I’m sitting here looking at a bolt with two mating nuts. The two nuts, I can assure you are NOT precisely the same. One of the nuts may have been made in China while the other one might have been made in Ohio. And the bolt might have been made in California. If the nuts are not “precisely the same,” how can we be confident they will work? Well, if the outside diameter dimensions of the bolt fall within certain high and low values AND the inside dimensions of the nuts fall within certain high and low values, these imprecise parts, made to a certain specifications, will function quite well (note: “exact precision doesn’t exist). But unlike this hardware, nature, on the other hand, can often make some adjustments if things aren’t quite “precise.” This is one thing that is so special about living things.

And now the watch revealed above, labeled as “Precise Technology,” reminds me of a “timepiece” incident from years back. Several top executives where I worked were walking past me and I noticed that they all had expensive looking watches like the one revealed above. I remarked, “Gee, I feel sorry for you guys.” One of them gave me a funny look and asked me why I said that. I replied, “You all have such crappy timepieces. They are grossly inaccurate.” One of the executive said, with a bit of a sneer, “And just what do you have?” I replied, “Unlike you, I have a two dollar digital watch from Menard’s that have no moving parts but instead has a display connected to a highly accurate chip invented by Texas Instruments. And my watch has been recently set to the US NIST Time Standard. In fact, I use this watch to calibrate some of our equipment in this factory.” Well, the executives were stunned and speechless. Not many years later, I noticed that they all had new watches that were a lot more like my watch from Menard’s - they had a digital display connected to a chip. I might finish here by revealing my memory of American made watches from my childhood. The Swiss thought that our watches were a joke and foolishly believed that we in the US could never make anything accurate like the Swiss Watch. The US plodded on, insisting on making watches that everyone could afford while the Swiss Watches were geared to high income people. Anyhow, the Swiss spoke too soon as the Texas Instrument technology blew away the Swiss’s corner on watch accuracy and almost permanently destroyed the Swiss Watch industry while providing watches that didn’t require the buyer to be a Duke or an Earl; very American…

Dave,
Yes, Nature can adapt while technology cannot. A few days before reading the watch story above I heard that Menard’s, where you purchased the watch, makes an attempt Not to buy Chinese.

To one you on watch stories, I no longer have a wristwatch or have a personal calender to remind me of appointments and events.

My Finnish made cell phone serves as my very accurate time piece, my calender, reminder alarm of schedule as well as my cell phone. One piece replaces three. I know I could have a cell phone do much more but this all I need for the simple life. I can sent a new one every two years when I renew my cell phone contract.

What you now call ‘very American’ I call ‘very Chinese”. Our governor elect in Wisconsin just turned down 800 million of Federal Transit money that will cost us another $100 million and many jobs because he said he promised to cancel the rapid rail line from Madison to Milwaukee. He has placed ideology over common sense. Now this is becoming ‘very American.

I haven’t been wearing a watch for about year, Bob. So what. But I don’t see how this is connected with what I was trying to reveal about the historical American love of “mass production for the masses.” And I believe that my cheap ten dollar Asian cell phone does what yours does.

I guess all of this reveals the weaknesses of writing and emails.

I’ll try again with a true Story that is depicted in Adam Smith’s 1776 book, “Wealth of Nations,” required reading for more than one MBA program.

Here is the Story of the Pin Factory

Right around 1776 when United States began as a country separate from England, there was another quiet revolution going on in England, described in “The Wealth of Nations.”

There was a pin factory in England where each worker worked as a craft person. That is, each worker made each pin from start to finish. At the end of the day, each worker had made about 20 pins. These pins were very expensive and only rich people could afford them. Back in these days, the expression “Pin Money” referred to a lot of money.

And then, a big change was made in how the worker did their work. Each worker worked on work that was repeated on just one part of the pin. One worker would cut the wire, another worker just made the pin heads, another person soldered the pin heads to the pin, another worker put a point on the pins, another worker hardened the points of the pins, another worker plated the pins and other workers put the pins on cards and packed them for shipping.

This new method of working was very repetitious for the workers but these workers got very good and fast at doing their job. At the end of the day, there were 2000 pins made for each worker instead of 20 pins. This was the beginning of mass production. After this, “Pin Money” meant just a small amount of money.

Right around the Civil War, Americans became interested in this. When rails were needed in America, they had to be imported from England because Americans didn’t know how to mass produce iron that wasn’t like cast iron – brittle. And so Americans took up the challenge of mass producing needed goods that were “just good enough.” Their goal wasn’t to “take steel making jobs from the English.” No, Americans loved mass production because this meant that many people could afford products instead of only kings, dukes, and rich Republicans. Mass production and goods for all became part of the American spirit and culture even when stuffy Europeans looked down on our Products, especially American watches. Of course the Europeans didn’t mind receiving our products during WWI and WWII.

I suppose that I could complain about other countries like China, India and Vietnam taking up what were, for a long, long time, American practices (yep, - very American – NOT Chinese). But if I did this, I would feel that I was no better and probably worse that the Tea Party Patriots that offer much criticism and few solutions…