Pope Francis Shuts Down the Cafeteria

"On an Easter Sunday appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation," Cardinal Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington, lamented that President Biden is a "cafeteria Catholic" who "picks and chooses dimensions of the faith to highlight while ignoring or even contradicting other parts."

This week the Vatican published a "declaration" from its doctrinal office titled "Dignitas Infinita," or "infinite dignity," in which Pope Francis strongly affirmed the "inherent" dignity of every human being and identified a list of assaults against it: abortion, surrogate childbearing, euthanasia, capital punishment, poverty, war, the travails of migrants, human trafficking, sexual abuse, marginalization of the disabled and digital violence.

Unusually for Pope Francis, the text quotes extensively from his predecessors -- the title is a phrase used by St. John Paul II -- demonstrating that concerns for human dignity inform all of Catholic teaching and can't be neatly aligned with a conservative or liberal political agenda. Mr. Biden likes Pope Francis on immigration but not abortion. He thinks the pontiff is bringing him a menu. Pope Francis, for his part, thinks the president mistakes table d'hote for a la carte.

Much of the media paid attention to the document's language on gender theory, which Pope Francis has previously called "the ugliest danger" today. The text was unambiguous: "Therefore, all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected." That's broad and would seem to cover not only medical interventions but the use of language, including forms of address and prayers.

Pope Francis is trying something that Pope Benedict XVI attempted in his own treatment of Catholic social teaching. The church is for economic freedom and the rights of workers. It is both pro-life and pro-poor. It teaches that both contraception and in vitro fertilization are intrinsically immoral. It defends human rights and the obligation to act for the common good.

In 2009 Benedict stressed the "strong links between life ethics and social ethics," meaning that promoting social justice begins with the right to life. Francis would say that you can't be pro-life without being passionately concerned about the indignity of poverty.

"The Church forcefully maintains this link between life ethics and social ethics," wrote Benedict in his encyclical "Caritas in Veritate," or "charity in truth." "A society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it asserts values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized."

This week's declaration takes the same approach. Pope Francis appeals to the reality of human nature, a claim that the declaration notes is open to "reason alone," without any reference to religious teaching. " 'Nature' refers to the conditions particular to us as human beings, which enable our various operations and the experiences that characterize them," the document states. "We do not create our nature; we hold it as a gift and we can nurture, develop, and enhance our abilities."

To act against nature is to degrade it, and to act against reason. Pope Francis quotes Benedict's famous address to the British Parliament on the slave trade -- that "misuse of reason" gave rise to that evil and to the totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century. Benedict established the link between nature and human nature more explicitly at the Bundestag in Berlin in 2011. Reason demands that we respect both.

"Something is wrong in our relationship with nature, that matter is not just raw material for us to shape at will, but that the earth has a dignity of its own and that we must follow its directives," he said to his countrymen. "We must listen to the language of nature and we must answer accordingly. . . . Man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will."

Failure to do so leads to obvious tension, such as opposing genetic modification of crops but allowing puberty blockers for minors. Or hailing Pope Francis for his concern about the climate while ignoring his insistence that marriage is a part of a healthy human ecology. In each case, the world has lost its sense of nature.

This hints at the metaphysics behind the disputes over sex and "gender identity." Is my body, my identity, something over which I exercise autonomous power, so that my will can determine what and who I am? Or do I have a nature that I and others must respect? While that needn't be a theological argument, it often is. For if I can remake myself into something contrary to my given nature, I desire to be a creature no longer but a creator, a god.

The debate over dignity is a debate about who God is. The Catholic answer: Only God is God -- we aren't.

---

Father de Souza is a priest in Kemptville, Ontario." [1]

1. Pope Francis Shuts Down the Cafeteria. de Souza, Raymond J.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 12 Apr 2024: A.13.

Kai tik prekių gamybą perkeliate į kitas šalis, padarote tai visam laikui: pas jus nuo šiol nėra pakankamai žmonių, kurie galėtų tai daryti reikiamu mąstu ir ekonomiškai

„Vakarų Lafajetas, Indiana. Praėjusią savaitę Pietų Korėjos „SK Hynix“ paskelbė, kad bendradarbiaus su Purdue universitetu čia statant 3,9 mlrd. dolerių puslaidininkių kompleksą, o tai yra didžiausia įmonės investicija valstijos istorijoje.

 

     Dabar ateina sunkioji dalis. „SK Hynix“ turi ne tik statyti gamyklą, kurioje bus supakuoti didelio pralaidumo atminties lustai, naudojami dirbtiniam intelektui, ir prijungti tyrimų ir plėtros centrą. 

