The world’s largest chipmaker promised to create thousands of US jobs. There are growing tensions over whether US workers have the skills or work ethic to do them.::Jobs at the TSMC semiconductor factory in Arizona could require long hours and total obedience. Americans may push back on the company’s culture.
So many ignorant comments in this thread. First of all, Taiwan isn’t some poor, developing nation, they’re extremely modernized and highly educated. They literally rank among the highest education rates and scores in the world: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Taiwan
For comparison of a basic education stat, the US has around a 79% literacy rate among adults while Taiwan has around 98%.
Second of all, TSMC workers in Taiwan make decent money on average:
https://focustaiwan.tw/business/202307010011
And for their US operations it will be above average as well:
https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/TSMC-Salaries-E4130.htm
https://www.salary.com/research/company/tsmc-salary
Now, I do agree that their work culture appears to be toxic. However, how many companies in the US are just as demanding and brutal? While Americans are stereotyped as lazy, we’re actually the exact opposite when you look at our average productivity and workloads.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/175286/hour-workweek-actually-longer-seven-hours.aspx
https://clockify.me/working-hours
https://www.bls.gov/productivity/
Compared to some Eastern countries, we’re definitely working less, but not necessarily producing less, as it’s pretty much proven that longer hours results in a sharp drop off in productivity.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241684896_Are_long_hours_reducing_productivity_in_manufacturing
Anyway, just food for thought.
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From that same website you sourced:
Even if you take away non-native English speakers based on the numbers on that website further down (which you also quote), that results in a literacy rate of 86%. My point still stands that Taiwan has a much higher literacy rate.
Edit: formatting
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I didn’t say functionally illiterate. Having low literacy (i.e. having difficulty with level 2 or higher literacy skills) is not being fully literate, which is typically what these stats are referring to when quoting literacy rates. Ironic that we’re arguing semantics on this.
Nah didn’t you know every Asian country are developing countries fueled simply by American off shoring for lower wages?
I feel the competency issue is also something to just dismiss, Taiwan has large domestic workforce that’s been involved in high end chip making for many years, it’s natural you wouldn’t find the same level of expertise (on a large scale) that you would have in taiwan
I completely agree that Taiwan has had decades of shaping a consistent workforce capable of working within cutting edge chip foundries, while the US hasn’t really, outside of Intel’s foundries which are quite behind TSMC.
I feel the simple solution is for the US government to subsidize an intern/training program where Taiwanese engineers and line workers train US counterparts. I suggest the US subsidize it because our government is the main reason TSMC is even building foundries here to begin with (the DoD correctly views our reliance on TSMC as a critical national security issue due to open hostilities from China threatening Taiwan’s independence).