The China Effect

[spanner48]

That is why our current system is failing so many, some people are skilled in using their hands whilst others can crunch numbers but the current system pushes them all to get a degree. The most daft being for nurses where it is as much people skills as anything and to become a nurse should not require a degree, maybe to progress to a certain level a degree would be needed but for many why.

Long ago, my girlfriend - then a volunteer teacher in the New Hebrides - decided that teaching was "not for her". I suggested nursing instead. I proposed the only school I'd heard of: the Nightingale School, at St. Thomas' Hospital. The first, oldest and most prestigious nursing school in the world. She applied. They fell over themselves to accept her, because she had got an A Level ! She started, from day one, on the wards – mixing hands-on learning with classes in medicine and health science. She rose subsequently to become Secretary to the Royal College of Nursing.

Nowadays, the Nightingale School is part of King's College, London [rather than attached to St. Thomas' Hospital], and you can't even apply except as a graduate.

 

[Ross Buchanan]

I said to my kids -"you have to be competitive. If you can compete against a computer in India, great. Otherwise you've got to do what a computer can't do"
So far, one works for the national trust, ones a carpenter, one is a computer spod.
Next one is a barmaid and learning stained glass making. Number 5 wants to farm.
All working and earning. Only one with a degree is Mrs B, who has never really had a job!

 

[JackEasy]

It was an assertion based on human nature, a quick google and the data tends to support my assertion, but I could just have been lucky and I've cherry picked something that suits.

View attachment 196784

Or perhaps I don't need to cherry pick, as the next 3 or 4 results and news articles all discuss the trend. eg.
https://www.china-briefing.com/news...china-trends-and-implications-for-businesses/

F.

I’m good friends with the previous plant manager of the Bosch industrial boiler plant in Wuhan.
I asked him how wages of workers were at the plant. He told me a qualified welder used to be relatively cheap but in 2018 when I asked him, they were gold dust. Very rare and very well paid as there was massive competition.

 

[spanner48]

I prefer to say balance, something that can do the job and for as long as you anticipate. If it is for a one off then why buy top quality but if it is earning you an income then buy top quality as it will repay itself.

I recall an old craftsman who said that, when he decided to try out a new tool, he started with the cheapest possible that would do the job. If he used it just a few times, and it stayed "on the shelf", he'd only lost a little for the learning. If he used it a lot, and it broke/wore out, he'd buy real quality next time, since he now knew it would pay off.

 

[Eshmiel]

I recal an old craftsman who said that, when he decided to try out a new tool, he started with the cheapest possible that would do the job. If he used it just a few times, and it stayed "on the shelf", he'd only lost a little for the learning. If he used it a lot, and it broke/wore out, he'd buy real quality, since he now knew it would pay off.

In today's world of rabid consumers, there's a large marketplace for second-hand tools. In many cases, a high quality tool will sell, after a few years, for at least what you paid for it. I've done this a number of times with tools from Veritas, Lie-Nielsen, Mafell and even Scheppach (when they made proper tools in Germany). Effectively, you hire the tool for the price of inflation; or perhaps for nothing, if a popular tool is sold after 5 - 10 years for more than you paid for it.

Some brands attract silly prices, out of fashionableness or even "customer loyalty" (sometimes a disguise for a bit of xenophobia, e.g. directed at China). There was a buying frenzy on Lie-Nielsen tools a few years back, possibly also because of manufacturing shortages ..... with US buyers in particular paying more for second hand than the new-tool price to get this or that plane!

Currently there's a slighter frenzy in the US market for Schaaf chisels, which are quite well-made Chinese Pfeil copies using good steel but coming not properly commissioned .... and being sold dirt cheap (down to $60 for a set of 12 in a roll). Because they get very good reviews by buyers, posting in US forums, people are buying them then commissioning and sharpening them for resale at twice the new-price or more. (Might be a marketing chance for those who can hand-sharpen a gouge in 60 seconds on a rock).

***********
Tool reviews around the interwebbery is an interesting topic. How to find those that can be trusted? There's a lot of advertising and PR disguised as a review. But if we can find trustworthy reviews it can save a lot of cash that might be spent on useless TSOs.

 

[Delaney]

I recal an old craftsman who said that, when he decided to try out a new tool, he started with the cheapest possible that would do the job. If he used it just a few times, and it stayed "on the shelf", he'd only lost a little for the learning. If he used it a lot, and it broke/wore out, he'd buy real quality next time, since he now knew it would pay off.

Never liked this theory.
If you buy cheap tools your work is not as good.
Better tools make the work easier.
Better tools allow you to work faster.
If you buy tools twice, you’ve over paid.

Not to say there isn’t some merit in your old craftsmen’s logic but there is also an equally valid point of view.

I find the mantra amongst the old working class is to be frugal but; businesses don’t grow without risk (for the most part).
You have to know when to be cheap and when to be a baller. I find they often didn’t know when to be the latter.
My motto is ‘a small mind builds a small workshop’.
It’s metaphorical, sometimes you have to have a small workshop but; that’s not the point. It’s a state of mind and one I try to avoid.
Speculate to accumulate.

 

[Jameshow]

And what's their mental health like?

What's that! Work or die!!

 

[Ross Buchanan]

What's that! Work or die!!

"Mental Health" considerations are definitely a first-world problem. And quite possibly too much of a consideration.
I encounter a lot of people who complain about one thing or another, can't get motivated....whatever, and think "have you ever been hungry?" I went through some tough times when I was younger, and one thing I learned was "shut up and work. Work earns money, money solves most problems."
Yes I'm a joiner, but over the years I've loaded lorries, stacked shelves, driven trucks, dug ditches, swept floors, painted walls, herded cattle, sheared sheep..... And my rent got paid and there was food on the table

 

[Jacob]

.... Why did japanese/german car makers set up there eu plants in the UK. Because they had a highly skilled workforce with zero domestic competition. How did that come to pass?

Firstly to supply the UK market. Secondly low wages and weak unions.

 

[Jacob]

..... over the years I've loaded lorries, stacked shelves, driven trucks, dug ditches, swept floors, painted walls, herded cattle, sheared sheep..... And my rent got paid and there was food on the table

Wouldn't pay the rent nowadays, let alone buy a house. We've become a nation of property speculators and parasitic landlords.
High rents, low wages, both heavily subsidised by the state with housing benefits and income support, keeping property prices ever higher, including the cost of workspace; particularly burdensome for small businesses.