President Trump
hasn't done much to keep the American dental lab industry in existence. Today
most U.S. dental laboratories have moved to China, or been put out of work by
capitalists moving business to China to take advantage of cheap Chinese labor
that is sometimes socialized. In the United States there are only about 6000
dental labs most of which are small, remaining to produce crowns, bridges,
implants, dentures and so forth for Americans.
What happened is that FedEx and other fast shippers enabled U.S. dentists
to send impressions to China and get them back in nearly the same time frame as
local American producers. With on-line digitalized data of digital implants the
dentists can have the information in China the same day as he took the data
from the patient, then have the Chinese make a crown or bridge and send it back
with seven days. That dumped Chinese advantage is purely a consequence of cheap
labor abroad and technology that makes American skilled craftsmen increasing
obsolete, and that isn't right.
It's quite expensive to start a small dental lab business; the technology is costly and there is new equipment every year that speeds up production. Young people lack the skill and the capital to start their own business. Dentists themselves with lots of capital may band together and create dental labs in China to profit from the cheap Chinese labor. They don't pass on the savings to American crown consumers. The cheap Chinese labor and ease of foreign investment means the dental lab business is moving to China and will do so for a decade or so while some U.S.survivors keep modernizing to keep up. The advantage is Chinese though.
large Corporations like Dentsply have offices in more than 120 countries and manufacturing in 21. They were a leading player in starting the trend of outsourcing U.S. business for the advantage of the 1%. They make teeth for dentures that are just set-in pre-fabbed as it were. Customs crowns made individually still occurs in select U.S. dental labs, yet that too has largely moved abroad.
It's quite expensive to start a small dental lab business; the technology is costly and there is new equipment every year that speeds up production. Young people lack the skill and the capital to start their own business. Dentists themselves with lots of capital may band together and create dental labs in China to profit from the cheap Chinese labor. They don't pass on the savings to American crown consumers. The cheap Chinese labor and ease of foreign investment means the dental lab business is moving to China and will do so for a decade or so while some U.S.survivors keep modernizing to keep up. The advantage is Chinese though.
large Corporations like Dentsply have offices in more than 120 countries and manufacturing in 21. They were a leading player in starting the trend of outsourcing U.S. business for the advantage of the 1%. They make teeth for dentures that are just set-in pre-fabbed as it were. Customs crowns made individually still occurs in select U.S. dental labs, yet that too has largely moved abroad.
President Trump should at least put 50% tariffs on imported
Chinese products from dental labs to create an American placeholder in the
dental lab business until technological advance makes purely local production
through automation viable. Without enough skilled technicians to work with the
new technology, the new automation for tooth production will go to those with
already existing dental technology. One day the Chinese communist party may own
automated dental lab franchises across America to print on demand zircon crowns
for U.S. dentists while American workers can compete through labor ready with
illegal Mexican and Central American migrants for shovel ready jobs.
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