the UK is finished

[BeautyScientist]

We cannot beat the Far East at mass production, and would be foolish to try, so what is it that we can do?

Why can't we beat the Far East at mass production?

I am seriously thinking of having a go at precisely that.

 

[Cornish Steve]

Why can't we beat the Far East at mass production?

I am seriously thinking of having a go at precisely that.

Six years ago, I worked with a local clothing manufacturer to try to find a way to turn them around (there are Turn-around Management organizations in the US, and they can be quite ruthless). We came up with a plan, but it mostly entailed outsourcing.

The bottom line was stated by the company owner (great-grandson of the company founder) when they shut down a few months later. While not his exact words, they were something like: "Before I consider anything else, my overhead cost per item is $x.xx an hour. That includes minimum wage, holiday entitlements, sick leave, medical insurance, and various other government-imposed entitlements and taxes. This doesn't include my cost for buildings, equipment, raw materials, marketing, selling, operations, etc. - just the cost of having employees. My competitors can produce items for less than that overhead cost. End of story. There's nothing else to say."

Until or unless the government chooses to throw away 90% of its regulations and end its experiments with social ideology (e.g., minimum wage), the manufacturing industry is a thing of the past. The only exceptions are for specialised goods or perishable goods. We're living in a new world. Manufacturing jobs that have been lost in Britain are not coming back.

 

[Dynumo]

This is tactical corporate sabotage at it's finest...

1) Tell the UK consumers that the UK is finished.

2) They all panic more.

3) They try to save their money by not buying as much.

4) The situation for the UK corporate scene actually DOES get worse because people told people it would, scaring them into not spending their money damaging business with a knock on effect as then the unemployed can spend even less money...


The best way to counter this is to ignore it was ever said...

 

[Foremost]

The IMF have said the UK will be the worst performing out of all the major economies this year, and thats because of the way the government are trying to handle the problem with Quantitive Easing. I agree that the UK economy and therfore Sterling will perform worse than other currencies throughout '09

 

[dingbat]

Rogers correctly predicted the start of the commodities rally in 1999.

And how many predictions has he made that weren't correct? Even Derek Acorah gets it right sometimes.