[pc2g4d]

It appears that Valetudo is an alternative firmware for existing robot vacuums. The OpenWRT of robot vacuums if you will.

I don't think it's accurate to say that it is simply us wanting cheaper things. There has been a deliberate trade and even monetary policy that has led to this outcome. It is a matter of policy that the expertise to manufacture such things no longer exists in the United States.

For example, the WTO trade rules the U.S. engineered and China's entry into the WTO facilitated the outsourcing by which managers of U.S. companies sold core industrial competencies out.

Another policy has been the maintenance of a strong dollar, bolstered by the petro dollar system. This makes U.S. exports on the whole uncompetitive.

The abandonment of vocational training in favor of a college-for-all approach has also undercut the skillbase that would be necessary to maintain a domestic electronics and devices industry.

In essence, you could see it as an abandonment of the working class in favor of college graduates, whose stock portfolios benefitted from the cheaper costs accessed in the Chinese labor market.

The America you are familiar with perhaps doesn't care. But many Americans understand that the trade and monetary policies have undercut their own earning potential, and they buy those cheaper Chinese goods with great resentment, simply because _there are no longer alternatives_ in a huge number of categories.

Eventually the dollar will lose its "reserve currency" status; eventually enough of the rest of the world will be developed enough, or trade relationships fraught enough, or free trade discredited enough, that the pendulum will swing the other direction. I suspect the swing has already begun. Part of my motivation for writing the original post---to test the waters.

[talldayo]

> The abandonment of vocational training in favor of a college-for-all approach has also undercut the skillbase that would be necessary to maintain a domestic electronics and devices industry.

This is just wrong; it's literally the opposite problem. The United States has been raising kids on 1960s curriculum for half a century, and now the only workers we can produce as a nation are the ones being trained and paid cheaper in China. College-for-all is the only policy that works; the United State's economy, not monetary policy, has ensured that our labor will never be competitive unless we tax imports. And if you tax imports, you might as well be admitting that the US can't compete anyways.

> But many Americans understand that the trade and monetary policies have undercut their own earning potential, and they buy those cheaper Chinese goods with great resentment, simply because _there are no longer alternatives_ in a huge number of categories.

Lmao. Yeah, with "great resentment" the average American buys their iPhone. There's just no alternative!

No, the average American (and most of the "good old boy" conservatives you're describing) care about nothing other than price and marketing. They'll piss and moan about oursourcing while buying a Vietnamese slim-jim in line to pay for Saudi-enriched fuel at the gas station. They'll shake their fist and claim it's the government's fault, but they know full-well a lassier-faire economy would only exacerbate the problems of foreign influence. China and Russia do not somehow become less equipped to manipulate our economy with less regulation. That's a fantasy.

You know what? Go build your robot vacuum. I'm actually really moved by your plight, and nothing would make me happier than watching you retread this perennial problem. Just don't come crying to me when you spend more than the MSRP of a Vision Pro paying for 4 locally made brushless encoders. We tried warning you, you insisted otherwise.