The thread seems to be drifting a bit off of the original premise.
Cheap anything, not just cell phones, but the array of goods made outside the US that fill the ports and container ships anchored offshore are simply evidence of how we are being seduced into not providing for ourselves. This involves a massive transfer of wealth outside the country that is causing us some real damage under the guise of "we're getting a better deal", well we're not. Certainly not in the long run where you have to think past your wallet and on to the next generation's.
What follows on is going to be even more of a hit to the professions. The principle players graduate engineers at rates approaching 8:1 and 12:1 when compared to US domestic engineering degrees conferred. Do we watch this year's graduating class's future start to dry up like what we've seen happen to skilled trades in this country? It will if the issue is left to "corporate policy makers" because they have no loyalty to the country as far as their operations are concerned. Their agenda is search for the cheapest anything, manufacturing, engineering, whatever, that they can contract out in the global marketplace. What isn't clear is the consequences of what they're doing. How do we regulate, enforce ethics, license, even groom an offshore technical class that dominates our economy? How do we keep research going? We don't. We can't. We lose.
Time to think Long term, not short term. If we can be pacified with rearranging the deck chairs, as the original post put it so well, our collective goose could be cooked as a profession, if nothing else it's in for a jolt that hasn't been anticipated. We need to make our concerns known through government, professional societies, stockholder's meetings, blogs, vlogs, and anywhere else we can. It isn't zenophobia, it's common sense.
------------------------------
William Bala P.E., S.E., M.ASCE
Owner
Hawkins TX
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 06-07-2022 03:14 PM
From: Tsee Lee
Subject: Rearranging the deck chairs while the ship sinks
The world is going digital. Websites are moving from the password model, starting with the next iPhone. Only in (some parts of) America is broadband internet access still considered a luxury service.
------------------------------
Tsee Lee, A.M.ASCE
General Services Administration
New York, NY
Original Message:
Sent: 06-07-2022 11:54 AM
From: Dudley McFadden
Subject: Rearranging the deck chairs while the ship sinks
Inexpensive cell phones are a good example. Every day people want to purchase cell phones, despite earning an income which isn't commensurate with the true cost of the cell phone. This demand incentivises cell phone makers to lower production costs and conceal the sacrifices they had to make to do so. Governments demand equal access for everyone. People come to expect that lower income persons ought to have the same access to expensive cell phones as wealthy persons. (Wealthy persons have the means to pay the full cost of a cell phone manufactured with environmental and worker safety protections). Stating this view immediately opens me up to criticism that I am opposed to equal rights or that someone I advocate that only the elite should be able to purchase cell phones. That is to say, analysis of this state of affairs is squelched.
So, governments take money from one group of people and give to others, to equalize things. Civil engineers need to be aware that this is going on. This is not to say that this is appropriate or desirable, or not. We certainly don't need to go back to the feudal system of government. But decisions like building dams in arid lands, to keep people fed where naturally no food could grow, or fossil fuel heating to keep people from freezing to death in cold lands: these have ethical repercussions and require trade-offs. If it were not physically possible to build dams in arid lands and keep people from starving, those people would pack up and leave. How many people in Sindh really absolutely love it so much there that they refuse to leave and will pay a huge portion of their earnings to fund dams? Or do they expect workers all over the world to pitch in cash to save them?
------------------------------
Dudley McFadden P.E., D.WRE, M.ASCE
Principal Civil Engineer
Roseville CA
Original Message:
Sent: 06-02-2022 09:11 AM
From: William Bala
Subject: Rearranging the deck chairs while the ship sinks
No one wants jobs to go out of existence because employers are busy contracting them abroad for higher short term gains. We will continue to see shortages and other symptoms when we eliminate a skilled workforce in favor of a cheap one abroad where safety and human rights issues have a dubious present let alone future. If it takes a baby formula shortage to highlight just how precarious the situation is, we have the blinders on way too often.
The thread started out talking about our lack of understanding of global events and it's consequences. When a popular cell phone manufacturer has to put nets around the roof of it's overseas manufacturing plant to keep the workers from attempting suicide since working conditions are so horrid, that's a global event we need to pay attention to. Global events and the application of ethics thereto, are sorely lacking in the present culture. CE's have to take continuing education hours in ethics to maintain a license in a few states. Time to branch out and apply the lessons. All of us need to raise our awareness of global events and how it effects our potential locally, how we can best keep our economy viable and not just push the plus column on this month's balance sheet. Rearranging the deck chairs. Think and act with the next generation in mind.
