berger@clio.las.uiuc.edu (04/02/88)
IC manufacturing is NOT a labor intensive business, so it's hard to see
how cheaper labor keeps chip costs down. Besides, the U.S. chip
manufacturers have most of their manufacturing facilities overseas
as it is, and they STILL can't compete.
Your attitudes toward trade with other countries are fine in theory,
but I, for one, am glad to see VCR's available for less than $ 200
(compared to $ 15,000 and up in 1970), and the wide assortment of
consumer electronics that's only been available in the past few
years. I'm not prepared to give it up to subsidize U.S. businesses
that REFUSE (no, they're not incapabable of it) to change their
ancient practices to make them more competitive in the modern
world.
As a case in point, when televisions were still made here, the
Japanese used state-of-the-art integrated circuit technology
while we were still using tubes, waiting for the new technology to
prove itself. It certainly did - and caught the U.S. manufacturers
off guard. Is that what you want to defend?
Mike Berger
Department of Statistics
Science, Technology, and Society
University of Illinois
berger@clio.las.uiuc.edu
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