General > General Technical Chat
Electronics industry in the west (the lack of it)...(re-posted without naming)
SiliconWizard:
--- Quote from: treez on April 13, 2020, 01:55:20 pm ---Does anybody now think its time for the West (and others) to start becoming self dependent as regards to engineering equipment, especially electronics equipment?
--- End quote ---
I don't disagree. Ironically enough, some countries (among which China itself) have gone a long way to become themselves self-dependent, while providing the whole word with stuff.
Key point IMO is that such approach, before this whole fucking virus crisis, was actually fought by the predominant approach, which was the exact opposite. Ultra globalization was seen as the ultimate virtue, a world where progressively every activity should apparently be optimized on a global level, with each country kind of specialized in its own range of activities. Doing anything to be self-dependent was almost considered more or less as some form of fascism.
Whether this trend is going to change, I have no clue about, but I seriously doubt it. Looks like we are currently doing anything we can to get things back to where they were before, quite possibly eroding invididual freedom in a lasting way to achieve this, instead of trying to change our approaches and get more "local".
As to the power supply field, if I understand you correctly, you seem to be saying that it's relatively simple and easily accessible. I don't quite agree with this. Designing efficient and ROBUST power supplies is hard and requires a lot of care and experience IMO.
SilverSolder:
--- Quote from: treez on April 13, 2020, 01:55:20 pm ---
[...] because “Power Supply” is the only sector of electronics where any electronics student could be almost guaranteed of being able to develop the skills necessary to become a Power Supply designer at some level.
[...]
--- End quote ---
The underlying problem with this thought is that in economics, it is seldom worth doing "the easy stuff" because it is so easy for competitors (countries, companies, people) to step in and create a race to the bottom - commoditizing the item and pushing the price way down. In that space, whoever can make it the cheapest wins. Like agriculture... without subsidies, a lot of farming in the West would be uneconomical.
The real money is in making products that others can't easily make, and make them well, and sell them at a price people are willing to pay. (Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc. etc. just to pick some companies from the tech sector)
Red Squirrel:
Honestly it would be nice to see a better business mentality where more than just money matters, and see more local manufacturing. It does not always have to be about money. There was a time where things were "proudly made in Canada" or USA etc. It's not just about the lowest bidder but about wanting to stay as local as possible and being patriotic. These days, we lost that. Hopefully if there is one thing we can learn from covid-19 is that important supplies like PPE need to actually be made more locally. USA should have plants, Canada should have plants, etc... It's not just about being patriotic but also about being more practical and also caring about the environment. Instead of mining stuff in one country, sending it in another for processing, then sending those raw materials to yet another, more stuff could be kept local.
Me personally if I get electronic projects made for selling I will want to manufacture as much of it as I can in Canada or at least try to source parts from here where I can. Unfortunately it won't be that easy especially jelly bean parts as all those are made in China, but perhaps the PCBs can be made here, and the cases can be made here, at the very least. If I actually had the project come to a point where it's making me money then I would work on the rest.
In a situation like right now with covid-19 the more local my supply chain is, the better it is for business continuity as well.
bd139:
Your point falls apart when a big chunk of the raw materials comes from China which is a sovereign nation. You buy their products to get their resources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_countries_by_mineral_production
Really it's a race to the bottom and this whole petty natioanalism and pointless borders that drives all this shit is tiresome. We're all stuck on the same fucking rock with limited resources so it's better to start getting along with everyone else rather than blasting our own toes off.
coppice:
--- Quote from: bd139 on April 14, 2020, 08:20:31 pm ---Your point falls apart when a big chunk of the raw materials comes from China which is a sovereign nation. You buy their products to get their resources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_countries_by_mineral_production
Really it's a race to the bottom and this whole petty natioanalism and pointless borders that drives all this shit is tiresome. We're all stuck on the same fucking rock with limited resources so it's better to start getting along with everyone else rather than blasting our own toes off.
--- End quote ---
Remember that wikipedia page lists mineral production, not availability. Some minerals are truly only available from a few places. Most minerals that we only obtain from a few places are that way by choice. Change prices, pollution regulations, or other relevant factors and magically new sources open up.
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