Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the depressing collapse of the NY Yankees, the world being darker because Austin Aries is no longer TNA Champion, or your favorite piece of chicken, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
During last night’s presidential debate, moderator Candy Crowley asked President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney about Apple and outsourcing to China. The end of her question was, “How do you convince a great American company to bring that manufacturing back here?” Unsurprisingly, neither candidate gave an adequate or honest answer to the question.
Romney talked about China’s currency manipulation, patent stealing, and cheating without offering a cogent solution. Obama was slightly more honest when he said, “There are some jobs that are not going to come back because they are low-wage, low-skill jobs.” The President knows better than this. He knows that the vast majority of those manufacturing jobs are not going to come back. Steve Jobs told him so.
During a high-powered dinner featuring some of the biggest players in Silicon Valley, President Obama asked Steve Jobs what it would take for Apple to bring some of those jobs back to America. The reply was unsurprisingly brusque in that charmingly arrogant Steve Jobs way: “Those jobs aren’t coming back.” I’m sure the President and his staff have explored many ways to entice Apple to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. I’m also sure that they came to the conclusion that the government doesn’t have any realistic way to change the situation in a meaningful way.
As a tech nerd, I’m glad a tech-nerd topic came up in the debates. It’s just disappointing that neither candidate gave an answer that meant anything. Though I suppose that could be said about most of the answers given in all the debates thus far.
Yeah those computer and mobile manufacturing jobs are long gone. Romney mentioned patents and Obama mentioned protecting IP so I can only imagine both are going to spew some mpaa/riaa rhetoric in the next debate
I really dislike the town hall format for a debate. In fact I hate the other format too due to softball questions.
I do not mind them being critical of one another though.
I cannot say that their answers would be disappointing, because I had no expectation of them giving an adequate answer in the first place.