------------------------------
William Bala P.E., S.E., M.ASCE
Owner
Hawkins TX
Original Message:
Sent: 06-01-2022 08:25 PM
From: Tsee Lee
Subject: Rearranging the deck chairs while the ship sinks
No one wants to train for jobs that don't exist. No one can fund such a jobs program without a demand from employers.
------------------------------
Tsee Lee, A.M.ASCE
General Services Administration
New York, NY
Original Message:
Sent: 05-30-2022 12:02 PM
From: William Bala
Subject: Rearranging the deck chairs while the ship sinks
Ah yes FFA, Future Farmer's, we know we need them, so maybe all the doom and gloom about farming as a future needs to be dealt with. effectively. Good points. The high school I went to had an avid FFA program, still lots of farms in the area. I wonder if the FFA program is still going, or as strong as it was. The loss of industrial arts to me is just painful. If you don't want to buy every manufactured item via container ship, well training is where it starts.
------------------------------
William Bala P.E., S.E., M.ASCE
Owner
Hawkins TX
Original Message:
Sent: 05-26-2022 04:06 PM
From: James Williams
Subject: Rearranging the deck chairs while the ship sinks
Excellent points. You are not alone.
Navigating the opportunist, trusting and being trusted. Change can be a dangerous business when it has the potential to interfere with the financial dealings of the status quo no matter the country; resulting in Charitable paralysis.
Over 30 years ago, talk was that this country was moving to a focus on management and reduction in skilled labor. How and why did high school systems systematically eliminate industrial and vocational arts programs? Where is that 4-H program with a focus on future farmers? All of which creates a challenge for self-reliance or personal independence.
I will check out the article.
------------------------------
James Williams P.E., M.ASCE
Principal/Owner
POA&M Structural Engineering, PLC
Yorktown, VA
Original Message:
Sent: 05-24-2022 03:10 PM
From: William Bala
Subject: Rearranging the deck chairs while the ship sinks
A world view is absolutely essential, granted, suspicion of education slipping into indoctrination is a problem, but a world view is what management definitely needs and hopefully a majority of executives in engineering firms are not purely financial or legal majors because this barge is listing pretty badly and damage control isn't reporting. I have to ask some CEO's "do you actually have children?, and their future is???" when they export engineering hours, close up shop, liquidate tooling, take a bonus and run. A world view says that's just not healthy in the long run. You goin' down bud. CE's, ME's, Chem E's, whatever, need to raise concern. We're not stupid. We've seen industrial arts disappear from high school curriculums, industry after industry shipped out, corporate officers take an exorbitant bonus, then exit leaving our colleagues with a life changing event. A world view says everywhere this has happened before has become a client state, not for the better. The disparity between wage earners and upper tiers widens. No thanks, I like democracy, I like opportunity, I like my profession and the economy it built. I am not about rearranging the deck chairs, I know elsewhere in the world people are desperate to gain an advantage because they are under the thumb of opportunists instead of a halo of opportunity. I want the problem confronted. That's not an extreme view and I'm not alone.
------------------------------
William Bala P.E., S.E., M.ASCE
Owner
Hawkins TX
Original Message:
Sent: 05-17-2022 04:12 PM
From: Mitchell Winkler
Subject: Rearranging the deck chairs while the ship sinks
The article in today's Source Water crisis, power cuts worsen misery in Pakistan's hottest city Jacobabad in arid Sindh province is in the grip of an intense heatwave – peaking at 51 degrees Celsius at the weekend caught my attention. This situation and associated misery, suffering and undoubtedly fatalities certainly gives one pause. Furthermore, it makes some of the issues de jour pale in comparison. It feels like we are rearranging the deck chairs while the ship sinks. I'm not sure what specific actions CEs can take. At a minimum, I think developing literacy in global events and having a world view is essential to be an engineer in the 21st century. What do others think?
------------------------------
Mitch Winkler P.E., M.ASCE
Houston, TX
------------------------------