SmarterEveryDay YouTube channel is a cool channel to follow if you're a nerd like me.

The video is long, but the basic premise is that he wanted to make something in the US, completely USA made. And documented the process, all the issues he ran into in trying to do basic manufacturing that we just have a hard time doing in the US these days. Makes the argument that we think of capitalism in terms of purely short term financial gains, but need to rethink in terms of more sustainable business practices that keep communities strong, and retain skills and jobs here instead of shipping overseas.

How does this happen? I don't know. I think government definitely needs to incentivize certain jobs/industries. I don't think individuals will overwhelmingly prefer supporting businesses that do this on a large enough scale to make a difference. But at the same time, I think if we focus too much on manufacturing jobs, we may not develop the intellect to innovate in non-manufacturing sectors.

Will also add, to that end, private equity. These days they are like locust. They'll come in, buy a business, hospital, factory, etc., squeeze it for all it has, gut it, make a bunch of profit, and then sell it for scraps in a way they still make money.

Destin is suffering from the same arrogance that many highly educated and successful people often do: You are not smarter than the market all of the time. Comparative advantage exists.

Quote:

---

I, Pencil, am a complex combination of miracles: a tree, zinc, copper, graphite, and so on. But to these miracles that manifest themselves in nature an even-more-extraordinary miracle has been added: the configuration of creative human energies millions of tiny know-hows configurating naturally and spontaneously in response to human necessity and desire and in the absence of any human masterminding!
.....
If I, Pencil, were the only item that could offer testimony on what men and women can accomplish when free to try, then those with little faith would have a fair case. However, there is testimony galore; it's all about us and on every hand. Mail delivery is exceedingly simple when compared, for instance, to the making of an automobile or a calculating machine or a grain combine or a milling machine or to tens of thousands of other things.

---

This video was posted a while ago. It is informative.

Quote:

---

Makes the argument that we think of capitalism in terms of purely short term financial gains

---

That is a market response. People value cheap over quality.

It's also a blanket statement that isn't universal. Again, because some markets are built on quality demands over price. Premium brands do exist. People smoke waygu briskets everyday. I can buy a $500 oven or a $5,000 one. Some people buy Whole Foods butter at 3X what I buy the HEB brand for, and that is far from low-quality butter.

When regulation costs go up and you are competing on price, those cost cuts have to come from somewhere and the only choices are quality or service.

This video was released a day ago and is an update to the one from last year.

I enjoy his content, but can't dedicate an hour for his videos. Are there some high points beyond the headline?

Hank the Grifter said:

---

Way too many government regulations in place that stifle American entrepreneurship and manufacturing.

Get the government out of the way and watch what happens.

---

Lawsuits

Hank the Grifter said:

---

Way too many government regulations in place that stifle American entrepreneurship and manufacturing.

Get the government out of the way and watch what happens.

---

Yep- to many people in government paid to make sure American manufacturing is not an easy process, this is done deliberately by foreign influence in our regulatory process and red tape. The EU is much worse than the US and they haven't done much to counter act the foreign influence and it shows. EU has tons of corrupt people passing unnecessary regulations to keep down manufacturing. Trump is fighting it but people like Biden helped keep making it a hard process. We are seeing a comeback in some sectors like auto makers and the steel industries. Need a lot more areas to come back like pulp and paper and pharma plants.

sam callahan said:

---

This video was released a day ago and is an update to the one from last year.

---

Did he lower the price and make massive improvements?

I think publicly traded companies are also a problem. As a public company, you have to think in quarters. In a private (not a private equity) company you can think in generations. My favorite companies are almost always still closely held. HEB, Buc-ee's, Mars just to name a few.

The market also values cheap. Someone just gifted my daughters a bunch of Life magazines from the 60s. The ads are the most compelling part. Glamour, style. The cars had a soul. People got dressed up to go over to a dinner whether a restaurant or a friend's. Different times. Those people valued quality over quantity. Have one pair of really nice dress shoes you keep for years instead of 4 pairs of replaceable shoes.

