from the truth. Almost all the single-family homes here are wood.
This line seems to imply that modern, new houses in Japan are not made of wood any more. They are. In fact, wood is being used for more and larger stuff, both in Japan and in other countries, because it's flexible and more eco-friendly than steel and concrete. Of course, wood has its weaknesses (like termites) that have to be dealt with using proper engineering practices, but so does reinforced concrete, as seen in the big condo collapse in Miami not that long ago.
That said, 10+ story buildings are probably still going to be made of reinforced concrete for the foreseeable future, and Japan has far better construction and maintenance standards than the US for tall buildings, which is why seaside buildings don't randomly collapse here, despite the frequent earthquakes.
Have you considered the idea that this story is being turned into anti-union propaganda?
Say what you want about Americans, but few of them are wickedly clever and intelligent at the same time.
Conversely, there’s room for (constrained) creativity from the bottom level as well.
This sounds quite different than say, chip manufacturing where I imagine there’s more or a binary “you did the thing” or “you didn’t”. However I have very little insight into the process so I’m likely over simplifying.
But mass workers... NO. So you are correct.