The Two Chinas to Produce 47% More GPS’s in 2005

According to this industry news letter/commercial directory re-seller the ROC (Taiwan) and the PRC (China proper) will tally up a 47% increase in GPS sales over 2004. Now 47% more of anything in one year is a lot. Most of these products are things the average consumer never knows he or she has … circuit boards, loose chips, sealed black boxes and the like that gets integrated into consumer products.

Funny that I’m writing abut China twice in a row, but beleive me, you’re going to see a lot more about China in this coming year, even if I go on to greener pastures.

You know a lot of people in the US bitch and moan about China and other Asian countries taking business away from the US. A number of US workers are actually hurting as well as the whiners who just complain, blogging on their Taiwanese-made computers while sitting in their Chinese-made chairs. There’s all kinds of reasons offered as to why the US is falling behind, and I am sure not smart enough to know all of them … but I’ll tell you a little story that may illustrate a few things.

When you get off an airplane in a US passenger terminal, what do you see? If you’re at MCO you see signs for Disney World … bring the kids, have a ball, spend a small fortune … produce? Nothing. If you land in LAS you see huge ads for casinos … bring the girlfriend, leave the wife home, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas .. play the sots, lose a bundle … produce? Nada. Multiply this again and again for any city you can think of. Last time I was in Detroit I don’t recall even seeing anything that would show a visitor that it was the car capital of the world. And in Los Angels, which used to be the home of more than half the world’s commercial aircraft .. Douglas .. what will you see? An ad for Brokeback Mountain, perhaps.

Well folks, slot machines and gay love stories don’t build an economy. They dissipate an economy. Get off the plane in Tokyo and guess what you see when you claim your luggage? Complementary baggage carts all festooned with advertising in many languages by their sponsor … Fanuc Ltd. Never heard of them, I’ll wager. Who’s Fanuc? (no it’s not Italian slang for the Brokeback Mountain boys), they are one of the world leaders in computer controlled machine tools and robotics. machine tools? Yeah, those things that carve metal into finished parts that actually build a product and _produce_ something. Guarantee any Japanese getting off the plane knows who and what Fanuc is.

Get off the plane in TPE (Chiang Kai Shek Airport .. yep another one of those fire-breathing warlords the US put in power and is still causing problems years after his death). Know what’s on the wall ads? Bolts, nuts, machine tools and more. Hardware and machines that actually _make_ things. Now don’t get me wrong you can see scenic wonders in Taiwan or you can go down to their version of the “strip’ and waste your money on a hooker same as Vegas… but the Taiwanese aren’t focused on play toys and playtime. Their focus is on making the toys for us ever more lard ass Americans to buy.

Get off the plane in Guangzhou (formerly Canton for the geography-deprived) and you know what’s on the wall? Posters of pretty Chey girls. No, not not “Cherry girls”, “Chery girls”. Don’t know what Chery is? General Motors does. They are engaged in a legal battle to make the company change its name. GM’s legal issue? Chery is too easily confused with Chevy. Look here: http://www.cheryglobal.com/ This company makes more than good enough cars that get great mileage and cost. in China, under $4,000 … nope, that’s not a misprint, their prices start at $3750 US. Malcom Bricklin, the US investor who brought us the Subaru is recruiting dealers right now to import the Chery to the US. Beleive me, GM has a lot more to worry about than the name of these little puppies. (by the way, that Brokeback Mountian DVD is available, pirated, in the street market for about 5 or 6 Renembi .. about 50 to 75 cents US)

So what can you take away from today’s rant? If you own a company, think about actually producing something. If you want to start a company, think about actually producing something. If you have a company that produces somehting and you use trucks to hauk any of it, equip your trucks with GPS tracking to improve your bottom line and keep you in business. If you have a kid in school, send him or her to classes in engineering, math and (better hedge your bets, Chinese).

If America thinks it can just sit around and getter fatter on entertainment, video games and hookers (oh sorry, Las Vegas, i meant good family-oriented pleasures, like losing the mortgage money but getting free drinks as you go down the tubes) the our thinking is wrong, wrong, wrong. Let’s do some right thinking for a change.