Factory Man Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus Factory Man

Zusammenfassung von Factory Man

Name: Factory Man
Author: Beth Macy

Beth Macy

How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local and Helped Save an American Town

15 Min.

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Alternative Perspektiven Internationale Wirtschaft Sozialismus & Kapitalismuskritik Wirtschaft der USA

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Factory Man
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What’s in it for me? Learn how offshoring hurts furniture companies, and how one fought back.

Few threats are as serious to American manufacturing as offshoring. Cheap production in China, Taiwan and Indonesia, combined with government support, has driven down the prices of manufactured goods in America.

Furniture manufacturing took a particularly hard hit.

American factories closed. Mass swaths of employees were laid off. Entire towns were decimated.

These blinks are the story of offshoring’s attack on American furniture manufacturing, through the lens of a Virginian family business, that fought back. It’s about how an industry came together to fight the low prices of Chinese furniture, and learned that their brand was more than just a sticker on the bottom of a kitchen table.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how to fight offshoring;
why making prices as low as possible isn’t a good strategy; and
how China’s government helps its companies get the upper hand.

American furniture manufacturers experienced a golden age in the early to mid 1900s.

On the tail end of the industrial revolution, the early 1900s were marked by innovation in technology and manufacturing. Computers, automation and global networks were yet to come, and people willing to break a sweat were the driving force of new potential.

It was the ideal climate for traditional American industry, such as furniture-making.

As people relocated from rural areas to towns and cities, to be closer to the new factories and industry in which they worked, demand for mass-produced furniture boomed.

The expansion of the railroad networks made it possible to transport these large pieces of furniture easily, such that a furniture manufacturer could service customers across the United States.

John David Basset Sr., who began making bedroom furniture in Virginia in 1902, profited greatly from the era’s economic climate.

Seeing the potential of using his family’s land and forests to build furniture, he procured a loan from his uncle and began producing bedroom furniture, shipping it as far as Canada.

At the time, furniture-makers profited from cheap labor, which kept the production costs at bay.

Although factory jobs offered low, often unfair wages, they were preferable to the alternative jobs of the time – working outdoors in fields or mines. The first workers in Basset’s factory worked for only five cents per hour!

African-American workers were a cheap source of labor, having been freed from slavery only half a century prior and still subject to discrimination, alienation and unequal treatment.

Until 1933, the Basset Factory was one of the few that hired black workers, albeit at a fraction of the hourly wage given to their white counterparts. In any case, employing cheap labor allowed the Basset family to produce at a lower cost than its competitors.

Since the early 1980s, Asia has been gradually overtaking the furniture-making business.

During the first half of the twentieth century, the Bassets and other American furniture-makers competed almost exclusively within the American market.

However, the cost of manufacturing in America increased, partially due to regulations around factory conditions and labor laws; and simultaneously, less-regulated, cheap manufacturing emerged abroad.

Asian products are welcomed by consumers and companies.

When Asian companies started selling their products in America, Americans could have used their purchasing power to support America. But they didn’t.

Consumers soon welcomed the Asian furniture because of the lower prices, and shifted their attitudes to be ok with buying from overseas.

Importing often excludes fair competition.

The problem American companies faced when competing with Asian imports wasn’t simply that they had to compete with cheaper producers. Rather, the nature of competition was simply unfair.

Cheap imports can create a cycle of price competition that eventually drives businesses into the ground.

Offshoring and importing have had dreadful effects on the plight of American workers.

American manufacturers have it bad when it comes to competition with foreign imports. But the real loser is actually the American factory worker.

As American companies offshore more and more aspects of production, large numbers of American factory workers are finding themselves without work.

American business has a right to be protected by law.

Something feels awfully immoral about the prospect of factory closures and widespread unemployment, due to unfair competition. But it’s not just immoral; it’s illegal!

According to the standards adopted by members of the World Trade Organization, it is illegal to dump; that is, it is illegal for a country’s government to actively try to run companies in another country out of business by setting prices that are lower than the actual production costs, or lower than the ones set by its own local market.

American producers can fight against competition from Asia.

Knowing that the law is on their side, why don’t American companies take their legal claims to the courtrooms?

Well, American companies certainly can work against dumping by taking legal action, but it’s not easy.

Offshoring can be good for business's bottom line, but so can protecting local jobs.

What motivated John D. Basset III to fight so hard against dumpers? Wouldn’t he have been better off closing the local factories, moving production offshore and counting his earnings on a beach somewhere?

A business doesn’t just make money; it delivers value. As the leader of a company, you have to ask yourself what your company does: does it generate profit or does it do something more?

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Worum geht es in Factory Man?

Factory Man unveils the dark side of globalization; that is, the horrific impact it has had on American business and the lives of factory workers. In its detailed examination of twentieth-century furniture manufacturing, it reveals how to fight against the death of the local economy and, more importantly, why this fight is worth it.

Bestes Zitat aus Factory Man

Fact: The minimum wage in Indonesia in January 2014 was $200/month.

—Beth Macy

Wer Factory Man lesen sollte

Anyone whose industry has been impacted by globalization
People in the furniture business
Anyone interested in geopolitics and offshoring

Über den Autor

Beth Macy is an American author and journalist who has won more than a dozen awards for excellence in journalism. As the daughter of a factory worker, she has devoted her work to the lives of regular people.

Zusammenfassung von Factory Man

Factory Man in 8 Kernaussagen verstehen

What’s in it for me? Learn how offshoring hurts furniture companies, and how one fought back.

American furniture manufacturers experienced a golden age in the early to mid 1900s.

Since the early 1980s, Asia has been gradually overtaking the furniture-making business.

Asian products are welcomed by consumers and companies.

Importing often excludes fair competition.

Offshoring and importing have had dreadful effects on the plight of American workers.

American business has a right to be protected by law.

American producers can fight against competition from Asia.

Offshoring can be good for business's bottom line, but so can protecting local jobs.

Kernaussagen in Factory Man

Einleitung

American furniture manufacturers experienced a golden age in the early to mid 1900s.

Since the early 1980s, Asia has been gradually overtaking the furniture-making business.

Asian products are welcomed by consumers and companies.

Importing often excludes fair competition.

Offshoring and importing have had dreadful effects on the plight of American workers.

American business has a right to be protected by law.

American producers can fight against competition from Asia.

Offshoring can be good for business's bottom line, but so can protecting local jobs.

Worum geht es in Factory Man?

Bestes Zitat aus Factory Man

Wer Factory Man lesen sollte

Über den Autor

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Factory Man
in 8 Kernaussagen verstehen