In my opinion, people in general (and by that I mean ‘the public’) don’t really stop to think about semiconductors and how they rely on them.
Because it’s an unseen technology buried inside an end user product e.g. PC, car or TV, they forget it’s there. All these other products, on the other hand, are in your face every day, you can point to them and say ‘I rely on THAT’. You can’t do that with semiconductors.
In saying all this, just because we rely heavily on semiconductors doesn’t give companies the right to expect help from the government if they run into financial troubles. Bailing out a hypothetical semico shouldn’t be based on need, but on whether the company actually deserves it.
If they have been conducting business without focusing on efficiencies, or relying on ‘the way it’s always been done’ and need financial assistance because they haven’t moved with the times, been creative enough or adapt to changing market demands, I see no reason why companies like that should be bailed out. Let these companies, (GM is one of them) go to the wall and let the better performing competitors pick up the pieces.
[...] Will semiconductors ever get an auto-type bail-out. As I become ever busy with my job, son, dog, two cats, and the inevitable travel to visit family during the summer months, I let my colleague Dr. Don Scansen do some of the writing for me. He was just in D.C. and has some pretty interesting ideas on the auto bail-outs, and if the electronics industry would ever get the same consideration. Read his blog post here. [...]
Don,
In my opinion, people in general (and by that I mean ‘the public’) don’t really stop to think about semiconductors and how they rely on them.
Because it’s an unseen technology buried inside an end user product e.g. PC, car or TV, they forget it’s there. All these other products, on the other hand, are in your face every day, you can point to them and say ‘I rely on THAT’. You can’t do that with semiconductors.
In saying all this, just because we rely heavily on semiconductors doesn’t give companies the right to expect help from the government if they run into financial troubles. Bailing out a hypothetical semico shouldn’t be based on need, but on whether the company actually deserves it.
If they have been conducting business without focusing on efficiencies, or relying on ‘the way it’s always been done’ and need financial assistance because they haven’t moved with the times, been creative enough or adapt to changing market demands, I see no reason why companies like that should be bailed out. Let these companies, (GM is one of them) go to the wall and let the better performing competitors pick up the pieces.
[...] Will semiconductors ever get an auto-type bail-out. As I become ever busy with my job, son, dog, two cats, and the inevitable travel to visit family during the summer months, I let my colleague Dr. Don Scansen do some of the writing for me. He was just in D.C. and has some pretty interesting ideas on the auto bail-outs, and if the electronics industry would ever get the same consideration. Read his blog post here. [...]