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Old 05-21-2018, 07:46 PM
swaghauler swaghauler is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by .45cultist View Post
Yep, current events prompted my question. The shoddy and overstretched western armies give the crew you named at least think they have a chance.
And this doesn't even take into account that "President Clinton" also allowed the expiration of the requirement for key industries such as Steel Mills, and Tool & Die Shops to maintain their "surplus production." For those who don't know, after WWII, the US government set up a standard for key industries to maintain a "minimum surplus of manufacturing capacity." This number was initially 40% but was reduced as manufacturing became more efficient. When "President Clinton" took office, it was 20% of maximum capacity (so if you could make 100 "widgets" a day, you had to be able to make 120 with your "idled" capacity). He reduced this to zero and many idled blast furnaces and tool production IMMEDIATELY went to India and China. China also controls most of our strategic mining now. This was all done from the late 90's until right now (today). This means that if we can only make 100 Harpoons a month, that's ALL we are going get until we build another factory. Most US industry today has embraced the concept of "Lean Manufacturing" to reduce costs. This involves using a "skeleton crew" of workers to make things. As a consequence, most shops run at 95%+ output now. This means there can be no "great burst" of manufacturing to increase output for the short-term. We will DEFINITELY be fighting a "come as you are war" when it happens.
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