What To Do About The Long-Term Implications of Automation

Work in automation.

 

That requires a global authority and which is the push with globalism, which is the problem.

 

Sears did NOT fail because they were stupid. There are very real reasons Sears failed - reasons that it was not possible for them to fix.

Your last sentence is correct as those characteristics are important. BUT, that does NOT guarantee success.

Business schools are rife with examples of corporations that lost for various reasons. They involve stuff as little understood by the general public as "brand management" - the downfall of KrispyKreme. And, there are numerous strategies for success. The battle set up by our free market capitalist system is fierce. Saying something like "embrace ... evolution" doesn't even scratch the surface.

 

Compensation for capitalism's natural rate of unemployment can solve simple poverty and improve the efficiency of our economy.

 

However, coolie is now regarded as derogatory and/or a racial slur in the Caribbean, Africa, Oceania, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe – in reference to people from Asia. This is particularly so in South Africa, East Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, Mauritius, Fiji, and the Malay Peninsula. In 2000, the parliament of South Africa enacted the Promotion of Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, which has among its primary objectives the prevention of hate speech terms such as coolie.

 

Well...this guy..https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/06/business/sears-bid-eddie-lampert/index.html...is willing to pay $4.6 billion in believing that Sear's is possible to fix!

There is no guarantee of success.

 

Because globalism is bad for America

It lifts some poor countries but at the cost of a poorer middle class in this country

 

Thats news to me

What exactly is offensive about the word?

 

You need to do some reading...and regardless of reading...when is it EVER okay to recklessly group people into a category and label them with a slang name??

 

Because it has eroded our industrial base

 

So you blame others throughout the world for whatever 'eroded our industrial base' means??
At what point should Americans and US companies take responsibility for our choices and/or failures?

 

Quite true.

I'm really curious what strategy this guy would implement.

It certainly is NOT going to be easy. People at Sears have been trying to be successful for a long time now.

Does he think he can do more with Kenmore? They no longer own Craftsman. And, low end clothing, etc. has a LOT of strong competitors both in brick and mortar stores and on-line.

 

I am not responsible for what south africa likes or does not like

If you really care you should worry about how poor chinese and north koreans are treated by the communist government in beijing than how I refer to them from here in America

Because thats how Americans will be treated when china has the power to do so

 

.

 

The blame falls on bill clinton and the republicans in congress who embraced globalism in the 1990s

removing most barriors to cheap imports robbed American factory workers of their jobs

 

I suppose a committed globalist and absolute no-questions-asked capitalist would not care what happened to citizens in his own country

But I am neither of those

As a nationalist I do care about the consequences of unfettered trade with low wage countries

Particulary if the country is china and waging mercantilism against us

 

I would guess if he can buy it for $4.6 billion he will then sell the brands and real estate for $5.6 billion or lease the stores to another company. IMO it would be financial suicide to try to resurrect the Sear's name. Going back to the 70's or so, when the big mall mentality started, I was perplexed that within a mall there might be 30-40 shoe stores, several small boutiques, with a Sear's and Macy's and Penny's and Nordstrom, etc. basically all selling the same stuff and wondering how they could compete? Not far from me is a town with about 9,000 population and it has 7 full size grocery stores selling the same stuff...how can this be a great business model? And all of these are just retailers. When it comes to manufacturing, all the items in all the US retailers are basically imported because of price and because these stores mostly compete on pricing...so when the cost of doing business in the US is high, when the cost and problems with US labor is a continuing issue, and when sales of these same products are escalating around the world...meaning production volumes in the millions, these companies have no choice but to automate, and US companies even with an investment in automation knew they would not be able to compete longer term, US manufacturing shrunk and imports accelerated...and this brings us to today. Why would a US company invest millions in a factory to produce pencils while full knowing pencils are being produced around the world for pennies? Answer; They won't! And IMO this applies to almost every product imported today. The US cannot compete globally on labor intensive products and now we're having trouble competing globally even with automation. Sure all of the developing nations will experience inflation and increased cost of living but meanwhile the US is simply too costly...

 

I think about all of it...

 

Try to fathom if you can, the US has a protectionists economy like you prefer? Little to no imports. US consumers will have less selection and in some cases no selection. Prices on US-made products will be 200-300% higher in cost. Less competition means less quality and innovation. If you don't allow imports then you can guess you will greatly decrease exports. FYI...the US is only 5% of the world's population...so you wish to ignore the other 95% of potential consumers around the world? Once you greatly reduce the production quantities, by only selling into the US, can you see how this effects the business model which requires profitability? These cars are mostly imported...under your plan they would all disappear;

• Chrysler (93% imports)
• Lexus (86%)
• Dodge (82%)
• Volkswagen (73%)
• Infiniti (71%)
• Kia (69%)
• Buick (67%)
• Mercedes-Benz (64%)

What happens to all the other cars with 30-40% imports? They go away, or, they cost much more...

 

That sounds interesting till we remember that the US is losing a half trillion dollars in trade every year