Coronavirus

[Dude#1279435]

I would think they already have, and that's a big part of why retail prices are so much higher now.

I'd think it's the opposite. If it costs less even after half way across the world than there isn't much reason to.

 

[GO-NAD!]

I don't know if everyone is able to view the imbedded video, but they discuss a recent study on the impact COVID has had on mental health over the course of the pandemic.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1633835472761008128

Covid’s effect on mental health not as great as first thought, study suggests | Mental health | The Guardian

In this article, some experts criticized the study, indicating deficiencies that were already acknowledged by the study authors.

 

[highfigh]

The process must start and now, and I think it actually has begun.

It has begun, to some extent. The parent company of Milwaukee Electric Tools is Chinese, but part of their plan is to manufacturer most of their goods in the US.

Made in America: these are some of the companies bringing manufacturing back to the US

Since the pandemic, many companies have unveiled plans to build new factories at home after being hit by tariffs related to the China trade war.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[Eppie]

I don't know if everyone is able to view the imbedded video, but they discuss a recent study on the impact COVID has had on mental health over the course of the pandemic.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1633835472761008128

Covid’s effect on mental health not as great as first thought, study suggests | Mental health | The Guardian

In this article, some experts criticized the study, indicating deficiencies that were already acknowledged by the study authors.

Something like mental health depends so much on someone's personal circumstances that it must be difficult to generalize. I can only speak to personal experience but when the province started shutting things down we started hiking on a regular basis. We rarely saw anyone else on the trails. That was the best that I have felt both physically and mentally in a long time. Our company was declared an essential service so work was never interrupted.

My friends in the food industry and health care on the other hand had it very rough. Restaurants were shut down for prolonged periods, sometimes with seemingly random and questionable criteria, and hospital staff were required to work very long shifts under stressful conditions. Many younger people by contrast had little difficulty shifting to remote work. Trying to translate those different situations into the general health of the populace is not an exact science.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Something like mental health depends so much on someone's personal circumstances that it must be difficult to generalize. I can only speak to personal experience but when the province started shutting things down we started hiking on a regular basis. We rarely saw anyone else on the trails. That was the best that I have felt both physically and mentally in a long time. Our company was declared an essential service so work was never interrupted.

My friends in the food industry and health care on the other hand had it very rough. Restaurants were shut down for prolonged periods, sometimes with seemingly random and questionable criteria, and hospital staff were required to work very long shifts under stressful conditions. Many younger people by contrast had little difficulty shifting to remote work. Trying to translate those different situations into the general health of the populace is not an exact science.

I can certainly appreciate that certain segments of the populace suffered - especially health workers and retail staff. But, my wife and I were fine. I worked several months from home and I'd still be doing it if I could.

I have some difficulty believing that the pandemic and resultant PH measures caused/worsened widespread psychosis, as suggested by some. Most reports are anecdotal in nature, which may be indicative, but are not definitive. Are we that psychologically fragile, as a species? There seems to be a current trend to pathologize every little bit of mental distress. I mean, how did we manage to get through the black death and the world wars?

 

[highfigh]

This and the fact that the supply chain has proven to be SIGNIFICANTLY more fragile than we thought. At least the overseas supply chain.

We may break even or reduce cost building things in NA again, and that would help with supply chain issues because of the significantly shorter distance things would have to travel.

That's not to say we don't manufacture in NA, but it's a lot more semiconductor and tech related. Granted, my Kitchen Aid appliances all say made in the USA so what do I know.

Part of the recent supply problems came about because people didn't want to work- the US had hundreds of cargo ships sitting idly off the coast of California, where huge amounts of goods enter th country, especially electronics, tools and machinery.

Made in the USA, but are the parts and materials from the US, or imported?

 

[highfigh]

Until the standard of living rises overseas, I'm not really seeing any major shift state side in having production there.

Having a steady job in other countries isn't a rise in the standard of living? People who bitch about the low pay in those countries have no idea about their cost of living- $50/month can allow someone to live like a king, but sure, let's pay them the same rate as US-based workers and when the news gets out that these people make 100 times as much as the rest, they'll become targets in the same way as lottery winners. The reason manufacturing loved offshore is because people who were higher up in foreign companies knew the people would work for more than they could make normally, but it was still lower than any place in a first or second world country.

 

[Trell]

It has begun, to some extent. The parent company of Milwaukee Electric Tools is Chinese, but part of their plan is to manufacturer most of their goods in the US.

