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Re: [OM] Kodak's long fade to black - latimes.com

Subject: Re: [OM] Kodak's long fade to black - latimes.com
From: "Jim Nichols" <jhnichols@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 09:56:18 -0600
Hi Ken,

A very nice treatise on a subject that officials in most towns and cities 
often overlook.

By the way, my old Maytag washer from many years ago just keeps on truckin'. 
I replaced a couple of parts in the early years, nothing at all lately.

Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Norton" <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Olympus Camera Discussion" <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2011 9:49 AM
Subject: Re: [OM] Kodak's long fade to black - latimes.com


> It is possible to have an economic "island" with minimal manufacturing. In
> the olden days, there was the blacksmiths, woodworkers and masons that
> manufactured things. There were the farmers that grew the food. Pretty 
> much
> everybody else was service-industry.
>
> Manufacturing (or growing food) for export BEYOND your economic island is
> only necessary to grow the wealth. But, this is highly dependent upon
> having the resources to do it. Mining coal, for example, won't work in
> Florida and oil isn't much of an export from Rhode Island. Iowa grows
> plenty of food to be shipped around the world, but we don't build any 
> ships.
>
> It is possible to manufacture beyond your natural resources. Japan and
> China both import most of the materials used to build stuff for export.
> Those shipping containers going from Europe/USA back to China are filled
> with recycled and raw materials. However, the natural resource they do 
> have
> is a massive population of people who have a solid work-ethic and are
> highly competitive.
>
> The reality is, manufacturing is JUST a "value add" function. You take raw
> materials (they have the be mined, pumped, grown or recycled), reshape 
> them
> with some level of mechanization and people resource and then resell them.
> Can a society exist without this value-add process? Yes, as long as there
> is some means of feeding the machine somehow. We ALL can't be just
> consumers because we'll eventually run out of money.
>
> It has been said that manufacturing is a false economy. Wealth is NOT
> created in manufacturing. It just changes hands. In the end, it all comes
> down to two things: RAW materials and consumption. Ultimately, it comes
> back down to raw materials. He who mines/grows/drills/pumps/etc the raw
> materials is the only one actually creating new monetary input into the
> system. The manufacturing process is the "value-add" where you take raw
> materials, add manpower (which is another form of resource--if you have no
> people, you have no manufacturing) and produce a product which is
> eventually consumed to destruction. The problem is that for the value-add
> to take place, the human resource has to be contributory.
>
> To make the engine of any direct front-line task to be done, it takes
> 10-100x the number of services to support it. My ENTIRE job is
> communicating to other people. I make nothing. I do nothing that anybody
> can see, touch, smell, taste. Just like the millions of other people
> working in skyscrapers around the world, I do nothing but talk on the 
> phone
> and type emails and produce documents which other people might use to do
> their job which is to communicate with other people. Eventually, something
> is actually done to benefit a customer, but then again, I work in a 
> service
> sector which doesn't actually produce anything either.
>
> Throughout the history of the world, Plants, animals, fish and humans have
> all gone to where the "food" is. Food being the raw resource. When the 
> food
> dries up, that location has to either adapt to a value-add or will
> eventually die. Sometimes, a location is built-up as a value-add in the
> first place. Detroit, for example, grew thanks to manufacturing of
> automobiles. As that industry dies, the city must have a new form of
> value-add otherwise it falls entirely into the consumption side and
> evenually it dies out. Like I said, the entire old Maytag headquarters,
> which is a $16,000,000 facility can be yours for $1. The "food"
> (manufacturing value-add) moved elsewhere. A town of 20,000 people was
> built on making washing machines. Now what? People moved here FOR the 
> jobs,
> it's only logical that they move FROM here because of jobs. The ghosttowns
> of the west exist for that very reason. No harm, no foul.
>
> AG
> -- 
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> 


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