 

Taip pat turi juos aprūpinti darbuotojais.

 

     „Mums reikia kelių šimtų inžinierių, kad galėtume valdyti mūsų pažangią pakuočių gamybos įmonę – fizikos, chemijos, medžiagų mokslo, elektronikos inžinerijos srityse“, – interviu po praėjusios savaitės pranešimo sakė „SK Hynix“ generalinis direktorius Kwakas Noh-Jungas.

 

     Įdarbinti darbuotojus JAV yra sunkiau, nei Pietų Korėjoje, kur SK Hynix turi sutartis su vietiniais universitetais ir savo universitetą. Nepaisant to, Kwakas sakė, kad "galutinis tikslas yra labai aiškus. Mums reikia labai gerų inžinierių, kad galėtume sėkmingai veikti JAV."

 

     JAV bando padaryti kažką beprecedenčio: panaikinti mažėjančią dalį pagrindiniame gamybos sektoriuje. 1990–2020 m. JAV dalis lustų gamybos pasaulyje sumažėjo iki 12 % nuo 37 %, o bendra Taivano, Pietų Korėjos ir Kinijos dalis išaugo iki 58 %.

 

     Pagal federalinę CHIPS programą kompanijai „Intel“ valstybė skyrė milijardus dolerių už gamyklas keliose valstijose, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Arizonoje ir „GlobalFoundries“ Niujorke ir Vermonte. SK Hynix taip pat tikisi paramos.

 

     Vien tik subsidijos neužtikrins tvarios pramonės. Gamykloms reikalingi klientai, tiekimo grandinė ir, svarbiausia, kvalifikuota, specializuota, darbo jėga.

 

     Nuo 2000 iki 2017 m. JAV užimtumas puslaidininkių gamyboje sumažėjo iki 181 000 nuo 287 000. Nuo tada jis atsigavo iki maždaug 200 tūkst.

 

     Kodėl JAV dalis puslaidininkių gamybos sumažėjo? Kaip ir kitose pramonės šakose, JAV tapo brangia gamybos vieta.

 

     Susan Houseman iš Upjohn instituto, studijavusi užsakomųjų paslaugų teikimą, sakė, kad tai nebuvo „pirmiausia istorija apie gamybos perkėlimą į užsienį“. JAV kompanijos vis dar pirmauja lustų projektavimo srityje: Nvidia dirbtinio intelekto srityje, Qualcomm komunikacijų srityje ir Apple išmaniųjų telefonų srityje. Laikui bėgant, jos dažniausiai sudarė sutartis gaminti savo lustai su liejyklomis, tokiomis, kaip TSMC, kuri gavo naudos iš dosnių vidaus subsidijų.

 

     CHIPS teorija yra ta, kad suderinus Azijos subsidijas, JAV vėl gali būti konkurencinga lustų gamyboje. Nepaisant to, yra vištos ir kiaušinio problema. Gaminiams reikia paruoštų kvalifikuotų darbuotojų. Tačiau be gamyklų Amerikos geriausi ir ryškiausi turi mažai paskatų siekti karjeros šiame sektoriuje.

 

     Tai galima bandyti keisti. Markas Crameris, Purdue chemijos inžinieriaus jaunesnysis, beveik nieko nežinojo apie pramonę, nors jo tėvas prieš daugelį dešimtmečių dirbo „Texas Instruments“ gamykloje. Tada praėjusiais metais jis dalyvavo Purdue vasaros programoje, kurioje buvo parodyta praktiškai.

 

     Jis vilkėjo baltą „zuikio kostiumą“ nuostabioje švarioje patalpoje, kur sudėtingi įrankiai išgraviruoja daugybę tranzistorių ant silicio plokštelių. "Kiekvieną savaitę mano susidomėjimas didėjo. Kiekviena įmonė kalbėjo apie tai, kaip... turime sukurti daugiau puslaidininkių inžinierių, kad neatsiliktume nuo augančios technologijos pažangos. Norėjau būti novatorių dalimi." Šią vasarą jis stažuosis „Intel“ gamykloje Hillsboro mieste, Ore.

