<story><title>TSMC is having more luck building in Japan than in America</title><url>https://www.economist.com/business/2024/02/22/tsmc-is-having-more-luck-building-in-japan-than-in-america</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>subtypefiddler</author><text>It boils down to&lt;p&gt;- Labor relations (unions in Arizona pushed back agains Taiwanese workers build the factory)&lt;p&gt;- Local partners (Denso&amp;#x2F;Sony and Toyota investing in Japanese project, TSMC on its own in the US)&lt;p&gt;- Subsidies (Japan delivered on promises, US didn&amp;#x27;t)&lt;p&gt;- Ambition (12nm-28nm in Japan, 4nm in US)&lt;p&gt;It seems the US gov is not very serious about it while Japanese gov surely is. It sounds self-inflicted.&lt;p&gt;(edit: formatting)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>TaylorAlexander</author><text>I’m sure the point about labor unions is true in this case, but I did a quick search and it seems labor union participation is even higher in Japan. 17% in the Japan and 10% in the USA.&lt;p&gt;I think in many ways we do labor unions wrong in the US, and from my cursory knowledge it seems like the Taft-Hartley act has a lot to do with it. That concentrated union power in the leadership which created an opportunity for more corruption, and also weakened certain powers that would make labor struggles more useful. Of course in Japan, they would likely use Japanese workers due to strong nationalist sentiment so this particular issue wouldn’t occur.&lt;p&gt;I’m only saying this because some will read your comment and take away “labor unions bad”. I suspect that the truth is we aren’t doing labor unions properly here, and also the desire to use Taiwanese workers suggests there is something lacking about the US education system. It is of course reasonable for US workers to want a chance, but we need to make sure they are worthy of that chance. You can leave it up to the market to let people find higher education, but that’s going to leave smaller numbers in the end due to how wealth is distributed in this country. If you want higher numbers of educated workers, more provisions for affordable education are required.</text></comment>
<story><title>TSMC is having more luck building in Japan than in America</title><url>https://www.economist.com/business/2024/02/22/tsmc-is-having-more-luck-building-in-japan-than-in-america</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>subtypefiddler</author><text>It boils down to&lt;p&gt;- Labor relations (unions in Arizona pushed back agains Taiwanese workers build the factory)&lt;p&gt;- Local partners (Denso&amp;#x2F;Sony and Toyota investing in Japanese project, TSMC on its own in the US)&lt;p&gt;- Subsidies (Japan delivered on promises, US didn&amp;#x27;t)&lt;p&gt;- Ambition (12nm-28nm in Japan, 4nm in US)&lt;p&gt;It seems the US gov is not very serious about it while Japanese gov surely is. It sounds self-inflicted.&lt;p&gt;(edit: formatting)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>schainks</author><text>The US government currently is inhabited by one political party whose goal is to hinder US interests in any way possible while complaining that the US doesn’t do enough to bolster said interests.&lt;p&gt;So yes, part of the government is serious, while another part is serious about doing the opposite, which does produce the intended effect: public perception that the US government is not serious about these things.&lt;p&gt;What it will take for all political interests to align for the sake of US interests? Probably turning off financial lobbying from shadow money groups.</text></comment>