This was phenomenal if you want to understand the problem but more importantly, the current opportunity. Share this with your kids who have an entrepreneurial spirit. There are many boring businesses that nobody in competing in currently

"The real edge China now has is something more dangerous. ...In America, if you bring a new idea to the table and what happens: 6 meetings, several consultants, vendors, approval cycles, emails, and over a 3 month timeline. In China, an engineer brings in a sketch and samples are running at the end of the week... China build a environment for industrial movement speed (having supplier, machine shop, etc all within a 50 mile radius). That environment has created a system that compounds it's productivity."

"If I was 25yo today, I wouldn't trying to be making the next iPhone. I would be making boring, unsexy, industrial products."

reineraggie09 said:

---

I think publicly traded companies are also a problem. As a public company, you have to think in quarters. In a private (not a private equity) company you can think in generations. My favorite companies are almost always still closely held. HEB, Buc-ee's, Mars just to name a few.

---

"Corporate America" is also a problem.

The idea of so many layers of "leadership", usually that couldn't lead their way out of a wet paper bag, is warranted or needed is archaic, at best, and counterproductive at worst. I was a regional manager with hundreds of direct reports. I knew each and every one, since I did all of their paperwork, payroll, HR, etc. If all you can handle is 20-30 subordinates, you suck. There isn't any intrinsic value to most "leadership" roles upstream.

No idea. He started talking about capitalism being profit over people and I tapped out.

Hank the Grifter said:

---

Way too many government regulations in place that stifle American entrepreneurship and manufacturing.

Get the government out of the way and watch what happens.

---

I believe that we may not currently enjoy a free market economy. A great deal of concentration of capital and/or technology which appears necessary for the enormous investments for growth. Reliance upon cheap foreign labor, offshore manufacturing. Too much reliance upon, and interference by government--contracting, entitlements, regulation.

bobbranco said:

---

sam callahan said:

---

This video was released a day ago and is an update to the one from last year.

---

Did he lower the price and make massive improvements?

---

Complain about the price of you want, it's a fantastic grill brush.

You don't have to buy it if you don't want to.

But last I saw they were moving enough to have trouble keeping up.

I remember when conservatives used to believe in capitalism. Not in nationalizing companies and the federal governments taking stakes into them, and propping up domestic industries by implementing massive tariffs. So much for any pretense to the invisible hand. It's a very visible hand that sweeps money away from you and directly to the oligarchy.

Kenneth_2003 said:

---

bobbranco said:

---

sam callahan said:

---

This video was released a day ago and is an update to the one from last year.

---

Did he lower the price and make massive improvements?

---

Complain about the price of you want, it's a fantastic grill brush.

You don't have to buy it if you don't want to.

But last I saw they were moving enough to have trouble keeping up.

---

I'm sure it is if it fits your needs.

I found my chainmail before I saw his first video and it works great! Be sure to buy large and small ring chainmail.

https://www.amazon.com/Knapp-Made-CM-Scrubber-Stainless/dp/B083P6RH5T/ref=asc_df_B0087UYR1S?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=79852242640711&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=76884&hvtargid=pla-4583451718973479&th=1

As others have said, globalization and corporatism have led to the movement of jobs, but national borders, cultural differences and cost of movement limit how far the workforce can move to follow them. The result is a growing group of people who no longer have access to professional jobs. This going to continue to be a problem.

shiftyandquick said:

---

I remember when conservatives used to believe in capitalism. Not in nationalizing companies and the federal governments taking stakes into them, and propping up domestic industries by implementing massive tariffs. So much for any pretense to the invisible hand. It's a very visible hand that sweeps money away from you and directly to the oligarchy.

---

m

Strictly speaking capitalism is the obvious choice if we all play by the same rules. Unfortunately in today's global economy we don't. To my knowledge we haven't implemented any tariffs that weren't reactionary meaning we have them in response to actions by the other nation. China heavily subsidizes industries it wants to keep in China which artificially reduces the cost of those goods and disincentivizes companies to move production elsewhere including back to the U.S. and they do it by printing money at a rate significantly faster than we're printing it. That creates a significant advantage for Chinese workers that we can't compete against without offsetting subsidies, aka tariffs. Whining about American policy as anti-capitalist without acknowledging the whole picture is disingenuous at best.