 

     Purdue universitetas, vadovaujant buvusiam prezidentui Mitch Daniels (buvęs Indianos gubernatorius), reklamavosi, kaip pramonės partnerė, siūlydamas žemę ir bendradarbiavimą mokslinių tyrimų srityje tokioms įmonėms, kaip Saab ir Rolls-Royce. Maždaug tuo metu, kai prieš kelerius metus paskambino SK Hynix, Purdue pradėjo keletą specializuotų puslaidininkių studijų programų, bakalauro studijų ir pažymėjimus duodančių kursų.

 

     Pietų Korėjoje ir Taivane gamintojai turi beveik nelaisvą darbo jėgos pasiūlą. John Wu, medžiagų inžinerijos mokslų daktarantas Purdue, buvo užaugintas Taivane, kur inžinerijos studentai „pradeda nuo mąstymo: „O, aš atsidursiu gamykloje, ir tai jiems nustatyta“. Jis sakė, kad JAV studentai dirbs puikioje vietoje, nes to nori.

 

     „Vienas didžiausių iššūkių yra priversti studentus įsimylėti puslaidininkius“, – sakė Nikhileshas Chawla, medžiagų inžinerijos profesorius, kartu vadovaujantis Purdue puslaidininkių programoms. Studentai turi daugybę alternatyvų: „Jūs turite dirbtinį intelektą, turite informatikos mokslą, adityvią gamybą“.

 

     Kai kuriems studentams dėl CHIPS viešinimo, įspūdingo AI ir Nvidia atsiradimo bei evangelizavimo pramonės lankytojams lustai atrodo įdomūs.

 

     Iki šiol 100 Purdue studentų baigė puslaidininkių kursus tokiose specialybėse, kaip medžiagos, mechanika ar elektros inžinerija. Dar 135, daugiausia antrakursiai ir jaunesni, mokosi pagal sertifikatų programas.

 

     Nors šiuo metu jų perspektyvos atrodo geros, tai nėra garantuota. 

 

Kiti bandymai atkurti elektronikos gamybą žlugo dėl negailestingos  ekonomikos. 

 

JAV bus brangi vieta gaminti lustus artimiausioje ateityje. Kwakas ypač paminėjo konstrukciją ir medžiagas.

 

     Kitos šalys didina jų subsidijas, o JAV biudžetas yra ribotas.

 

 2022 m. „SkyWater Technology“, gaminanti senesnės kartos lustus, pranešė, kad, atsižvelgiant į CHIPS finansavimą, Purdue pastatys puikų ir mokslinių tyrimų ir plėtros įrenginį. Finansavimas nebuvo gautas, o praėjusią savaitę nutraukė tuos planus.

 

     Dabartinis Purdue prezidentas Mung Chiangas, pagal išsilavinimą elektros inžinierius, mano, kad darbo sąnaudos gali būti mažėjanti kliūtis JAV.

 

     Pakuotė – lustai prijungti prie kitų įrenginių – tradiciškai buvo daug darbo jėgos ir todėl silpna JAV pažangiosios gamybos grandis, kaip SK Hynix planuoja Purdue, "yra ta vieta, kur naujovės palaikys Moore'o dėsnį... ir perrašys išlaidų lygtis“, – sakė Chiangas.

 

     „Žmonės mano, kad universitetai yra absoliučiai svarbūs darbo jėgos ir talentų ugdymui, o tai yra svarbiausia tiekimo grandinė“, – sakė Chiangas. "Tačiau tai taip pat būtina transformacinėms naujovėms." [1]

 

Teisingai. Ateis prezidentas Trumpas ir baigsis šis neekonomiškas pinigų švaistymas. Oi, ir infliacija baigsis...

1. U.S. News -- Capital Account: U.S. Chip Renaissance Needs Workers. Ip, Greg.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 12 Apr 2024: A.2.

Once You Outsource Shit, You Outsource It For Good: There Are Not Enough Able People to Make It Work At Scale Economically Any More

"West Lafayette, Ind. -- Last week South Korea's SK Hynix announced it would partner with Purdue University on a $3.9 billion semiconductor complex here, the largest single corporate investment in state history.

Now comes the hard part. SK Hynix must not `only build the fabrication plant, or fab, which will package high-bandwidth memory chips used in artificial intelligence, and a connected research-and-development center. It also has to staff them.

"We need several hundred engineers to operate our advanced-packaging manufacturing fab -- in physics, chemistry, material science, electronics engineering," Kwak Noh-Jung, chief executive of SK Hynix, said in an interview following last week's announcement.

Staffing a fab is harder in the U.S. than in South Korea, where SK Hynix has contracts with local universities and its own in-house university. Nonetheless, Kwak said, "the final goal is very clear. We need to have very good engineers for our success in U.S."

