Micron is a wholesaler where Intel does both. Micron doesn't do much in the way of packaging to install the tech in systems. Intel kind of has Micron by the balls in regards to licensing it.

FordGT90ConceptI wouldn't say that. Quality ends up about the same no matter what human does it. They were mostly saving money because of the currency floating. Without floating, the cost of shipping and exchange rate ends up not making Chinese manufacturing very attractive any more. Thing is, all of the manufacturing elsewhere has gone away over the last decade. Now there's not much choice without investing millions to start up their own manufacturing elsewhere.


Military actually funds the largest manufacturing block in the USA. Every warship is made in the USA and some cost over a billion each. All of the trucks, all of the computers, all of the weapons are made in the USA. Military literally keeps some companies afloat (one of the reasons the A-10 is still in service).

Trade deficit is mostly caused by USA being 71% consumer economy.

Assinhimlater says you're just a Trumpanzee wanker, take your "alternative facts" elsewhere. :laugh:

dalekdukesboyAssinhimlater says you're just a Trumpanzee wanker, take your "alternative facts" elsewhere. :laugh:

I'm just surprised a South African could be that passionate about Trump and American trade deficits, of all things. Aren't farmers getting killed over there, by it's own government? And people are barricading their homes from mobs and even hiring armed security? You'd think such a person would have more important things to get angry about.

StrayKATI'm just surprised a South African could be that passionate about Trump, of all things. Aren't farmers getting killed over there, by it's own government? And people are barricading their homes from mobs and even hiring armed security? You'd think such a person would have more important things to get angry about.

Maybe he's Trevor Noah? Or Noah Trevor? Whatever that dumbass "comedian" is called who's from South Africa.

FordGT90ConceptMicron is a wholesaler where Intel does both. Micron doesn't do much in the way of packaging to install the tech in systems. Intel kind of has Micron by the balls in regards to licensing it.

Micron does both wholesale and retail. They wholly own Crucial so they can sell their own chips in SSD and RAM.

Got to be something in the contract that forbids it then.

dalekdukesboyAssinhimlater says you're just a Trumpanzee wanker, take your "alternative facts" elsewhere. :laugh:

Where did I say that, captain genius?

Fact of the matter is that many of these pork-barrel military manufacturing projects are horribly wasteful black holes of taxpayer money that exist solely to keep Americans employed and politicians in power. For example, the US Army doesn't want or need any more M1 Abrams tanks, yet the assembly lines keep churning them out... and then there's the F-22 Raptor... and the Zumwalts. If Trump or any President wanted to make a dent in the deficit, auditing and cutting those programs would have far more of an effect than slapping tariffs on everyone you don't like because MUH UNFAIRNESS.

Oh, and the best part: the majority of that military manufacturing is in red states (you know, the ones who voted for the party that wants to cut social welfare) - yet those manufacturing programs that exist solely to keep people in jobs are essentially... social welfare programs.

StrayKATI'm just surprised a South African could be that passionate about Trump and American trade deficits, of all things. Aren't farmers getting killed over there, by it's own government? And people are barricading their homes from mobs and even hiring armed security? You'd think such a person would have more important things to get angry about.

LOL. SA is going into the shitter, but I do wish Americans who think they know everything would take a small amount of time and effort to find out basic facts.

AssimilatorFor example, the US Army doesn't want or need any more M1 Abrams tanks, yet the assembly lines keep churning them out...

They do not. The last new Abrams was built in 1996. All they do now is refurbish them. Congress wanted to shut down refurbishment for a few years but analysis determined that the cost to resume production would cost more than is saved. Because USA needs to maintain production readiness, they decided to keep funding for Abrams to a minimum and invest in the M1A3 upgrade package (aka, more refurbishment). Development and production of a new main battle tank was ruled out in favor of M1A3.

Assimilator...and then there's the F-22 Raptor...

Raptor has been out of production since 2011. Pretty much the same story as Abrams: maintenance and refurbishment. USA maintains the capability to ramp up production of them if the need arises.

Assimilatorand the Zumwalts.

Canceled (will only be three) because the per-ship cost exceeded the limit of 25% from projected. Again, USA could order more but priority has shifted to maintenance and refurbishment of Arleigh Burke class of destroyers (less than half the cost of Zumwalt).

