Taiwanese microchip manufacturer TSMC blames struggle to build the Phoenix plant on skilled labor shortage but workers cite disorganization and safety concerns.
A former Wafertech employee told the Guardian that Wafertech told American employees they were all lazy in July 2023. “We were in shock – and angry. The man that told us we were lazy during the all-employee meeting was the president of Wafertech at the time, Steve Tso,” they said. “Anyone in the hi-tech world understands how tightly these processes are run. Nothing is done without a procedure in place. To say that there are no Americans to do this part of the job is nonsense.”
“This was constantly the whole process. Everything was rushed. They weren’t giving us actual blueprints, just engineer drawings. It felt like a design-as-we-go type of deal. The information we were getting was really strange, never complete, and always changing. We would get updates constantly and these were big updates to the point where we would have to start pulling things down.” The Guardian.
Gods of Waters, Railroads and Dams
Engineers have been China’s most esteemed professionals since 256 BC, when Governor Li Bing designed and built the mighty Dujiangyan Irrigation Scheme. It works as well today as it did in 256 BC, and a grateful people deified him, as God of Waters. Xi Jinping is a chemical engineer. President Hu was a hydrological engineer. Skilled work crews in China – on railroads, skyscrapers, canals, dams or UHV lines – have 3-5 more years of math than their Western counterparts, can read engineers’ drawings, and can adapt them to local conditions if necessary. An email from a friend – a director-level employee with an engineering background who has worked with multinational companies primarily based in the US – suggests that TSMC’s Phoenix problems may be symptomatic of a widening performance gap.
Why American manufacturing really moved to China
Dear Godfree,
Thank for asking. American manufacturing moved to China not because of dumb labor, but because we could hire high IQ people for dirt cheap. If your machine broke down, no problem; some Chinese guy (with basically a masters in EE) would pull out the circuit boards and using probes and other instrumentation determine what board needed replacing and he would work for a fraction of the annual salary of his equivalent in the US. Manufacturing in the US is a nightmare: at our US facility our only requirement for an assemblers was a high school degree, US citizenship, passing a drug and criminal background check and then passing a simple assembly test: looking at an assembly engineering drawing and then putting the components together.
The vast majority of Americans were unable to complete the assembly test, while for our facility in China they completed it in half the time and 100% of the applicants passed. An assembler position in the US would average maybe 30 interviews a day and get 29 rejections, not to mention all the HR hassles of assemblers walking off shift, excessive lateness, stealing from work, slow work speed and poor attitudes.
Our products are highly specialized equipment, so it makes no sense to fully automate it, most of the components are assembled by hand and for certain steps we use custom engineered jigs. And for those saying that the position wasn't paying enough, it paid $12 an hour starting in an area with an extremely low cost of living where property taxes for a 2000 sq ft house is $800-$1000 a year. Assemblers don’t make $150K. An assembler takes parts and puts them together. The position starts at $12 an hour in flyover country which is pretty reasonable compared to other jobs that only require a GED and no prior work experience. Offers medical, dental and annual raises with plenty of opportunity to move up in the company. The national average salary for a Production Assembler is $33,029 in the United States, which is what you make if you stay 5+ years.
Finding an American worker capable of meeting these simple requirements and passing the assembly test is merely impossible, nevermind having them be competent, punctual and of good moral character (not stealing from the company or starting conflicts with coworkers). And these are the main groups that apply for this position.
The same exact product line has the same equipment in China, and the same positions in China pay the same wages as other positions there with only a high school degree and no work experience. Yet the applicant quality is much higher, and this applies as well to the white collar professions that support the manufacturing: schedulers, quality inspectors, equipment testers and calibrators, engineers, supply chain managers, account managers, sales etc....their labor quality is simply higher. \
I suspect the blacks and Hispanics are too dumb to get affirmative action or go to college, so they probably average 75 IQ and their Chinese equivalents are probably 95.
But the performance gap is massive.
Phoenix is a national defense project outsourced to a private, foreign company, TSMC. It’s struggling because we don’t have the talent TSMC requires.
An entire generation of American engineers and builders has passed since the Space Shuttle – without doing much engineering, or anyone noticing or caring. Our guys inherited few accumulated skills and long term experience to to pass on, so it’s no wonder they seem clueless to the Chinese. Today, the talent is in China.
As the head of a software engineering group in Canada I can attest to this. Firstly we found that new immigrants from Asia and Eastern Europe were far, far better than local Canadians. A foreign BSc was equal to at least a local MSc. Then we went the offshoring route (Tata Consulting) and not only were the foreign staff greatly cheaper, but also greatly more qualified.
Later on as the professor of a Masters level social science course, it was stunning to me that students from Zambia, Senegal etc. were so much better at writing essays in English than students who had been through the Canadian education system.
The Western elites have greatly dumbed down their educational institutions, with the latest racist craze to blame the "culture" of Black and Hispanic students in North America rather than enforce teaching excellence and discipline in the schools. Added onto the "managing children's self esteem" that reinforces mediocrity.
As the head of a software engineering group in Canada I can attest to this. Firstly we found that new immigrants from Asia and Eastern Europe were far, far better than local Canadians. A foreign BSc was equal to at least a local MSc. Then we went the offshoring route (Tata Consulting) and not only were the foreign staff greatly cheaper, but also greatly more qualified.
Later on as the professor of a Masters level social science course, it was stunning to me that students from Zambia, Senegal etc. were so much better at writing essays in English than students who had been through the Canadian education system.
The Western elites have greatly dumbed down their educational institutions, with the latest racist craze to blame the "culture" of Black and Hispanic students in North America rather than enforce teaching excellence and discipline in the schools. Added onto the "managing children's self esteem" that reinforces mediocrity.
I don’t think the phrase “too dumb” to describe blacks and Hispanic s who can’t access affirmative action is right. Use something else.