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’d point you back to your previous name-calling.
Do you actually use your brain?
Ever?
I guess China is only 100 years behind the U.S.
Those working conditions sound a lot like the southern cotton mills in the early 1900’s.
1rudeboy, as usual, you are right on target. Thanks.
Damn that Nixon for opening up Chinese access to the USA
I don’t know why Reagan didn’t put a stop to it
Should of thought of that over a year ago, comrade. Too late now . . . especially since you are getting more stupid as time goes on.
Hmm.
Cotton has been outsourced also.
Of course it would cause inflation that is the whole point. When the true costs of destroying the infrastructure of the USA is felt then change will happen. Right now the US dollar and the US taxpayer are covering for the Free Traitors.
Somehow since the beginning of the industrial revolution in the mid 19th century we managed to fight 2 world wars successfully and send a man to the moon. But suddenly, since Tricky Dick Nixon, we cannot survive without Chinese slave labor? The difference is in the quality of the American Free traitor, not in the communists. Traitors all.
Whatever.
Troll.
Heck, even Socialists are more honest about it.
To bad the target is US national security and the us economy.
Low prices are not worth destroying our nation’s infrastructure and economy over.
When we destroy our economy, it won’t matter if things are cheap.
Nobody will have money to buy any of it.
So what if prices rise. Bring back American manufacturing.
Now.
100% on everything imported. No other rules, regulations or government.”
Just where exactly do you think the money raised from “tariffs” would go?
The correct answer is “to the government”, which will then use the money to further increase the size and scope of government. The government will continue to grow the nanny state, determining winners and losers as they see fit in their infinite wisdom.
Before you argue that the tariffs would be used to reduce the national debt or lower taxes to somehow benefit U.S. workers, history clearly demonstrates that never happens.
Imposing a 100% tax on imported goods won't improve profits for U.S. companies, it will only reduce them because already there are only foreign sources for many electronic components. Reduced profits equals less return for investors, less capital for expansion, less American jobs, while at the same time raising costs to consumers of our products. It's a knee-jerk reaction at best, and not a solution.
What happens when, due to opportunity costs, et al., it is still cheaper to manufacture lots of things overseas? Will you be OK with it then? Or will you demand even more tariffs/laws?
It’s a command and control mentality, which really only works on machines and pets.
I guess our founding fathers were into command and control.
“We sell iPhones in over a hundred countries,” a current Apple executive said. “We don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems. Our only obligation is making the best product possible.”
For technology companies, the cost of labor is minimal compared with the expense of buying parts and managing supply chains that bring together components and services from hundreds of companies.
For Mr. Cook, the focus on Asia “came down to two things,” said one former high-ranking Apple executive. Factories in Asia “can scale up and down faster” and “Asian supply chains have surpassed what’s in the U.S.” The result is that “we can’t compete at this point,” the executive said.
Low prices = high standard of living. So, just to be clear, you believe that the US needs to lower its standard of living (in many cases, dramatically) to become competitive with third-world economies? And this increases our security and economy?
Now that you have finally admitted that (a portion of) prices will rise, you should move to discussing the trade-off between the jobs your proposal loses and the jobs your proposal gains. But at that point, you’d actually be discussing economics, something you have proven that you do not understand.
Actually import tariffs were the way America operated for a long time.
America’s government was funded by tariffs, and America led the world in innovation.
Tariffs benefit American jobs, and tariffs benefit American taxpayers - who can as a result of tariffs collected, keep all taxes previously paid domestically - which are now offset by tariffs collected from foreign competition.
That’s a fact.
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