AssimilatorIf Trump or any President wanted to make a dent in the deficit, auditing and cutting those programs would have far more of an effect than slapping tariffs on everyone you don't like because MUH UNFAIRNESS.

The House holds the purse strings. The House decides what does and doesn't get funded. POTUS only makes suggestions by offering a budget proposal. As far as I know, Congress has never straight up enacted the POTUS's proposal. It's always a mish-mash of different things with a bunch of amendments tacked on.

AssimilatorOh, and the best part: the majority of that military manufacturing is in red states...

The majority of *all* manufacturing is in red states. Blue states trend towards service industries.

AssimilatorLOL. SA is going into the shitter, but I do wish Americans who think they know everything would take a small amount of time and effort to find out basic facts.

Which is why you don’t see me commenting on SA. Ford pretty much covered 99% of what I would have shared with you. The last 1% would be to follow your own advice in regards to the U.S.

Not much point going there. It's not my fault that the USA does what it does, nor is it Assimilator's fault that South Africa does what it does.

AssimilatorAh yes, it's easy to see how the Trumpanzee is dealing with the trade deficit by cutting the largest contributor to it, the military. Oh wait he's not, just like no other president. But keep MAGA-wanking your alternative facts over there.

dalekdukesboy said:
Assinhimlater says you're just a , take your "alternative facts" elsewhere.
Trumpanzee wanker

I quoted you, that's where you said it, private genius; you don't even make rank of captain in the captain genius joke. Also you're a lib, you have no sense of humor, so yes you didn't say it to him literally/verbatim but to me but it's called having a sense of humor and making a point of your attitude towards our side of the argument in general, got it?

AssimilatorWhere did I say that, captain genius?

LOL. SA is going into the shitter, but I do wish Americans who think they know everything would take a small amount of time and effort to find out basic facts.

And yes I give you kudos for admitting SA is a shithole, America isn't so you may want to worry more about where you live than the flawed but great country that in less than 300 years kicked the crap out of the rest of the countries that have been here thousands of years. And as RT said Ford obliterated all your military spending grousing in detail so no need to go there again.

Parts of America are definitely bad too (not as bad as that particular SA situation, but still).. but they're either the result of extremely high taxing (Cali especially.. which is experiencing an exodus at this point). Or unfettered free market policies leading to globalism and relocating jobs. Both of which are the extremes of the Right and Left. Neither of these things are Trump's fault. He's the odd free trade advocate who's also a nationalist. So I'm willing to hear him out. I don't think the world has even seen this in awhile.

FordGT90ConceptCanceled (will only be three) because the per-ship cost exceeded the limit of 25% from projected. Again, USA could order more but priority has shifted to maintenance and refurbishment of Arleigh Burke class of destroyers (less than half the cost of Zumwalt).

Canned after they went 2x over the budget of the original 32 (THIRTY TWO) ships and built only 3 instead... :roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll:

It doesn't matter whether they cancelled the project or not, they dumped more than their share of money in the project anyway...

I don't even think it's worth talking about US military spending :\ THERE ARE TRILLIONS missing. It was actually going to be investigated by none other than Donald Rumsfeld at one point.. and I actually think he was sincere once. After 9/11 it was never spoken about again.

GorbazTheDragonCanned after they went 2x over the budget of the original 32 (THIRTY TWO) ships and built only 3 instead... :roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll::roll:

It doesn't matter whether they cancelled the project or not, they dumped more than their share of money in the project anyway...

It's about $1 billion per ship to build when the contract was for 32 in 1998. When the Navy reduced the orders to just seven ships in 2004 and ever since, it was in violation of the Nunn-McCurdy Amendment where they were looking at $1.5 billion ships for $2.5 billion in sail away costs. When the order was changed to a scant three in 2009, the per ship cost soared to almost $6 billion. Source. The projected sail-away cost now is $7.5 billion per ship--pretty sure that makes them the most expensive ships ever made.

And I was actually wrong. It was the Navy that originally wanted 32 and later dropped it to 2. Because of Susan Collins (R-ME) pleading, Navy bumped it back up to 3. Reason for scaling back the orders? It's a ship designed to fight an enemy that doesn't exist (think Cold War). Money that was going to go to ordering more Zumwalts instead went to ordering more Burkes. Source. Navy wanted 313 ships and that's easier to achieve with Burkes than Zumwalts. Additionally, Zumwalt is less capable at counter submarine warfare (which is what destroyers are for...which Zumwalt technically is) than Burke because of its stealthy profile (can't have deck torpedo tubes pointing every direction like Burke has).

