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Trump's China Tariffs Claim Another Victim: A South Carolina TV Manufacturing Plant:
The tariffs imposed by President Trump have claimed more jobs, this time at a consumer-electronics manufacturing plant in South Carolina.
Element Electronics blamed tariffs on Chinese imports for its decision to shut down its manufacturing facilities in Winnsboro, SC, a town located about 30 miles north of the state's capital. The plant, which makes Element TVs, will maintain a skeleton crew of eight workers, as it hopes the shutdown will be temporary."
The news is especially hard for Winnsboro and its surrounding communities because of recent job losses in the area, including the shuttering of a Walmart store, the closing of a textile mill, and the cancellation of plans to construct two nuclear reactors.
Element notified the state's Department of Employment about its plans, according to Columbia-based The State newspaper, which first reported on the plant's closing. In its notification, Element stated, "The layoff and closure is a result of the new tariffs that were recently and unexpectedly imposed on many goods imported from China, including the key television components used in our assembly operations in Winnsboro."
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday August 09 2018, @05:27PM
Awesome to converse with you. I consider myself a scientist, but couldn't afford or stomach the many years of schooling to get the letters after my name. Lowly applied physicist, aka BSEE with some MS coursework.
Yes, the "news" is a problem. From what I read, most of it comes through an aggregator like AP or UPI. I'm very frustrated by people having such strong opinions about the world when most of what they "know" comes from "news". And I'm not knocking the news as much as it sounds; people just need to consider that the news reporters aren't everywhere covering everything, so you really don't have a balanced view of the world.
Many people might remember the Exxon Valdez disaster. Through close personal connections I met and hung out with the head attorney for the civil lawsuit against the captain. The case was ongoing at the time. This attorney told me some facts, in strict (violation of) confidence, that were very different from what the "news media" was telling us. I learned then, 25+ years ago, to take the news media with a huge grain of salt. Even when they give actual facts, there might be huge gaps and missing yet critical information. For example, the news media was saying that the Valdez captain was drunk. They failed to tell you that he was off duty. Captains don't steer ships 24/7. They work in shifts like everyone else. He only had a beer, completely legal and allowed. There's much more...
And then we have the infrequent but still problematic bias, games, money, etc., in "science" journals and websites.
But yes, as a BSEE I've worked in electronics manufacturing a bunch and have friends who do now. One guy makes electronic fence dog collar circuits, for example, and he occasionally tells me about his US production vs. the Asian / Chinese stuff they also have done. And I've worked at companies that had stuff made in Mexico and China. The stuff was so bad that they had to discontinue- the rework and reject rate made it cost more than US made. The one place was making 27,000 circuit boards / day when I left.