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Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Jensen: 'We've done our country a great disservice' by offshoring

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Regret Over Offshoring Manufacturing Jobs

Users lament US offshoring as a historic mistake that hollowed out the workforce, echoing Ross Perot's warnings and calling for reshoring via tariffs or incentives.
hackthemack: "We have shipped millions of jobs overseas... There will be a giant sucking sound going south."
freedomben: "we made a mistake by allowing free trade, and the solution is to 'force' that away with a mix of taxes (tariffs), laws, incentives."

2. Wealth Inequality and Capital-Labor Imbalance

Core issue is not lack of wealth but its concentration among elites; solutions include stronger unions, anti-corruption, or systemic reform.
itsyonas: "The issue is not an overall lack of wealth, but how it is distributed. Ultimately, all the wealth will still end up in the hands of a select few."
UncleMeat: "Power is tipped towards capital and against labor. The owners extract wealth, which tips the scales further."

3. Energy as Prerequisite for Industrial Revival

Data centers and manufacturing require massive cheap energy (favoring nuclear); renewables dismissed, political timelines debated.
zobzu: "no power no jobs... energy is the basis for everything. cheap energy is what you want."
ineedaj0b: "All the talk is nuclear... To reduce energy costs… you’ll need about double the current energy production."

🚀 Project Ideas

Reshoring Ledger (RL)

Summary

  • A transparency and benchmarking tool for corporations to calculate the "true cost" of offshoring versus onshoring, including hidden externalities.
  • Addresses the developer/executive pain point that "the numbers simply didn't make sense any other way" by factoring in supply chain risks, carbon taxes, IP theft risks, and the 25% outsourcing tax currently being proposed in US legislation.
  • Provides a public-facing "Reshore Score" for consumers who want to "buy American" but lack the data to verify corporate claims.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Corporate CFOs, Supply Chain Managers, and Thrifty/Ethical Consumers
Core Feature Multi-variable cost-benefit calculator (Tax incentives vs. Labor arbitrage)
Tech Stack Python (FastAPI), React, SQL (for historical trade data)
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: SaaS for B2B; Freemium for B2C transparency

Notes

  • HN commenters noted that "consumer decisions" are hard because "immorally sourced materials are just too cheap." This tool empowers both businesses and consumers to visualize the shift in economic feasibility due to new automation and potential tariffs.
  • Directly addresses the concept of "Shareholder Primacy" (Dodge v. Ford) by providing the financial justification needed to move manufacturing back without violating fiduciary duties.

Energy-First Manufacturing Market (EFM)

Summary

  • A B2B marketplace that matches high-energy manufacturing startups (e.g., smelting, data centers, robotics) with areas of surplus energy or deregulated ISO nodes.
  • Solves the "energy is the basis for everything" bottleneck mentioned by users noting that "unless you can drop the price of energy... the entire manufacturing industry will be uncompetitive."
  • Facilitates "demand response" where factories can buy energy at near-zero or negative rates during surplus hours.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Industrial Founders, Energy Grid Operators, and Local Municipalities
Core Feature Real-time energy pricing API paired with industrial zoning availability
Tech Stack Rust (high-performance trading backend), GraphQL, WebSockets
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: Transaction fee on energy/lease contracts

Notes

  • HN users specifically mentioned that "power is 30%-40% the cost of smelting" and that "a surplus of electricity on the grid is actually a bad thing that needs to be dealt with."
  • This service acts as the software layer for "seeding a lot of private investment and R&D" into the US grid infrastructure.

HealthLink Portability Bridge

Summary

  • A service-layer middleware that allows small manufacturing businesses and "social enterprises" to provide the "Cadillac" tier health benefits of a large corporation without the administrative overhead.
  • Directly addresses the frustration that US healthcare is a "horrendously expensive" barrier to domestic competitive labor: "You can pay workers in some other countries less than just the cost of paying for health insurance for a US employee."
  • Decouples employment from high-cost insurance administration, functioning as a Private Exchange.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Small/Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and High-Value Labor Groups
Core Feature Automated healthcare premium subsidies and portability management
Tech Stack Elixir (concurrency for insurance processing), AWS (HIPAA compliant)
Difficulty High (Regulatory complexity)
Monetization Revenue-ready: Per-employee monthly fee (PEPM)

Notes

  • HN users lamented that "nobody really lobbies for employers to get out of the health care business." This tool is the "intermediate step" toward a universal-like experience for the domestic workforce.
  • It addresses the "job lock" and overhead that keeps US manufacturing uncompetitive compared to countries with state-funded systems like Germany.

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