Diatribes of Kellie, Part One

This blog is actually a response I wrote to an article in a magazine I receive- the American School Board Journal. Click on the link below, scroll down to "The Skill Set" and let me know you agree with my response or not.

American School Board Journal

I am writing in response to your Sept. 2007 issues article entitled "The Skill Set". While it may appear that the U.S. is falling behind the rest of the world, the reality is we are still world leaders and continue to turn out the best and the brightest. Global awareness is needed but an accurate picture is also needed. I'm not saying countries such as China and India to use your examples, aren't producing some skilled workers, but...

You cannot say an engineer from China or India has the same qualifications as an American engineer. Some recent recalls from China serve to support my argument. Standards and quality control are NOT a factor in countries where corruption, communist government controls, and a lack of technical aptitude based on life experience is the norm. A graduate from the most prestigious engineering university in China has not seen- let alone used- industry standard testing machines and tools commonly used in small machine shops to billion dollar companies across the U.S. Indian outsourcing allows for minimal training and the ability to copy procedures, but the lack of understanding why certain procedures are followed or particular materials used shows the true lack of education.

Two real life examples, embellished some and of course, names changed to protect the innocent. Both involve tool manufacturing. USA company has invented the GreatTool. USA’s engineers have worked tirelessly on the specifications for GreatTool and it must be made exactly to the specs to work properly. USA company sends the specs to the Chinese manufacturer with strict instructions to make GreatTool exactly to specs. The manufacturer, ChinaCrap Inc. discovers that they do not have the machines to make what USA asked for. But if they put an extra notch in the design they can make it easily and faster than they originally thought! Not only that, the owner of ChinaCrap has discovered that his cousin has cheap steel. So he tells his ChinaCrap engineers that they WILL use the cheap steel. He doesn’t care if USA needs pure steel, this steel is only 38% other metals and it’s his cousins. So China Crap makes it to their new specs. USA company receives large shipment of tools that break and USA company president scratches his head and wonders why this happened when the ChinaCrap engineers said the changes would work. And it was cheaper than the qualified, properly trained, detail oriented Americans would have cost. This example happens in all trades and businesses across the U.S.

The next example involves India. USA company needs sterile computer chips for their new cutting edge digital tire gauge. Same as above- exact specs must be followed. USA sends the specs to the manufacturer in India, IndiaINC. IndiaINC has a great web site but their offices are actually in a corrugated steel shack that cows roam in and out of freely. Most of the “staff” do not own shoes and live in a kind of poverty that Americans couldn’t begin to comprehend. On the way to work they pass signs on buildings that read “DO NOT PASS URINE ON THIS WALL” (by the way, not an embellishment!) in several different languages and Indian dialects. Their cities and country have no infrastructure, let alone plumbing, sewers, and knowledge of common safety practices and hygiene. IndiaINC’s engineers are glad to make the $7500 per year because most of the staff lives in tents and huts. Thank goodness American companies outsource! The owner of IndiaINC has facilities all over the country. He sneds out the specs but with over 800 dialects in India, much of what USA wants gets lost in translation. Not to mention sterile is something very few doctors understand in India, so needless to say IndiaINCs employees have never heard of such a thing and assemble the tire gauge one the back of Bessie with raw human waste running through open trenches from business to business downhill until it reaches the nearest body of moving water. (Again that’s not an embellishment!) When USA company receives their first shipment of tire gauges from IndiaINC, the receptionist, Fannie starts reminiscing about her uncle Lem’s farm and Richard, the obsessive compulsive, Purell toting, clean freak, immediately breaks out an ultra violet light and discovers oodles of germs and contaminants. So many that he dons rubber gloves and drags the shipment outside himself. When the CEO of USA company visits IndiaINC in person he sees the conditions and fondly remembers the company that used to do this work in truly sterile conditions back in Ohio but closed because the jobs dried up. Oh well IndiaINC does it wayyyyy cheaper. I’ll just tell USAs engineers to adjust the specs so that fecal matter is incorporated into the design.

My point is, you can’t pluck people out of third world conditions, communist and easily corrupted environments, stick a degree in a few hundred thousand of their hands with standards far below the civilized world and be expected to taken seriously. In the long run it catches up with you. People are quickly losing trust in “Made in China”. Let’s see, poison pet food, lead paint on kids toys, antifreeze in toothpaste, these are all things that happened because it was cheaper for these American companies to have poorly educated and dare I say- corrupt- Chinese workers make their products.

An engineering degree from China or India doesn’t hold a candle to an engineering degree from an American University. I would bet my last dollar if you were to administer to Chinese students the test to qualify for the Society of Professional Engineers you would see the number of actual qualified Chinese engineers fall drastically.

The innovators of the world are American. The progressives of the world are American. The people who set the standard of quality and workmanship are Americans.
As for U.S. children falling behind the rest of the world in K-12 education… don’t even get me started!

We the Special Interest Groups...

The only thing I have to say is everyone should read the following links. The first link is an article that appeared in Scene Magazine. The second is a link to Ohio Secretary of State's searchable database. You can search a contributor's name or a representative's name or both! The last link is a fun site I found a long time ago that helps people understand where the money is coming from and how it influences your representatives votes. Government really has become "By the Special Interest Money, Of the Special Interest Money, and For the Special Interest Money."

"Education at It's Worst"

Searchable database of Ohio campaign contributions.

OpenSecrets.org