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what is that supposed to mean karra?

maybe a little off topic but...
anyway, i think that a well rounded soldier would be better than a specialized soldier. if the mechanic got sniped, for example, and then the jeep broke down who would fix it? or if the driver got hit, who would drive? if one part of teh team gets taken out then the whole team fails, but with a team that knows all the parts of teh team if 1 person gets taken out the others can cover for him/her.

   

Reminds me of the old "Why does it take three women with PMS to change a light bulb?" routine.

   

It goes beyond that, when are the gunner, navigator, driver and mechanic ever going to be gusy all at the same time? The same pricipals have been applied to manufacturing for years. Lets say you have two work crews, one has very specialized workers, the other has workers that have training on every job but are still assigned their specific job or title. The specialized crew will get less done 100% of the time.

Why?

Because as soon as a worker in the specialized crew is done his job, or is waiting on another member to finish before he can continue, he lights a cigaret. Also, there could be ways to do your job that make it easier on someone else, but is no harder for you to do. You wouldn't know this unless you know what the other workers job entails.

On the other crew, if you don't have anything left in your job or position, you are trained enough to help the other members.

As long as the jeep is running, the mechanic could be loading guns for the gunner, helping the navigator figure out where they are etc etc.

   

That's exactly what I was implying, and the reason Canadian factories employ fewer people to run the same processes than American factories. I'm glad someone understands me.

   

It is well documented but not well touted that Canada is in the unenviable(?) position of having to employ local interpreters in Afghanistan to accompany their patrols.

Seems bilingualism is not all it's cracked up to be, n'est paw?

   

Maybe if you want to be understood, you should word yourself better. You didn't say much about the military until the end of the paragraph. The conversation was about Canada having better technology, and you went off saying that Americans send people up to Canada to see "how it's done" and how it takes 15 Americans to do what 4 Canadians can do better. I paid attention to those lines. Then you ended it by saying you know that kind of stuff is done by aircraft mechanics or whatever.

Now, if you were implying what Robair said that Canadians would have people with all talents in the jeep, who can drive, navigate, shoot, and so on, I really don't see where your standing is in that arguement. Do you really think that in the Americans military the people who are trained to be navigaters don't know how to drive, shoot, and so on? I would think that even if you are the navigater, you would know how to do most those things also. Navigaters still have to be trained for combat and for other situations. It would be stupid to train someone only to be a navigater, and not to be a driver/shooter or whatever. The only way you could know these things is if you were actually in the American army and went through training.

As far as factories go, I don't see how having the way that Robair talks about makes Canada have better technology. The US has their way of doing industry, and it's seemed to work for them so far. You can bash how they do their industry, and say Canadians are more specialized, but it's seemed to work for the US so far.

The last thing I have to say is in the US there is no set rules of doing things as far as business goes. Saying that an American would only know their one ability seems like an opinion to me, because you have to know it's all about the individual. What you are implying is that Canadians are the only people who can be specialized in more than 1 field, and that there's no Americans that could be the "driver and shooter." You've never served in the American army, or gone through training with them, I'm guessing, and yet you make these statements.

   

I didn't say Canada had better technology. In fact I started out saying "I think technology is pretty much equal in most places in the developed world."
I didn't say anything about drivers and shooters. That was an anology that someone else used to try to clarify things for those not well endowed with brains. I guess the anology was too complicated for you. I was referring to the US having fifteen specialist techs to service each particular aircraft when they come up here to Trenton whereas when Canada sends a bunch of planes of various sorts somewhere we send four or five guys to take care of everything on all of them.

Example...

