Video – How Lexar Makes Its Memory Products

By Tuesday January 18, 2011





25 Comments
  1. God, also known as Allah says:
    1/19/2011 at 12:45 pm

    #18, bobbo… I only work in mysterious ways. Besides, it would take all the fun out if I told you when.

    Reply
  2. Awake says:
    1/19/2011 at 1:09 pm

    Boobo,

    There is one major problem with your tariff solution.

    Labor is much more expensive in the USA than it is in Asia. So if we shift the labor intensive jobs to the USA, we need to charge more for the products in order to account for labor costs.

    If we were to impose a 25% tariff, then products would still be manufactured overseas, AND they would be much more expensive than they currently are. So a $500 TV would cost $625, labor would still be in Asia, and you would no better off.

    Adding a tariff does not help, because it would have to be high enough to overcome higher labor costs, and then our products would be utterly uncompetitive outside the USA. All you accomplish is raising prices for Americans.

    So there really is no answer as long as US consumers want the cheapest product possible, and/or are demanding relatively high wages. I imagine that Lexar would be happy not to have to ship their chips to Asia in order to package them, if they could get $3 / hour labor here in the USA in order to stay competitive.

    The future of the USA in NOT in labor intensive manufacturing. If we are going to concentrate in manufacturing, it should be in building products that low cost labor countries will buy to keep their own labor costs low, which means high tech equipment, built by skilled and well educated employees. Complicated stuff that nobody else can make cheaply.

    Sadly, that means that the overall standard of living of the USA will continue to decrease, because a technical college degree will be the minimum required, and all those high school graduates that used to work in low skill manufacturing will be relegated to asking “Do you want fries with that?” That means 75% of the US population will be minimum wage pretty soon.

    Reply
  3. Skeptic says:
    1/19/2011 at 2:22 pm

    Awake, all good points, however China and other Asian countries are also adept in designing and building their own high tech equipment, or at least copying ours. There is no way to get out of this situation without pain while Asia catches up and rich countries have to meet the resultant lower standards of living halfway. The world is becoming homogenized.

    Reply
  4. dexton7 says:
    1/20/2011 at 1:56 am

    Politics aside for a moment.. it is a very cool manufacturing process if not monotonous near the end.

    It sure beats the factory jobs that I had during high school and college. I never thought I’d get all that molten plastic out of my boots. =/

    While I’d like to see more jobs like this available here in the US… I have to agree with #6. I see Bobbo’s point as well, but electronics prices would increase by 100 fold if we did that.

    The devil is in the economic details.

    Reply
  5. bobbo, I dropped my Magic 8 Ball says:
    1/20/2011 at 6:45 am

    Nice. We are all struggling honestly with what I assume none of us really understands?

    If not “free trade” then “fair trade?” I philosophically don’t buy that a 25% tariff from China makes “sense” but a 2.5% tariff is appropriate for the USA?

    Although I did hear a discussion over my head about how China’s manipulation of its market was creating inflation and joblessness for them–even with their 10% annual growth?

    I don’t know macro economics well enough to stand fast on any given theory, and I learned a long time ago my guts were only good for judging what I liked to eat=not relevant to anyone else.

    “Relative Advantage” is a fascinating subject though I would actually like to take a few courses on or even find a book or two that didn’t immediately put me out of my depth.

    Can we all agree we shouldn’t give tax advantages for corps to move overseas==or will that result in higher consumer prices as well? As is consumer price the sin quo non of what is best for America, or should some allowance be made for “jobs?”

    When are we going to jack up the price of basic food on the rest of the world, or charge for our mercenary military forces. Economic warfare could be just as ugly as the real kind?

    Allah–you are consistent. Evil, but consistent.

    Reply

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