Examples Of Making It In America By Adam Davidson

In “Making it in America,” Adam Davidson explains what is occurring in factories in America today. Currently, American factories are producing more goods per factory than in the past, while factory jobs are disappearing. He also humanizes what is happening in today’s factories by providing a specific example of a company, Standard Motors with a factory in Greenville, South Carolina and interviewing workers and the Chief Executive Officer there. Davidson provides the reader with the context of their personal lives and the opportunities they have. One worker with whom he speaks is hurt by these trends, one that is helped by them. He adds emotion to the issue by getting to know people involved; their dreams as well as their fears. He also

This increase in automation has also allowed companies to produce more because these sophisticated machines can work faster and more precisely than people or even prior machines can. Davison first interviews Maddie. She tells him her life story: She was a good student, but got pregnant at the end of high school and could not afford both college and childcare. She tells Davidson how she would love to move up in the company and work in an office to design parts, not press buttons to make them. She wants to be able to buy her own home and take family vacations. She also is afraid of losing her job because she realizes that she can’t work her way up from her job since she has not learned to create complex computer programs like the skilled factory workers can. Davidson adds that “it feels cruel to point out all the Level-2 concepts Maddie doesn’t know.” The reader feels sorry for Maddie that she seems to have no way to achieve her goals in life and is stuck making $13 an hour until her job is eliminated which likely will occur when the cost of the machine to do her job drops in price or shipping fragile items becomes more

Sills explains how it is determined whether the company outsources production of a certain product or make it in America. Sills tells Davidson: “the main thing I think about is survival.” Parts that need skilled workers have to be made in America to assure quality. Standard Motors needs the highly skilled workers from the United States to assure quality of their parts, so “even if Mexican or Chinese workers could do Maddie’s job more cheaply, shipping fragile, half-finished parts to another country for processing would make no sense.” Parts that don’t need to be high quality are outsourced because the company simply can’t afford to make everything in the United States. Industrial profit lines can be lower than ten dollars per product, and materials are costing more and more. If companies don't cut costs, they either would have to charge more for their products, which could cost them a significant amount of clients, or lose millions by decreasing their already minimal profit margin. Maddie also is concerned about being replaced by a robot. “One day, they’re not going to need people; the machines will take over. People like me, we’re not going to be around forever,” she says. In addition, sometimes a worker is cheaper than automation. Davidson explains that Maddie’s job is likely safe since Standard, like a lot of other companies, doesn’t want to invest over $100,000 to buy a machine to