BigRobSA said:

---

reineraggie09 said:

---

I think publicly traded companies are also a problem. As a public company, you have to think in quarters. In a private (not a private equity) company you can think in generations. My favorite companies are almost always still closely held. HEB, Buc-ee's, Mars just to name a few.

---

"Corporate America" is also a problem.

The idea of so many layers of "leadership", usually that couldn't lead their way out of a wet paper bag, is warranted or needed is archaic, at best, and counterproductive at worst. I was a regional manager with hundreds of direct reports. I knew each and every one, since I did all of their paperwork, payroll, HR, etc. If all you can handle is 20-30 subordinates, you suck. There isn't any intrinsic value to most "leadership" roles upstream.

---

Leadership is needed because the majority of a workforce has/needs to be led otherwise they aren't productive. What's key is getting the right leaders otherwise it's the blind leading the blind.

Get government and regulations out of the way. This is the answer.

tysker said:

---

Destin is suffering from the same arrogance that many highly educated and successful people often do: You are not smarter than the market all of the time. Comparative advantage exists.

Quote:

---

I, Pencil, am a complex combination of miracles: a tree, zinc, copper, graphite, and so on. But to these miracles that manifest themselves in nature an even-more-extraordinary miracle has been added: the configuration of creative human energies millions of tiny know-hows configurating naturally and spontaneously in response to human necessity and desire and in the absence of any human masterminding!
.....
If I, Pencil, were the only item that could offer testimony on what men and women can accomplish when free to try, then those with little faith would have a fair case. However, there is testimony galore; it's all about us and on every hand. Mail delivery is exceedingly simple when compared, for instance, to the making of an automobile or a calculating machine or a grain combine or a milling machine or to tens of thousands of other things.

---

---

When each of the tree, zinc, copper, graphite, and so on, all need to be signed off on by 10 different safety and quality inspectors whose only reasons to exist are to 1) make it harder to start a tree, zinc, copper, graphite, or so on business, and 2) Give a government employee a job, we make capitalism harder than it has to be.

LOYAL AG said:

---

shiftyandquick said:

---

I remember when conservatives used to believe in capitalism. Not in nationalizing companies and the federal governments taking stakes into them, and propping up domestic industries by implementing massive tariffs. So much for any pretense to the invisible hand. It's a very visible hand that sweeps money away from you and directly to the oligarchy.

---

m

Strictly speaking capitalism is the obvious choice if we all play by the same rules. Unfortunately in today's global economy we don't. To my knowledge we haven't implemented any tariffs that weren't reactionary meaning we have them in response to actions by the other nation. China heavily subsidizes industries it wants to keep in China which artificially reduces the cost of those goods and disincentivizes companies to move production elsewhere including back to the U.S. and they do it by printing money at a rate significantly faster than we're printing it. That creates a significant advantage for Chinese workers that we can't compete against without offsetting subsidies, aka tariffs. Whining about American policy as anti-capitalist without acknowledging the whole picture is disingenuous at best.

---

The only intelligent post in this thread. Good to read. Blue star to you.

For any system to work, there have to be rules or guidelines. Automotive Traffic for example. We all have to follow the same rules for traffic to move effectively and prevent accidents.

Capitalism is the same way. For it to work, all participants need to follow the same rules and have the same restrictions for the logic to work. For example tariffs - you cannot have countries imposing tariffs on us while we remove everything. They need to have no tariffs on us either.
We live in an ecosystem. People love to say "remove regulations" because they heard their favorite conservative talk show guy say it. But what about companies bending the rules, using loopholes and straight out committing fraud? Why aren't they punished? Why do people have rules to follow but not corporations?

