Garages hold mythic power in Silicon Valley

HP celebrates the completed restoration of the Palo Alto garage where it all began in 1939.

The story "Garages hold mythic power in Silicon Valley" published December 10, 2005 at 6:00 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[GrandpaN1947]

Started here, ended over there

Almost anybody knows where the Hewlett-Packard Company started, but how many know where it ended? The new "H-P Invent" is nothing more than an Asian outsourcing company that glues an H-P logo on Asian products. It's nice that the new H-P Invent recognizes it's long gone history. I wonder how many here in America really cares now that they an Asian manufacturing company. I know I don't.

[pjianwei]

What is manufactured in the States anyway?

The very fact that products manufacturing are out-sourced means that Americans have lost the ability to engage in production at a lower cost or higher efficiency.
Amercians do not accept price increases nor do they want to lose their jobs which can be done cheaper overseas. If Americans want to save their jobs then pay more, you cannot have the cake and eat it.
The few types of manufacturing that Amercian do still have an advantage are planes manufacturing and military equipment manufacturing. Where the high price of product can support the excessively high wages ($75 per hour). To most people on this planet, it sound ridiculous to be paid at such level, especially taking into consideration the exchange rate of the US$ maybe with the exception of the western European. Are Americans workers really that superior compared to Asian workers to deserve the wage disparity?

[GrandpaN1947]

Good point

All you say is true. What would happen if our wonderful government would stop giving tax breaks to help outsourcers, build oil refineries and power stations, stop illegal immigration, offer tax breaks only IF they employ Americans, allow importing of cheaper prescription drugs, etc.

What-if our government worked to help
Americans as hard as they work to help foreigners. So much for patriotism.

[Dannyboy259]

Partly good point

I'm not so much concerned with folks making $75/hour. The cost of living in many places (the house & garage shown in the article for example) would require you to make about $75/hour to afford to stay there. The article says they bought the house for $1.7 million?... Yeah, you'd need $75 an hour as an engineer to live there...

What really bothers me is the management at places like HP, Qwest, Worldcom, you name it. When Hewlett & Packard were working out of the garage, they had a clear focus, a real product that people wanted, and a clear view of what would happen if they failed. In our much touted "capitalist marketplace," they faced both the "carrot" of success AND the "stick" of failure. They made it because they were determined, smart, and built a great product... I'm sure the flyer at the house has even more glowing things to say about them, I will not dispute any of it... What do you think they would say about their company today?

Working as an engineer (not at HP though), here's where I'm a little disturbed and angered. Consider HP's management today (and others too, I'm equal opportunity)! There's no accountability for failure except at the bottom! The further you move up the management chain, the more insulated from accountability you become. The accountability chain is sort of an "inverted pyramid," with the guy at the bottom holding none of the control, but loosing his/her job as when management makes a dumb choice. The management is allowed to make huge blunders, throw away great products in a blaze of hype, mismanage wealth and power that they shouldn't even be touching, all while collecting gigantic bonuses and obscene paychecks. Has anyone at HP really paid a price for the failure of the Compaq plan? Throwing away the "bread & butter" of high quality test equipment? Sure, Carly steps down, but where's the penalty? I'll bet she got to keep her golden parachute, and I'll bet that she was making MUCH more than $75/hour! They should hold her and the other board members personally responsible for those choices, they should retract the bonuses, retract gifts, require repayment for use of the company car. When it comes to "downsizing" or "rightsizing" or whatever buzzword you want to use, the management rule should be "my job gets eliminated first."

This is obscene, the American worker is put into the position of competing with $5/hour labor overseas only because American management has allowed & encouraged it! It's not as if we couldn't all have a job that pays a decent wage and allows us to live in dignity. We could support each other, making reasonable wages for our hard work, respecting each others talents and rewarding hard work. It doesn't have to be this way, except to support management collecting $5000/hour.

I'm not "anti-wealth," I just want CEOs to REALLY earn their $5000/hour, just like I've got to earn my $30.

Don't be fooled about who's behind this, I'm not afraid of the overseas worker, I get to work with them on a daily basis, and I'm impressed by their intelligence and skill. In every way, I've found the overseas worker to be just like myself, with the same hopes and worries. We have more in common than either of us has with the management/CEO class.

What I AM afraid of the whole outsourcing theory... Like the other foolish management plans, this one basicly states that "we'll get them to do the work and we'll keep the profit." Like Homer Simpson running for garbage commisioner on the election plank of "can't somebody else do it?" this idea is going to fail in a big way. As soon as the folks in China and India figure out what's going on, this management plain will fail too, and the overseas companies will keep the profit for themselves, moving directly to the customer. Oh wait, you say, wouldn't Intellectual Property protection laws keep us in the loop?... No, I'm afraid not my American co-worker, only the patent trolls and IP holding corporations who own the perpetual rights to all of your work will benifit. You, my friend, are screwed. You can bank on that...

[Joe Blow]

The Ultimate Revenge ...

is that Chinese companies are hiring U.S. MBAs and lawyers like they're going out of style (which they will be, as you will see in a moment) to teach Chinese managers how U.S. businesses are "managed". The business types are jumping aboard with great glee, but that will be short-lived when their sponsors/students realize that (1) they have nothing substantive to teach anyone as far as what they know how to do, because all of the work has always been done by the folks at the bottom of the totem poles, and (b) the U.S. business types have eliminated their own jobs, as Chinese government managers take control of the factories and infrastructure their stupid U.S. former "partner" companies went and built for pennies on the dollar. Go ahead and try to exert your property rights in what is still ultimately a Peoples Republic (the People being the Communist Party, of course - the peasants just lose their rural homes and farms being taken by The State so they can flood them behind dams to generate power for the sweatshops, and trade them for grimy apartments in the big, polluted, overcrowded, infrastructure-poor cities that, oh, BTW, are breeding grounds for the potentially most deadly pandemics in history).

I can't wait to see the unemployed MBAs lined up at the soup kitchens, asking, "Buddy, can you spare a million?" Of course, I'm sure they're getting paid up-front in gold bullion (currently at record prices and still rising, which should tell you what conservative - aka, wealthy - investors think of other financial markets). It would still be nice to see these over-rated buttheads get what they've got coming to them as a result of their mismanagement here.

Hey, I've got a big, shiny briefcase, too, and I've cornered the market on all the snake oil you can buy!

All the Best to the Rest of Us,
Joe Blow