[geeks] Microsoft Surface...

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Fri, 1 Jun 2007, velociraptor wrote:

> That's R&D in the 20th & 21st Centuries.  Check: Cisco, Lucent,
> Nortel, EMC, etc.

I forget who did it first, but I once saw a cartoon with the HP "Invent"
logo with "Invent" scribbled out and "Buy" written next to it.

Why build anything when you can buy up small companies who've done all
the R&D for you, which you can then sell via hype while you outsource
the actual production to a third-world country using the cheapest
possible parts and then farm the support out to people who barely speak
English?

American business is in a bad way these days.  While the tech sector
may be the nastiest in that regard, the automotive sector may be the
first to "correct".  Did you notice that Toyota outsold all of the three
major US automakers?  Funny what happens when you build reliable
vehicles that people actually want to buy instead of 34 different models
of ugly SUV that all squeak and rattle as you drive them off the lot.

To paraphrase the bumper-stickers of a few years back:  "Hungry?  Eat
your SUV".

When the pieces finally all fall, there'll be a ripe local market for
honest, reliable, American-made goods.  I hope beyond hope that someone
takes advantage of that.

-- 
Jonathan Patschke ) "If we keep our pride, though paradise is lost, we
Elgin, TX        (   will pay the price, but we cannot count the cost."
USA               )                             --Neil Peart, "Bravado"