The choice is simple - Jobs or Low Prices. Cannot have both. It is a decision our administration has to make. If you pick low prices, people lose jobs. If you keep jobs, then you pay higher prices. Nothing in life is free. We have picked low prices which is why everything has gone to China/India and now we have no jobs. Prices are creeping high as corporations realize people have no bargaining power, so now we have nothing.

The government meddling can't be the both the cause and solution to the problem.

There are 2 players here - Government, and Corporation.

Whom do we trust more?
They are both sleazy and slimy but we have to make a choice - lesser of both evils.

I pick Government. At least we can kick them out after their term (in most cases). Government has to apply or remove regulation on corporations and people in order to let society work best. There is no other way.

BboroAg said:

---

The issue is not capitalism. Capitalism is used to describe the US economy and it is the equivalent of calling our government a democracy (we are a republic).

What made the USA great was free enterprise/free markets.Government interference has led us to socialism (a government controlled economy). This was not what the founding father's envisioned.

---

America was great when there was no globalization. America was the world. Then our corps got greedy and pushed this globalization idea and America's power reduced and China/India got better and in some decades we will all be 2nd world TOGETHER.

BBRex said:

---

As others have said, globalization and corporatism have led to the movement of jobs, but national borders, cultural differences and cost of movement limit how far the workforce can move to follow them. The result is a growing group of people who no longer have access to professional jobs. This going to continue to be a problem.

---

You are right. The only solution is to restrict this by taxes/tariffs or just banning. Either way. A country cannot survive if intelligent people (scientists, engineers etc) have no opportunity and have to become a manual labor type like HVAC/plumber to survive.

America will die. We are on that path.

Quote:

---

The choice is simple - Jobs or Low Prices. Cannot have both. It is a decision our administration has to make. If you pick low prices, people lose jobs. If you keep jobs, then you pay higher prices. Nothing in life is free. We have picked low prices which is why everything has gone to China/India and now we have no jobs. Prices are creeping high as corporations realize people have no bargaining power, so now we have nothing.

---

The market is not a zero-sum game. This type of economic thinking is how you will travel down the road to serfdom.

Tell me, what exactly is the interaction between jobs and (consumer) prices? You seem to think they are inverses. I would argue they are different outcomes of the same monetary + fiscal policy, but that's just me.

We have experienced the highest prices for goods and services in our country's history while also having workers earning a $15/hr minimum wage to do menial tasks. True or false: Price-controlled wages (minimum wage) will result in a shortage of job opportunities over time?

infinity ag said:

---

BBRex said:

---

As others have said, globalization and corporatism have led to the movement of jobs, but national borders, cultural differences and cost of movement limit how far the workforce can move to follow them. The result is a growing group of people who no longer have access to professional jobs. This going to continue to be a problem.

---

You are right. The only solution is to restrict this by taxes/tariffs or just banning. Either way. A country cannot survive if intelligent people (scientists, engineers etc) have no opportunity and have to become a manual labor type like HVAC/plumber to survive.

America will die. We are on that path.

---

An economy emphasizing free enterprise will, over time, provide more opportunity than a state-controlled economy. It may not be opportunity for you and your family, but for those willing to compete, take risks, work hard, be willing to fail and even get a little lucky, a free enterprise system can result in outcomes that benefit society in ways you or I can't even imagine.

infinity ag said:

---

There are 2 players here - Government, and Corporation.

Whom do we trust more?
They are both sleazy and slimy but we have to make a choice - lesser of both evils.

I pick Government. At least we can kick them out after their term (in most cases). Government has to apply or remove regulation on corporations and people in order to let society work best. There is no other way.

---

I pick corporations. With government, you have but one choice. With corporations (and partnerships) you almost always have several to choose from.

People will always choose low prices. And it is so much easier to do now. You don't have to drive all over seeing who has the item(s) you want to buy, and the price they are asking. You can do all that online now, shop worldwide, and in a few minutes find the best price and have it the next day.

Though, in theory, we can kick politicians out, that generally does not happen. The advantages of the incumbent are why despite an approval rating for Congress of under 30%, something like 90% get re-elected.