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<blockquote data-quote="John Roberts" data-source="post: 75284" data-attributes="member: 126">Re: Grumpy guy observation about the X32 threadOr we could set the way-back machine for a few hundred years and whine about the shoddy, low quality, knock-offs of European produscts coming from the American colonies. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :-)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" />I don&#039;t expect the final chapter has been written about the Japanese cars just yet. In the US at least they seem pretty competitive against a bailed out, subsidized, domestic industry.&nbsp; First when the US government tried to squash imports with high duties, the Japanese car companies responded with more expensive upscale models so the tariffs wouldn&#039;t make them uncompetitive (how did that strategy work out?). But yes, your basic point that this is a natural progression where capital pursues the highest return when free to cross borders (aka free trade) is valid. So manufacturing investment will occur where it earns the best return, i.e. in low labor cost regions. The car makers have been building automobile factories in Africa for a decade or more. First stage is final assembly of imported components, but they are probably already building transmissions and other major components there by now. Hard to imagine that this hasn&#039;t run it&#039;s full course by now, but it hasn&#039;t. Technology advances keep driving the labor content fraction of manufactured hard goods to a smaller and smaller percentage. A new manufacturing trend using 3D printing to fabricate parts without tooling could further alter the industrial evolution. Access to low cost energy and raw materials will always remain a significant input cost. JR</blockquote>

[QUOTE="John Roberts, post: 75284, member: 126"] Re: Grumpy guy observation about the X32 thread Or we could set the way-back machine for a few hundred years and whine about the shoddy, low quality, knock-offs of European produscts coming from the American colonies. :-) I don't expect the final chapter has been written about the Japanese cars just yet. In the US at least they seem pretty competitive against a bailed out, subsidized, domestic industry. First when the US government tried to squash imports with high duties, the Japanese car companies responded with more expensive upscale models so the tariffs wouldn't make them uncompetitive (how did that strategy work out?). But yes, your basic point that this is a natural progression where capital pursues the highest return when free to cross borders (aka free trade) is valid. So manufacturing investment will occur where it earns the best return, i.e. in low labor cost regions. The car makers have been building automobile factories in Africa for a decade or more. First stage is final assembly of imported components, but they are probably already building transmissions and other major components there by now. Hard to imagine that this hasn't run it's full course by now, but it hasn't. Technology advances keep driving the labor content fraction of manufactured hard goods to a smaller and smaller percentage. A new manufacturing trend using 3D printing to fabricate parts without tooling could further alter the industrial evolution. Access to low cost energy and raw materials will always remain a significant input cost. JR [/QUOTE]

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