Tag: manufacturing costs

The U.S. Threatens a Drone War in the Taiwan Strait— Seriously?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The U.S. has long been preparing for a drone war with China in the Taiwan Strait, should conflict arise. The head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command even declared that the U.S. would turn the strait into an ‘unmanned hellscape.’ Yet, China’s new generation of military equipment has already surpassed the U.S. in both cost and quantity.

The U.S. Threatens a Drone War in the Taiwan Strait— Seriously?

Previously:

Countering China with Chinese UAVs backfires, US military faces drone shortage

US Wants To Create ‘Hellscape’ of Drones If China Attacks Taiwan

TSMC Arizona chip plant will be a paperweight, says analyst

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The TSMC Arizona chip plant is behind schedule, over budget, and the subject of contention in online forums – and now an analyst says that it will be little more than a useless paperweight, even when it does finally begin production.

Not only will it only make chips for older Apple devices, but it can’t even complete the process of making those without sending them back to Taiwan for final assembly …

TSMC Arizona chip plant will be a paperweight, says analyst

Bombing Mexico to stop drug cartels from supplying US with fentanyl is a terrible idea

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The early stretch of the 2024 presidential campaign is underway — and with it a boatload of bad ideas and policy initiatives. One of the worst but increasingly popular proposals, uttered by several politicians aspiring for the highest office in the land, is to use the military to combat the drug cartels that have smuggled gargantuan amounts of fentanyl into the United States and turned swaths of neighboring Mexico into a war zone.

Bombing Mexico to stop drug cartels from supplying US with fentanyl is a terrible idea

Maybe they should call the Taliban for help?! /s

America’s $52 Billion Plan to Make Chips at Home Faces a Labor Shortage + manufacturing chips in the US could make smartphones more expensive

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

America’s $52 Billion Plan to Make Chips at Home Faces a Labor Shortage

Another possible fix would be to keep people in the workforce longer, by raising the age at which workers can begin collecting Social Security or tapping into their pensions or 401(k)s. Yet Harry Holzer, a former US Department of Labor chief economist now at Georgetown University, says that neither feels politically feasible right now. Immigration has been a toxic issue in American politics for years, and Social Security has long been an untouchable entitlement. “None of that is doable,” Holzer says, which means “our labor force growth is going to continue to be modest.”

Related:

How manufacturing chips in the US could make smartphones more expensive

Morcos says a top concern of his is the narrowness of the CHIPS Act. Without bringing related device manufacturing back to the U.S., such as device batteries, sensors, cameras, antennas, and hundreds of other components, the manufacturing process could require the most critical component to be produced stateside, then shipped overseas to be assembled with hundreds of other components into a device that is then shipped back to the U.S. for the American consumer.

Work longer, for less pay, and you still won’t be able to afford the latest smartphone or laptop?! 🤷🏼‍♀️