Posted on 01/22/2012 4:49:53 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
This Article Explains Why Apple Makes iPhones In China And Why The U.S. Is Screwed
Henry Blodget | Jan. 22, 2012, 5:30 AM | 3,191 |
The manufacturing processes of Apple and other electronics companies have come into sharp focus of late, with the revelation of more details about what life is like for the Chinese workers who make the world's gadgets.
When one reads about these working conditions--12-16 hour shifts, pay of ~$1 per hour or less, dormitories with 15 beds in 12x12 rooms--the obvious assumption is that it's all about money:
Greedy manufacturers want to make bigger profits, so they make their products in places with labor practices that would be illegal in America.
And money is certainly part of it.
But an amazing new article by Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher of the New York Times reveals that there's a lot more to it than that.
The article illustrates just how big a challenge the U.S. faces in trying stop the "hollowing out" process that has sent middle-class jobs overseas--and, with it, the extreme inequality that has developed in recent years.
The reason Apple makes iPhones and iPads in China, the article shows, is not just about money.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I would think different. The cost of living in China is not as high as in the US, and the workers are willing to accept less. All in all, this sounds like a pro-Union article.
OMG! That's awful!! Can you prove it?
Must read is the original NYT article this is based on
Stop making sense!
“The real reasons Apple makes iPhones in China, therefore, are as follows:
-Most of the components of iPhones and iPads—the supply chain—are now manufactured in China, so assembling the phones half-a-world away would create huge logistical challenges. It would also reduce flexibility—the ability to switch easily from one component supplier or manufacturer to another.
-China’s factories are now far bigger and more nimble than those in the United States. They can hire (and fire) tens of thousands of workers practically overnight. Because so many of the workers live on-site, they can also press them into service at a moment’s notice. And they can change production practices and speeds extremely rapidly.
-China now has a far bigger supply of appropriately-qualified engineers than the U.S. does—folks with the technical skills necessary to build complex gadgets but not so credentialed that they cost too much.
-And, lastly, China’s workforce is much hungrier and more frugal than many of their counterparts in the United States.”
They’re probably just afraid of the Red Chinese government nationalizing their factories, otherwise they would do it. They hide behind US law, to have Asians slaves make something an increasing number of Americans can’t afford anyway.
“When one reads about these working conditions—12-16 hour shifts, pay of ~$1 per hour or less, dormitories with 15 beds in 12x12 rooms—the obvious assumption is that it’s all about money”
Note that double shifts is way better than no work at all.
Note that $1/hr earns them 6-8 times world median income (i.e.: half of people on planet earn $2 or less _per_day_).
Note that $1/hr is augmented with presumably no commute costs, free room & board & utilities, and lots of other covered costs.
Note that dense quarters is normal for that culture, and better than mud huts or cardboard shacks.
Yeah it’s about money. Both employer and employee come out ahead in this deal.
Hence my prior post.
Komrade, you do an excellent job of defending communist slavery. No question you are the best. /sarc
Free traitors hate overpaid over benefited ( I agree with that BTW) union workers so much that they want communist slaves to build their crap for them instead.
And that’s the only thing the Chinese pay tariffs on?
Like the oil investments in Venezuela that were seized?
China's numbers will run about $2.1 trillion as well, with their data more heavily weighted towards goods. And China's manufacturing workforce, is likely in the 100 million range whereas the US manufacturing workforce, under 15 million.
I'm going to advocate for you this time around :)
The danger of doing trade with China, isn't that so much manufacturing is done in China. America has a history of doing trade with poor low cost countries since the 1800's.
Where it becomes a problem to America, and other existing established Western developed countries, is that nowhere in the rules of trade, do we prevent a developing country from moving up the value chain. Luckily, for most of the established developed nations, most developing countries are either too corrupt or too inept to make such a transition up the value chain.
But since WWII, a series of Asian countries have found ways within the rules based system to move up the value chain. And this ain't so bad, since largest, i.e., Japan, with her population of 125 million, is less than half the size of the US. South Korea, along with the other "Four Tigers" of Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan, represented even less and totaled less than 100 million people.
Along comes China with her 1.35 billion people, mostly poor, and still so. But she is doggedly determined to move up the value chain and into those very $1.5 trillion in US exports I mentioned earlier. And the reality is, as she moves up this value chain, you will actually get some of your wish of moving manufacturing back to the US. It is already happening right now. And will continue to happen in the coming years.
What will happen instead, is that other manufacturing sectors will begin to lose out to China. In the long run, America isn't going to lose out to China jobs wise. Factories throughout China are shutting down already creating political uncertainties for the current leadership.
But new factories are cropping up as well, much like what happened in Japan and South Korea in the past. Except on a grand scale.
The danger (if I could call it that, but again, I am advocating your argument...sort of), is not that China will continue to siphon jobs away from America, but that China will move up the value chain. China is slowly pricing herself out of alot of work. And again, some of the work is coming back to America.
The "danger" in doing trade with determined countries like China, is that it causes a shift in economic balance of power.
We already saw that with Japan. Before WWII, if someone would have said Japan will someday be larger economically than Britain, France let alone Germany, people would have laughed. Well, today, its true and as a world, we are used to that fact. Yet, Germany today has never been more prosperous. The difference today, of course, is Japan is no longer an economic minion compared to her European counter parts.
So, too, will America be more prosperous in say, 2050 than today. Providing a greater standard of living for 450 million people than the standard of living we have today for 310 million. The difference, of course, is the economic balance of power will have been altered significantly by then.
I suppose, one could make a case for the developed Western nations to come together, re-write the trade rules, to ban the trade of high value goods to and from existing developing countries, and to set up a committee to monitor such activities. Its an unlikely scenario, but I'm sure there are plenty of people who would be willing to try.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariffs_in_United_States_history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States
It is interesting how an increase in tariffs or some other trade restriction triggered each of the depressions in US history.
It is also interesting how the magnitude and frequency of recessions has gone down as tariff rates have dropped.
That's why you only want to raise my taxes 5% at a time, right, ya' friggin' moron.
Alcohol and tobacco taxes also funded the Federale Gov't back then. This is why we have the BATF in the Treasury Department. To make sure those taxes are collected. Of course no income tax back then so those three taxes/tariffs are how the DC Gov't stayed afloat
For those of you in Rio Linda, that means he's a crook!
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