Assimilatormilitary manufacturing projects are horribly wasteful black holes of taxpayer money that exist solely to keep Americans employed

$22.5 billion for

a ship designed to fight an enemy that doesn't exist

Do you see the connection?

Pretty sure USA would probably have 32 (or more) if there was a credible threat against the USA that it could counter. Zumwalt really cuts back on the number of sailors required to operate a ship (175 versus 323 of Arleigh Burke-class Flight IIA) and that should translate into long term savings (but fewer employed).

It's not just large items. I come from a military family.. I always heard stories of waste at all levels. Be it the mess halls or the office/computer equipment.

FordGT90ConceptThey do not. The last new Abrams was built in 1996. All they do now is refurbish them. Congress wanted to shut down refurbishment for a few years but analysis determined that the cost to resume production would cost more than is saved. Because USA needs to maintain production readiness, they decided to keep funding for Abrams to a minimum and invest in the M1A3 upgrade package (aka, more refurbishment). Development and production of a new main battle tank was ruled out in favor of M1A3.


Raptor has been out of production since 2011. Pretty much the same story as Abrams: maintenance and refurbishment. USA maintains the capability to ramp up production of them if the need arises.


Canceled (will only be three) because the per-ship cost exceeded the limit of 25% from projected. Again, USA could order more but priority has shifted to maintenance and refurbishment of Arleigh Burke class of destroyers (less than half the cost of Zumwalt).


The House holds the purse strings. The House decides what does and doesn't get funded. POTUS only makes suggestions by offering a budget proposal. As far as I know, Congress has never straight up enacted the POTUS's proposal. It's always a mish-mash of different things with a bunch of amendments tacked on.


The majority of *all* manufacturing is in red states. Blue states trend towards service industries.

Joe manshion scared all the jobs away from my state. 6 datacenter firms, baretta, amazon, and a few other companies were all scared off by joe blow and he is the reason the opioid crisis is so bad here. and his daughter or whatever was the ceo of the company that racked prices of epipens so high. big pharma has this state by the balls and joe is best buds and literally related to it. sadness.png If we had more jobs here we wouldn't have such chemical dependancies here and people wouldn't have to sell pills for money. watch the documentary called "oxyana" for a good rundown on this state's isses and then you'll see how bad the democrats run things.

Glad I already ordered & paid for the guts of my next upgrade ( CPU, mobo & ram) last week. Even though I'm not shopping or physically located in the USA, who knows what the fall out from this situation is going to do with other nations tech markets like in Australia for example?

Our stuff comes via SE Asia shipping routes AFAIK & of course 99% made in China.

AFAIK a lot of the big hardware stuff is shipped directly from the US. Areas like South America and maybe Africa could be an exception for some stuff.

Could be worse though for some more specialist stuff like watercooling hardware

Looks like China is telling it's people to prepare for hard times.. They're also sending a new trade delegation to the US to maybe/finally work this out. Maybe these tariffs won't last much longer.

Unfortunately, the Pentagon also says China is starting to train for strikes against the US. Geez. I guess this is Plan B for China.

And people thought Trump wouldn't phase them. It definitely did. But it's kind of like poking the hornet's nest.

They've been cheating the USA for over a decade now. There's always going to be resistance to righting the wrong especially when wrong is status quo.

StrayKATLooks like China is telling it's people to prepare for hard times.. They're also sending a new trade delegation to the US to maybe/finally work this out. Maybe these tariffs won't last much longer.

Unfortunately, the Pentagon also says China is starting to train for strikes against the US. Geez. I guess this is Plan B for China.

And people thought Trump wouldn't phase them. It definitely did. But it's kind of like poking the hornet's nest.

Like the usual ones?

www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/16/china_hacks_alaska/

FordGT90ConceptThey've been cheating the USA for over a decade now. There's always going to be resistance to righting the wrong especially when wrong is status quo.

I'd argue more than a decade but the US profit making, greedy companies had a huge role to play in that.

StrayKAT…..
Unfortunately, the Pentagon also says China is starting to train for strikes against the US. Geez. I guess this is Plan B for China.....

I wouldn't expect the Pentagon war machine to say anything else.
I guess they are just sitting around twiddling their thumbs and never hypothesised an attack on China either. :rolleyes: