From: irvine@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Brent Irvine)
Subject: Re: DOES AMERICA SAY YES TO JAPAN? - Off track!!
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 00:39:12 GMT

In article <1gq77iINNt2s@rave.larc.nasa.gov> kludge@grissom.larc.nasa.gov (Scott Dorsey) writes:
>
>Admittedly the tactics which the Japanese TV makers used were not fair.
>Nonetheless, the products which they made were superior to the American
>products they were competing with.  The Japanese were using 110' CRTs
>long before the US, and as a result were producting TV sets which had a
>much smaller footprint for a given screen size.  If the US manufacturers
>had realized that customers actually wanted smaller sets (instead of 
>large console models) and that it would have been less expensive in
>the long run for them to make tubes with the higher technology, there
>would still be an American TV industry today, dumping or no.

Well, 

>This is true, but I don't think it's as much of a problem as seems to be
>claimed here.  While the trade practices put American products at an unfair
>disadvantage, the poor quality of many American products and the inability
>of American companies to respond to changing markets is a significant problem.
>Both of these problems need to be addressed.

Granted, some of the 'lost buisiness' was due to some complacency, but a lot
of the 'damage' was done when (especially in the mid to late 80s) the Japanese
were DUMPING products in the US while charging the loss directly to the home
market in the form of artificially high prices [cartel].  No one, no matter
how quick to market or efficient, can compete with *that*, especially when 
tactics are used to deliberately destroy a buisiness.

For instance (true story), a certain chip manufacturer issued a memo that
said to always charge 10% less than a certain American manufacturer.  The
Am. manufacturer dropped the price, which was followed by the Jap. 
reduction and so on, eventually forcing the American manu. out of
buisiness in that market - both were borrowing money to stay in the
market - "market share" Just the Jap. maker had deeper pockets.  The
U.S. government was brought in when the Am. maker found out what was
going on.  What did we do? NOTHING.  

>to fix it.  Looking over our shoulder at Japan and copying them won't do any
>good, because the attitudes of the people are different.  

Bravo!  Now if we can just come up with a PLAN TO DO IT...

>This is absolutely true, but we can't blame the Japanese for this.  Blame
>the folks to attempted to convert the US over to a "service economy" at
>the expense of manufacturing.  Blame the fact that the US government doesn't
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The move to a 'service economy' was more of a justification for what had
been happening all over [and in Japan] - manufacturing sector had stayed
constant in dollars, while employment was dropping, and the service
sector (which, despite popular opinion, does NOT mean flipping burgers,
but includes rather high paying jobs - engineering, banking, etc.).  
No 'policies' were made to favor any one sector over another, but a lot
of talk was generated though.

>sponsor any attempts at improving manufacturing technology, and the fact that
>in the last ten years, the amount of pure research done by private companies
>has dropped almost to zero.  We didn't invest in our future and we let the
>entire US manufacturing infrastructure fall apart, and now everybody is 
>running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to figure out
>what happened to them.

This angst and hand-wringing is a distinctly American trait and has been
going on for a LONG time [over 200 years], and about our manufacturing,
about 10 years now.  

We have neglected our infrastructure somewhat, but it is hardly falling
apart, and there are a lot of healthy companies and not-so healthy ones
that did plan for the future [intelligent deliberate plans].  What a lot
of them did not count on is the unmitigated economic warfare by the
Japanese consortia.  The government was bought and marginalized by
cash from the buisinesses, so there was little the manufacturers to do
but try to cope - copeing in this case was to watch profit margins drop
weakening market shares, and a general loss of confidence.  On top
of it all, endure criticism from everyone for what poor competitors
they were!  

>
>This is certainly the case.  Japanese protectionism is a problem.  But 
>frankly Japan isn't a very big market for any products, American or
>Japanese, which is why the Japanese turned to the US to sell their
>products.  If Japan were an open market for US goods, they still wouldn't
>buy very many, because Japan is a very small place compared with the US.
>While it's an unfair situation, it certainly isn't the real problem.

No, it is the real problem.  Any market of 110,000,000 people is not
small by any means - even if half the people spent $10, that would 
raise over $500,000,000!  NOT SMALL AT ALL.  The economy is changing
as well, from being export-only to more consumerism [and has been
doing this for some time]., but the real blockade is the barriers.

By saying that "Even if we could get in it wouldn't help" doesn't
give anyone the chance to "defy the odds" by giving it a shot.  You
see?  You just did what the Japanese do when they justify their
stupid restrictions:  They make the decision for 110,000,000 people.

>It's time to stop whining about whose fault it is and fix the damn
>problems.  Starting here, not starting with Japan.  Once we get our
>house in order, then we can complain about theirs.

BUT, our house being in disarray is a DIRECT RESULT OF WHAT THE 
JAPANESE KEIRITSU DID TO US AND OUR GOVERNMENTS INACTION.  We
took care of the government part, now lets take care of the
Japanese part!

-- 
+-------------------------+--------------------------------+-----------------+
| Brent L. Irvine         | For a mere $50 these personal  | I will be gone: |
| irvine@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu | opinions can also be yours!    | 20 Dec - 4 Jan  |
+-------------------------+--------------------------------+-----------------+
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.african.american,sci.electronics,m