furpaw

Japan still seems to be the exception; when I buy a product that was made
in Japan (or manufacture controlled by a Japanese company) I expect, and
usually get, a product that is reliable, that works as expected, and that
doesn't break. I don't have the same expectations of products manufactured
elsewhere. (My only beef with the Japanese-made products is that sometimes
their user manuals are nearly incomprehensible.)

Remember when "made in Japan" was a synonym for cheap, junky, didn't work,
easily broken? Japan recognized that problem after WWII and hired
*American* quality experts (e.g., Juran) to help them solve this problem.
The Japanese are still following the principles laid down these experts,
but many companies in the US merely give lip service to them, if they are
even aware of them at all. Oh, sure, there are quality awards given each
year (Deming and Baldridge awards, for example), and there are some US
companies that you can count on for high quality products, but many are
willing to accept lower quality standards in order to boost short-term profits.

If quality isn't taught and accepted as a corporate or national value and
demanded by the consumers, it doesn't seem to happen. When low-cost is
demanded by consumers (thinking short term - even though the product or
repair may break in six months) and high profits are demanded by
stockholders and corporate management, it seems that we get what we ask
for. As in, be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.

Remember "follow the money?" It applies here, too.

JMO

FurPaw
--
Brain cells come and brain cells go, but fat cells live forever.

To reply, unleash the dog.

furpaw

We use the terms "blue collar" and "white collar" to distinguish between
job functions, with the implicit assumption that a blue collar job is less
valued than a white collar job. There's a real status thing going here.
In addition, at least in the US, students with any hint of smarts are
guided and pushed towards college rather than trade schools. It doesn't
matter that auto mechanics, plumbers, carpenters, etc. often make more than
many white collar workers. They are still considered lower-status jobs.

FurPaw
--
Brain cells come and brain cells go, but fat cells live forever.

To reply, unleash the dog.

chakolate

<grin> I had one user's manual once that started out, "Hi happy hello!"
and I knew I was in trouble.

The product was excellent, though.

Chakolate

--

On sadness:
The cure for this ill is not to sit still,
Or to frowst with a book by the fire,
But to take a large hoe and a shovel also,
And to dig till you gently perspire.
--Rudyard Kipling

cam@holyrood.ed.ac.uk (chris

FurPaw <furpawnewsdog@comcast.net> writes:


It happens to be part of my job to help to invent steel-collar
workers, i.e. robots. I've always been a bit uncertain about the
morality of this, taking away the gainful employment of human workers,
etc.. When the car factories become fully automated, how will the
sacked car workers be able to afford to buy cars? Of course the
economy is more complex than that, and jobs arise as well as
disappear. Now that we've outlawed literal slavery, and are in the
process of outlawing wage-slavery, the only way our expensive work
forces can compete with economies where wage-slaves are still
available is by exploiting slaves who don't mind being exploited --
robots.
--
Chris Malcolm cam@infirmatics.ed.ac.uk +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]