Re: Please rain on my parade

Alvin Toda wrote:

On Sun, 16 Jul 2006 12:21:58 -0700, Islander <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


Alvin Toda wrote:


On Sat, 15 Jul 2006 18:39:48 -0700, Islander <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


Laws regulating capitalism are an important reason for the success of capitalism in this country. Without such laws, the abuses would become so severe that the pendulum would swing back toward socialism. This is what has happened in Europe due to the excesses of the Industrial Revolution. Communism would not have existed had it not been for the unbridled capitalism in Europe during the last part of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. I fear that our country has forgotten this aspect of economic history and your greatest fear of socialism will be the result.


Most of my experience was in Silicon Valley where starting and operating a new business was easy as long as you were clean from an environmental point of view. I have no problem with that. I have no idea if there are EU restrictions on deficit as a percentage of GDP, nor do I care.


There is -- 3%, and you should care, if only because it provides a
benchmark and standard of comparison.

Nope, don't care! I'm much more interested in improving our own economic situation which definitely needs some attention IMV.


I also worked a number of years in Silicon Valley, and it has been
changed in recent years. Friends tell me that traffic and crowding has
never been worse. I left and retired at a good time about 10 years
ago. For example, they live in Fremont and have to wait to cross the
Dumbarton to get to work on the peninsula, or they struggle to get to
work on the other freeways in South Bay. But the main point is that
much of the industry in the Valley has globalized. Design teams are
now spread out over the globe. The good point is that now human
resources are available over the whole world and design cycles are
shortened and more competitive.

But some of our young and good people will have to leave this country
for their carreers. For example, I've heard of some from Hawaii taking
jobs in Singapore and Australia which they say is booming. But a lot
can't leave or might not want to, because of poor capabilities in
foreign languages. For example, a young guy from Hawaii who continues
to work on IT in the hotel industry here, while his wife's family in
Costa Rica would like the couple to move there and start a business
there with their help.

Sometimes it works out in unexpected ways. My cousin married a Mexican
medical student and followed him to Mexico City to open a medical
clinic. She helped him as a nurse, etc. We've sort of lost touch with
the family because she passed away from some complications of the
terrible polution in the city. It's not suppose to be a good place to
visit if you have allergies of any kind.

For those who can't leave, I would rather see large resources spent in
re-training to change carreers, than spent in the futile effort to
compete against corporation bottom lines to globalize. I've been with
about 8 companies throughout my carreer and would probably have had
more choices if it was easier to switch fields. It helps that many
companies will pay the $350 or so for a continuing ed class to keep
current with your field, but just when you lose your job and need to
switch fields, the resources aren't there to make the switch. It's a
little like insurance: when the need is greatest in our old age, then
companies don't want to insure you. In the long run, that's bad
economic policy. Costs to fix the problem tend to mount up when you
wait for the inevitable disaster to occur rather than trying to be
prepared for it.

Yes, when I moved to Silicon Valley it was still a great place for a "techie" to live and work. Within a month of moving there, my future wife and I had incorporated and launched a new business. We decided to incorporate rather than get married (that happened later). Had a little ceremony in the attorney's office! It was the perfect business incubator. Anything you might need was there, legal help, accounting help, tax help, etc. If you needed access to some expensive and specialized equipment, you could bet that someone had one in his garage and knew how to use it. It was easy to buy contract help in any specialty that you might need. You could find affordable office space and outfit it for pennies on the dollar out of the cast offs from businesses that either failed or grew out of their furniture. It was great!

My wife and I saw the change coming. Too much emphasis on marketing and sales and not enough emphasis on engineering. Then outsourcing, first to other areas of the US and then abroad. It wasn't fun any more. We began by looking for land that we would eventually retire to and within 6 months had sold everything and moved. Really impulsive for me since I had only had 4 jobs over nearly 40 years, but we have had no regrets. I thought that I would never retire, but it was the smartest move I ever made.


The change in outsourcing is not as bad as you would think. Now
instead of only looking in your backyard, you have the whole world. I
know a couple here that have started four companies in their
lifetimes-- old PBX designers. They thought that they would retire but
their son here who is a building contractor, needed some help in
broadband hard wiring for a new home (Cat 5 wiring), and they started
to develop their own ideas in this field. Now they sell their devices
to other bigger companies to sell-- like GE. They don't have their own
brand, and have outsourced the manufacturing to China and moved the
sales and support to the mainland. They are members of a Hong Kong
business organization, and have traveled a lot in Southeast Asia and
China and Japan for business and pleasure. This could be a part of
your retirement.

The basic idea behind outsourcing was to focus on your unique strengths. Many of the start-ups in Silicon Valley did exactly that. The days of Ford putting all aspects of the business under one roof were over long ago. As I mentioned, you could find pretty much anything you needed in the Bay Area.

Outsourcing brings with it a set of problems, however. You had better make very sure that you can protect your core competencies and can assure that the elements that your outsource will be there when you need them. I did a lot of work in sourcing and can tell you horror stories of situations where outsourced manufacturing could not or would not perform when needed. When you bring in geo-political factors, there are very good reasons to be concerned about the loss of manufacturing capability in the US. It can become very expensive!

As to returning to business, I am quite content to leave it behind. It was exciting at the time, but now I cherish my peace and quiet here on an island in the Puget Sound. In fact, I have come to hate traveling, even to the mainland.

I do miss Allen Steel, however, and picked up a supply of brass and other metal stock for misc. projects on my last visit to the Bay area.
.

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