In the factory where I work we have about a dozen people to work the factory at night, plus a mechanic and an electrician who also help out on the lines, as well as a production facilitator, who is something like a foreman. If the two main lines are cranky they all work full time on them, let's say making a long sheet of plastic film. If the two main lines running well then they go off and run lines in slitting which is making the big wide rolls into narrower rolls, some narrow enough to be used as tape, some wider for shrrets of beer bottle labels, etc. If the two main lines are running well and there isn't a lot of slitting to be done someone will go and run the reclaim line and a few others will sweep or paint.=about 15 people

In the US there are, in factories which do exactly the same thing, Eight guys to each run various parts of each main line, two full time mechanics to look after the lines, at least one electrician, a couple of janitors, 4 people in slitting because they each only know one machine, and two people in reclaim because there are two different reclaim lines. There is also a foreman for each department and a manager to oversee everything.=about 40 people

   

I don't see how that means that Canadians do a better job. Now, I understood what the person was saying when they clarified what you had said, and maybe I misread only because you were responding to my question about why this site has a section which says Canada has better technology than the US. Can you understand how someone could misread you when you come up saying it takes 15 American workers to do that same job 4 Canadians do, in which the Canadians do BETTER. Now, when you say it takes 15 Americans to do a job that 4 Canadians can do, in which the 4 Canadians can do better than the Americans, aren't you saying Americans are stupid? Maybe you aren't, but that is what I see when someone says that 4 Canadians can do a better job than 15 Americans. You might want to look at it this way: the US can employ 15 people, while Canada can only employ 4, because according to you, 4 is better than 15, yet at the sametime, I would much rather have 15 people employed than only 4 because it gives people jobs.

I'm not going to try to bash anything, but I don't really think Canada has that many different airplanes in the first place. In the US, things aren't always about being practical, it's about creating jobs, no matter how redundant you can be with a particular job. What my whole arguement is about is that fact that you said "it takes 15 Americans to do a job that 4 Canadians can do BETTER." I don't care about 4 compared to 15 doing the same jobs, I'm only frustrated that you are ignoring the fact that you said Canadians do a better job than Americans. I find that statement arrogant. The system might be different, and the Americans might like to employ more people, but I don't see how they do less of a good job compared to the Canadians who use less people.

   

I lived in North Carolina for a year - the supposed "Banking Capital of the South". These are things that frustrated me re: technology

1. You can't exchange U.S. currency into ANY other country's funds

2. To do internet banking, you fill out a form online, giving the payees address info, your account info and how much you want to pay - the bank will make a cheque for you and mail it out to the company WITHIN 5 BUSINESS DAYS!! Talk about progress.

3. Only about 1 in 10 businesses have debit macines for purchases

4. Money orders can only be made in US funds.

These may not be technilogical marvels, but they sure were frustrating as hell.........still liked the beer in the grocery stores though

   

Yeah, I don't think that has to do with technology, just a country doing things differently. It probably has to do with the status que of the band and whatever else is associated. You get used to a certain system, and don't want to doing anything to radical, even if it would be practical to do so.

On another note, I lived in North Carolina for about 10 years, it's a great place. Rolling hills, mountains, beaches, all in 1 state. Lot's of trees. Moved from there to Texas for a year, and let me tell you, Texas is a pile of shit hahaha....

   

I did not say Canadians did a better job. I said Canadians in general learn more jobs than Americans in general and that makes Canadian factories in general more efficient. As you seem to be so set on putting words in my mouth; just go ahead and talk to yourself. I shan't interrupt you any longer.

   

Okay, so I suppose "that what it takes fifteen Americans to do four Canadians can do better." is you never saying that Canadians did better....

   

Johnny, the problem with specialization is that it is costly. When you start paying salaries and benefits to 15 people as opposed to 4 people,it can be the difference between flourishing or bankruptcy. The other problem with being to specialized (as an individual) is you are prone to layoffs and cutbacks for ...you guessed it people that can handle more than one task.

My employers down here love me because I can handle a variety of positions and do them all to company specs. Management is constantly coming to me to perform tasks because " the Specialists" can't get the job done. That's because I've learned to do many tasks rather than specialize in one specifically. I learned that in Canada.

As far as the original question... I don't see it as a question of being equal or better. There are some things Canadians are better at...There are some things Americans are better at. They are just different.

Karra ...How does needing a translator in a country with many dialects relate to specialization or generalization of military positions ? American jeeps carry the translators too.

   

Your employers find you valuable, Zen? Wow, when I worked with you I just found you to be a good guy to drink beer with.

   

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