Made in America: these are some of the companies bringing manufacturing back to the US

Since the pandemic, many companies have unveiled plans to build new factories at home after being hit by tariffs related to the China trade war.

www.businessinsider.com

Bringing back manufacturing to the Western world does not necessarily mean more jobs as automation using robots will do that.

 

[panteragstk]

Made in the USA, but are the parts and materials from the US, or imported?

That's the issue. I wouldn't consider something "made in the USA" unless all of said product was made here. If not, it's assembled in the USA, which is better, but not what I'm talking about.

 

[panteragstk]

Bringing back manufacturing to the Western world does not necessarily mean more jobs as automation using robots will do that.

Depends. It took a LOT of people to build that Tesla factory outside of Austin, TX.

 

[Trell]

I don't know if everyone is able to view the imbedded video, but they discuss a recent study on the impact COVID has had on mental health over the course of the pandemic.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1633835472761008128

Covid’s effect on mental health not as great as first thought, study suggests | Mental health | The Guardian

In this article, some experts criticized the study, indicating deficiencies that were already acknowledged by the study authors.

That overall the mental health (not defined) is about the same is for sure encouraging for the general population.

I’ll write later about this, but it’s really not that simple.

 

[mtrot]

I can certainly appreciate that certain segments of the populace suffered - especially health workers and retail staff. But, my wife and I were fine. I worked several months from home and I'd still be doing it if I could.

I have some difficulty believing that the pandemic and resultant PH measures caused/worsened widespread psychosis, as suggested by some. Most reports are anecdotal in nature, which may be indicative, but are definitive. Are we that psychologically fragile, as a species? There seems to be a current trend to pathologize every little bit of mental distress. I mean, how did we manage to get through the black death and the world wars?

I'd tend to agree. I think a lot of it is that we in the West have such easy lives, compared to even 50 years ago, and so much time on our hands to sit around and wonder and worry about all manner of perceived problems, both personal and societal. Not that long ago, a lot greater percentage of the population were employed in physically challenging occupations. People were dead tired when they got home from work and then had to take care of personal obligations after work. By that time, they were exhausted and didn't have time to sit around and worry too much about other people's opinions of them or whether they had gotten enough recognition and approbation on social media, since that didn't exist. They just had to go to bed and try to get enough sleep to be able to function the next day.

I'd also say you're correct about pathologizing various manifestations of mental distress. And a lot of that has come as manufacturers of psychoactive drugs conduct clinical trials of their prospective new drugs in certain types of patients with certain characteristics. Then, if they find the drug may help certain individuals with particular mental pathology that may be close but not exactly the same as the currently known ones, shazam, a new DSM disorder is created!(first it was ADD, then ADHD) Then, when members of the public see the resulting ads on TV, they start worrying if they have that disorder! Then you google it and read about more disorders you might have. It can become a vicious cycle.

 

[Trell]

I'd tend to agree. I think a lot of it is that we in the West have such easy lives, compared to even 50 years ago, and so much time on our hands to sit around and wonder and worry about all manner of perceived problems, both personal and societal. Not that long ago, a lot greater percentage of the population were employed in physically challenging occupations. People were dead tired when they got home from work and then had to take care of personal obligations after work. By that time, they were exhausted and didn't have time to sit around and worry too much about other people's opinions of them or whether they had gotten enough recognition and approbation on social media, since that didn't exist. They just had to go to bed and try to get enough sleep to be able to function the next day.

I'd also say you're correct about pathologizing various manifestations of mental distress. And a lot of that has come as manufacturers of psychoactive drugs conduct clinical trials of their prospective new drugs in certain types of patients with certain characteristics. Then, if they find the drug may help certain individuals with particular mental pathology that may be close but not exactly the same as the currently known ones, shazam, a new DSM disorder is created!(first it was ADD, then ADHD) Then, when members of the public see the resulting ads on TV, they start worrying if they have that disorder! Then you google it and read about more disorders you might have. It can become a vicious cycle.

I know you’re an old (white?) MAGA dude, a proud Trump voter and a Fox Sheeple Gold Star Member.

Do you even have any children that you are least nominally “love”?

 

[mtrot]

I know you’re an old (white?) MAGA dude, a proud Trump voter and a Fox Sheeple Gold Star Member.

Do you even have any children that you are least nominally “love”?

Lol. Triggered, much?

 

[GO-NAD!]