The U.S. is trying to do something unprecedented: reverse a shrinking share in a key manufacturing sector. Between 1990 and 2020, the U.S. share of world chip making shrank to 12% from 37%, while the combined share of Taiwan, South Korea and China grew to 58%.

The federal CHIPS program has showered billions of dollars on Intel for fabs in several states, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in Arizona and GlobalFoundries in New York and Vermont. SK Hynix hopes for support as well.

Subsidies alone won't guarantee a sustainable industry. Fabs need customers, a supply chain and, above all, a skilled, specialized workforce.

From 2000 to 2017, U.S. employment in semiconductor manufacturing shrank to 181,000 from 287,000. It has since recovered to about 200,000.

Why did the U.S. share of semiconductor production shrink? As in other industries, the U.S. became an expensive place to manufacture.

Susan Houseman of the Upjohn Institute, who has studied outsourcing, said this wasn't "primarily a story about offshoring." U.S. companies still lead in chip design: Nvidia in artificial intelligence, Qualcomm in communications and Apple in smartphones. Over time they mostly contracted out fabrication of their chips to foundries such as TSMC which benefited from generous domestic subsidies.

The theory behind CHIPS is that, by matching Asia's subsidies, the U.S. can again be competitive in chip making. Nonetheless, there is a chicken-egg problem. Fabs need a ready supply of skilled workers. But without fabs, America's best and brightest have little incentive to pursue careers in the sector.

That may be changing. Mark Cramer, a junior in chemical engineering at Purdue, knew almost nothing about the industry, even though his father worked in a fab for Texas Instruments many decades ago. Then last year he participated in a Purdue summer program providing hands-on exposure.

He wore a white "bunny suit" in a fab clean room where sophisticated tools etch countless transistors on silicon wafers. "Every week my interest grew. Every company talked about how . . . we have to create more semiconductor engineers to keep up with the growing advancements in technology. I wanted to be part of the innovators." This summer, he will intern at an Intel fab in Hillsboro, Ore.

Purdue under past president Mitch Daniels (a former Indiana governor) promoted itself as a partner to industry, offering land and research collaboration to companies such as Saab and Rolls-Royce. Around the time SK Hynix came calling a few years ago, Purdue was launching several specialized semiconductor graduate, undergraduate and certificate programs.

In South Korea and Taiwan, manufacturers have an almost captive labor supply. John Wu, a materials engineering Ph.D. candidate at Purdue, was raised in Taiwan, where engineering students "start out with a mindset, 'Oh, I'm going to end up in a factory,' and that's set for them." U.S. students will work in a fab because they want to, he said.

"One of the biggest challenges is getting students to fall in love with semiconductors," said Nikhilesh Chawla, a professor of materials engineering who co-directs Purdue's semiconductor programs. Students have a wealth of alternatives: "You have AI, you have computer science, additive manufacturing."

For some students, CHIPS publicity, the spectacular rise of AI and Nvidia, and evangelizing industry visitors have made chips seem exciting.

So far, 100 Purdue students have graduated with semiconductor concentrations in majors such as materials, mechanical or electrical engineering. Another 135, mostly sophomores and juniors, are enrolled in certificate programs.

While their prospects look good right now, that's not guaranteed. Other attempts at reshoring electronics manufacturing have foundered on unforgiving economics. The U.S. will be an expensive place to make chips for the foreseeable future. Kwak cited construction and materials in particular.

Other countries are ramping up their subsidies, while the U.S. budget is finite. In 2022 SkyWater Technology, which makes older-generation chips, said it would build a fab and R&D facility at Purdue, contingent on CHIPS funding. The funding didn't come, and last week it terminated those plans.

Purdue's current president, Mung Chiang, an electrical engineer by training, thinks labor costs may be a diminishing obstacle for the U.S.

Packaging -- equipping chips to connect to other devices -- has traditionally been labor intensive and thus a weak link for the U.S. Advanced packaging, as SK Hynix plans at Purdue, "is where innovation will sustain Moore's Law . . . and rewrite the cost equation," Chiang said.

"People think of universities as absolutely essential to the workforce and talent development, the most important supply chain of all in the end," said Chiang. "But it is also essential to transformational innovation."" [1]

That's right. President Trump will come and this uneconomical waste of money will end. Oh, and inflation will end…

1. U.S. News -- Capital Account: U.S. Chip Renaissance Needs Workers. Ip, Greg.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 12 Apr 2024: A.2.