I Don’t Get It

I don’t understand how business managers have been citing machines and off-shore factories to lower business costs. It just doesn’t make much sense to me. Well, I get what they are saying and yes, reducing the number of people you employ does lower costs, especially if you can reduce expenditures while keeping up with output.
Since starting to work in this factory, I have seen some really interesting things. The company I work for has a plant in China and they are making the same parts as I am. Now, what’s odd is that the parts made in China are all crap. Now, the company is paying me to fix them. Instead of just getting our plant to make them, more or less, correctly, we are paying them to make them for cheap, and then have me fix them. Make sense?? Not to me!
As for robots and machines, again not working properly. We have machines set-up to do the work of 2 machines without the human interaction. When I got to work today, I had to do measurements on over 1000 parts because the machine screwed up. When I was making the parts myself, I had to make sure I cleaned out the clamps every time and thus did not have this problem. Apparently this time and money saving move is a good idea??
I don’t understand why we are so obsessed with the idea of ‘lean manufacturing.’ I understand trying to limit costs so a company isn’t wasting product, but to cut jobs, reduce wages, cut benefits, and relocate to China is just stupid. Instead, we are financially empowering a state which has a terrible human rights record but can’t do anything about it because we rely on them for cheap goods.
Here’s a novel idea. How about we bring the good, high paying jobs home, reduce manufacturing costs by lowering energy costs, and give our own country a chance to stand strong. On the flip side, we as consumers will have to swallow a rise in costs, but if more of us are making higher wages, then in theory prices and wages should rise more or less the same.
With more higher paying jobs in the country, government would have more tax revenues at their disposal to properly fund health care, education, the environment, and many other initiatives.
On the note of the environment, with industries back in our country, we could better police the environmental impact of them and actually better control our effects on the negative environmental impact and possible better curb the effects of man-made global warming.
On top of all of that, with manufacturing back in Canada, we could dominate on the world stage and actually have clout to our voice when we call on China to do better with human rights. We are being hypocritical when we tell a country to shape up, yet we are funding their regimes of terror.
Apparently these ideas are revolutionary and governments don’t seem to understand them. PM Harper tried to get China to behave by almost having Canada boycott the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Really? How is that suppose to help? Did boycotting the Olympics in Berlin in the 1930s stop Hitler from carrying out his reign of terror? I think not! So how is boycotting the Olympics in Beijing going to get China to shape up? Come on politicians! Grow some balls and actually take a hard line stance on something and actually follow through with it! Bring our jobs home to keep Canadians employed for better- which betters our own country and communities!