Right, that’s one thing that improves our competitiveness. Some modern factories can run all night with no people there. It’s like a big copy machine, you just set it up and let it go. Annoyingly, last time I had a conversation with someone who repairs robots, which was a couple years ago, the robots came from Europe. That seems like something we should make.

Essentially, it’s a solution to our high labor costs. We can’t pay low-skilled laborers a globally competitive wage because our standard of living is too high, or because unions have corporations by the balls. So you replace 320 workers with a set of robots, a setup guy, a programmer and a repair guy. The programmer and repair guys service numerous factories. It’s like one human doing the work of 10′s or 100′s of humans. Or, it’s like a single $100/hr human doing the work of 10′s or 100′s of $50/hr humans. China can’t beat that, nor can Africa. Although, robot technology does have a ways to go yet. And items usually have to be designed, at least somewhat, with robots in mind.

The trouble is, we can set these factories up anywhere. US regulations not only make factories expensive, they make them take longer to build. Every day that a factory isn’t running can be hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. And with idiot bills like cap/n trade, and Presidents who have proclaimed that electricity bills will, “Necessarily sky-rocket,” it makes for a poor case to locate in the US. There’s also the high corporate tax along with the capital gains tax on all this stuff.

So basically, we don’t need to build robots, we need to adjust regulation. If it’s profitable to build things here, then people will build things here, and it will most likely include robots.

Maybe Obama should unwisely invest some of our tax dollars in an obsolete robot company instead of obsolete solar panel companies? LOL, just kidding. That’s poison. Robots don’t join unions. If the Democrats don’t have unions, they’re kind of screwed. Can you imagine the shit Obama would get thrown at him if he advocated automation out-loud? LOL He’d have to dress it up, “Robots only do the jobs that are too dangerous for people, or jobs no one wants to do.”  Maybe Pelosi will pass a law that requires some dumb-shit union asshole to babysit each robot. There’s a Washington solution for you.

Growing up in Dearborn, MI, aka Ford Country, and having had family, friends, and friends’ family that worked for Ford, Chrysler, and GM, I may be a little biased when it comes to buying and owning American-made vehicles. But I am quite tired of the lousy reasons people give me to justify their purchase of a foreign-made car.
So occasionally, to give people a hard time, or to be serious, depending on who it is, I ask “why did you buy a Toyota/Honda/Hyundaii/Kia/BMW/VW/etc.?” I typically get one to three of the same answers every time.
“They are better quality cars.”
This is the most popular response for Japanese and Korean car owners. Especially in the DC area, there seems to be this unsupported belief that American cars are low quality and that Toyota is far superior to any Ford. Now if this were the 1990′s, or even the early 2000′s, the data show this is probably true. But if you have looked at a Car and Driver Report over the last 5 years or more, you will see that American cars are equal or greater to Japanese-made cars in nearly every category of quality and safety. So whatever 20th century misconception you are still carrying about a Ford car, do some research.
“They get better gas mileage.”
In most cases, especially for cars more than 5 years old, foreign cars were smaller and of course, got better gas mileage. Thankfully Detroit (what!) has stepped up to the fuel efficiency challenge and matches or exceeds that of foreign cars in many vehicle categories (here’s looking at you, Fusion Hybrid).
“This car was made in the US, right in Kentucky and most American cars aren’t even made in the US. Their made in Mexico.”
Wow, aren’t you a smart one. On the surface this sounds like a great argument and could justify buying that Corolla for years to come. However, the argument is garbage when you ask some questions. If factory workers in Kentucky or Ohio were not building a Honda or Toyota, what would they be doing? It is tough to say what they would be doing exactly, because who knows what else they can choose from. But if people aren’t buying foreign cars, what are they buying? American cars. So someone would be building those cars. Maybe in Kentucky, maybe in Michigan, or even Alabama. But American workers would be assembling these cars in some form or another. Most car parts for a Toyota are still built in Japan, even if they are assembled here. And yes, many things such as engines for Fords and GMs are built somewhere else, but this leads to the main point on this topic. Where do the profits go?
The answer is easy. If it is a Toyota, the profits go to Japan. If it is a Ford, profits go to Dearborn. Profits are taxed, which help build and support the local and federal government (and trust me, Michigan needs company profits). Profits support business expansion and growth, which creates more jobs. Would you like to create more jobs in Flint, MI or Seoul?
So tell me the US doesn’t have a roadster like the Z4 or Audi TT. Tell me that you like the look of the Cooper Mini. Tell me Toyota makes cloth seats that don’t give you a rash. Tell me you hate America and want all of its factories capable of full-scale war production to close down and be disassembled (and get a swift kick in the junk from me). But stop feeding me the BS you have convinced yourself is sufficient reason not to support an American company and the strength of the United States economy.

I still don’t have much love for the Creationist movement, but this Ben Stein movie is hilarious. It, among other things, follows scientists who were blacklisted for being associated with “intelligent design.” It’s pretty well done. Made me laugh.