I'd tend to agree. I think a lot of it is that we in the West have such easy lives, compared to even 50 years ago, and so much time on our hands to sit around and wonder and worry about all manner of perceived problems, both personal and societal. Not that long ago, a lot greater percentage of the population were employed in physically challenging occupations. People were dead tired when they got home from work and then had to take care of personal obligations after work. By that time, they were exhausted and didn't have time to sit around and worry too much about other people's opinions of them or whether they had gotten enough recognition and approbation on social media, since that didn't exist. They just had to go to bed and try to get enough sleep to be able to function the next day.

I'd also say you're correct about pathologizing various manifestations of mental distress. And a lot of that has come as manufacturers of psychoactive drugs conduct clinical trials of their prospective new drugs in certain types of patients with certain characteristics. Then, if they find the drug may help certain individuals with particular mental pathology that may be close but not exactly the same as the currently known ones, shazam, a new DSM disorder is created!(first it was ADD, then ADHD) Then, when members of the public see the resulting ads on TV, they start worrying if they have that disorder! Then you google it and read about more disorders you might have. It can become a vicious cycle.

In past generations, a great deal of mental illness went undiagnosed and suffers who did bad things were just labeled 'evil'. We might not suffer from more mental illness now; it could be that it's being diagnosed more. For example, during the First World War, troops suffering from PTSD were often accused of 'lacking moral fibre', i.e. a character flaw, rather than mental illness.

At the same time I question how significantly the pandemic contributed to such problems.

There is definitely an incentive for drug manufacturers to find mental health conditions to match their pharmaceutical 'cures'.

 

[Trell]

Lol. Triggered, much?

You’re a whiny MAGA bitch as usual, but have you stopped pissing in the gene pool with your bearded “wife”?

 

[mtrot]

In past generations, a great deal of mental illness went undiagnosed and suffers who did bad things were just labeled 'evil'. We might not suffer from more mental illness now; it could be that it's being diagnosed more. For example, during the First World War, troops suffering from PTSD were often accused of 'lacking moral fibre', i.e. a character flaw, rather than mental illness.

At the same time I question how significantly the pandemic contributed to such problems.

There is definitely an incentive for drug manufacturers to find mental health conditions to match their pharmaceutical 'cures'.

Yes, agreed. I didn't mean to suggest that there was not mental illness in earlier times, and a lot of it certainly was undiagnosed. You have to remember that I worked in the pharma industry for 30 years, with 7 of them in the neuroscience division. One example of the overuse of diagnosis and treatment I noticed occurred when I would be sitting in the waiting rooms of child psychiatrists. Many of the children would be on various ADHD medications and antipsychotics. But you didn't have to spend much time in the waiting room to see that these children didn't really need more medications piling up on each other; they really needed better parents. The parents would totally ignore them, allowing children to run amok in the room until they finally started to bother other people, at which point they would explode on the child and scream at them or even swat them. The kids seemed like totally normal kids, but who needed caring and attentive parents to train and care for them.

My own college age daughter only recently was able to extricate herself from the medications her psychiatrist put her on because she was experiencing some depression. During the time she was on these medications, she lost a lot of affect, as well as drive and motivation to achieve. She also gained about 50 pounds during that time because she just had so little ambition to do much of anything. She was just having to force herself to get out of bed every morning. She now seems much more alert and "with it". Because there is risk of suicide in depressed persons, it is like pulling eye teeth to get a psychiatrist to take a patient off of the antidepressants. The very last thing they want to have happen is for a patient to commit suicide on their watch, so they tend to keep the meds going indefinitely.

But I still think we have more time and opportunity these days to sit around and worry and ruminate about past decisions and failures, which can progress to clinical depression than perhaps in earlier times.

 

[Trell]

You have to remember that I worked in the pharma industry for 30 years, with 7 of them in the neuroscience division

Exactly what was your “experience” here? As I recall it was very low level cleaning floor stuff.

Am I wrong?

 

[Dude#1279435]

Having a steady job in other countries isn't a rise in the standard of living? People who bitch about the low pay in those countries have no idea about their cost of living- $50/month can allow someone to live like a king, but sure, let's pay them the same rate as US-based workers and when the news gets out that these people make 100 times as much as the rest, they'll become targets in the same way as lottery winners. The reason manufacturing loved offshore is because people who were higher up in foreign companies knew the people would work for more than they could make normally, but it was still lower than any place in a first or second world country.

Then if costs are low but still allow people to live well, what are we having this conversation for??? It's still way less to produce our goods overseas than here.

 

[Trell]

Then if costs are low but still allow people to live well, what are we having this conversation for??? It's still way less to produce our goods overseas than here.

Bringing back manufacturing to USA won’t bring back that many jobs at all: It will be robots and engineers. Blue collar jobs? Not so much.