Apparently this was happening all day long when they were not at home.
Don't ask me exactly how it works. It just does, and we desperately need to do more of it! It's the ultimate public works project! Everyone stays employed! Everyone stays busy! Everyone works from home!
Genius!
See Also:
Solutions to All of Our Problems!
Solutions to All of Our Problems! v.2
Solutions to All of Our Problems! v.3
Solutions to All of Our Problems! v.4
Solutions to All of Our Problems! v.5
Solutions to All of Our Problems! v.6
Solutions to All of Our Problems! v.7 (Musical Tribute)
Solutions to All of Our Problems! v.8
Solutions to All of Our Problems! v.9
What we need to do is work at home creating *exportable* wealth, since that's the main problem, our trade deficit.
ReplyDeleteTop Ten Countries with which the U.S. has a Trade Deficit
What does China, Japan, Mexico, Germany, KSA, Ireland, Italy, Canada, and ROK need that we can supply from piecework at home?
Interestingly, China happens to be 45% of the YTD deficit and 47% of July's, so any sane solution would focus on what they need from us.
There's a billon more of them than us, and a $30 billion deficit for July is only $1B a day, so really, we only need to provide them $1 of good or service per Chinese person per our work day.
Now, since we only have 100 million strong labor slackage, this translates to $10 worth of output per at-home laborer per day on our end.
Is there anything we can make that they want? Cheaper than they can make it themselves, of course.
Turns out we can make Arleigh Burke class destroyers for about a billion per piece, so I think our 100 million laborers could do the piecework for one of these each day -- at 10,000mt per piece that's only 100g of production per person per day, about a quarter cup of parts in imperial units.
Seriously, we really really should be making iPhone 5s, xboxes, etc. somewhere in the US.
ReplyDeleteI'm still the world's biggest Apple fanboy -- since my highschool got a lab of Apple II's back in 1983 -- but there's something fundamentally "unsustainable" about their business model.
Jobs tried final assembly of Macs and NeXT cubes in the bay area, and basically got murdered on cost and labor QA issues, so I don't blame Apple partnering so closely with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, but someday we're going to have to figure out how to pay our way in the world again, and that's going to require industrial competencies.
"got murdered on cost and labor QA "
ReplyDeleteWell, according to everything I've read, it was closer to a suicide. I suspect having the plants 6000 miles away in a foreign country made it easier to put the kibosh on the Chief Executive telling the generals how to run the war. So to speak.
Not saying it could have been done in CA in 2005, but I am saying it could have been done in CA in 1990.
Troy & AllanF,
ReplyDeleteI wonder where we would be now if we would have never allowed a trade deficit in the first place. You send us something. We send you something tangible of equal value back. End of story.
November 10, 2003
America's Growing Trade Deficit Is Selling The Nation Out From Under Us. Here's A Way To Fix The Problem--And We Need To Do It Now. (Warren Buffett)
But I believe that in the trade deficit we also have a problem that is going to test all of our abilities to find a solution. A gently declining dollar will not provide the answer. True, it would reduce our trade deficit to a degree, but not by enough to halt the outflow of our country's net worth and the resulting growth in our investment-income deficit.
Troy,
ReplyDeleteI was the lead software engineer on a typing game for kids. No joke.
September 16, 1994
For Kids : SOFTWARE REVIEW : Get in Touch : With typing technique programs, children will have computer savvy at their fingertips.
For the 7- to 10-year-old set, "Kids' Typing" (Bright Star) is a witty, sophisticated typing tutor, particularly apt for the wisenheimer in your family. It's got a sly, tongue-in-cheek story line about a ghost named Spooky who's taken up residence in the attic of a suburban home. Spooky is your typing tutor, and if you do well at his lessons, he lets you infiltrate the house with him and haunt its inhabitants. You can go into the den and levitate the television while Dad watches sports (the sports-casting background noise is witty and the faster you type, the higher the TV goes; Dad, in his couch-potato mode, remains oblivious). Or you can run the blender in Mom's kitchen, eavesdrop while Sis trades inanities on the phone in her bedroom or play musical instruments in the nursery.
The nursery was my favorite. Every time you typed a correct key a note would play. Each incorrect key played a horn instead. Further, songs sounded much better if you typed at a conistent pace. I can't speak for 7-10 year olds, but that particular sub-game certainly helped my typing, lol.
Based on my spelling of consistent, it may seem that I'm in need of a remedial lesson! In my defense, I am not actually typing right now. I'm using a PS3 controller.
ReplyDelete