How the West was lost by the selfie president

The New York Post ^ | December 15, 2013 | Michael Goodwin

[2ndDivisionVet]

My bookshelves sag with encyclopedic volumes arguing that America and the West are in decline. But proving that a picture is worth a thousand books, the “selfie” seen ’round the world ends the argument.

It’s official — the government of the United States of Obama consists of boobs and bores and is led by a narcissist. It is no consolation that Great Britain joins us in racing to the bottom.

President Obama’s flirting with Denmark’s prime minister would be shameful on any occasion. That it happened at the memorial for Nelson Mandela only adds to the embarrassment.

But the “selfie” episode also symbolizes the greater global calamity of Western decline. With British prime minister David Cameron playing the role of Obama’s giggling wingman, the “look at me” moment confirms we have unserious leaders in a dangerously serious time....

[C. Edmund Wright]

WA to SC real good. WA to Canton NOT GOOD for America, get it?

Well I do get it, but you again miss the point in two main ways - all due to your lack of understanding of macro economics. (that means big picture sh-t). POINT A: I was using the example to prove to you why businesses move…and it's not because of tariffs…it's because of liberalism. POINT B: What if SC was just as bad as Washington State, and Boeing's only options were to either scrap the project - creating zero jobs anywhere in the world - or off shore the plant and create 20 thousand jobs in China, but another 700 jobs in their US headquaters to administer the project - while also creating a lot of jobs in the import export industry and with the ports?

Which would be bad then? You assume all off shore jobs would exist here if we would but "bring them back" - but you miss that many of those jobs would not exist anywhere if they could not offshore….and you miss the entire stimulus impact with tangental jobs like the entire import export industry.

You love blue collar so much, I'd think you would LOVE the longshoremen and so on. WTF would they do with reduced imports????????

[central_va]

I can see that you are so blinded by your “religion” you would not even bat an eye if Boeing, the maker of bomber aircraft (think B-17s) and a hub of our defense industry, moved to mainland China. You are gone dude. Despicable.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Not at all. There are two huge differences between you and I.

A: I give you the benefit of the doubt of having your heart in the right place, and recognize that we both want the same thing. You think I’m anti American because I believe differenty than you on what’s best for America.

B: I udnerstand how jobs are created, you do not. I understand macro economics, you do not.

As to the defense component of Boeing, that would be a different subject. But again, I was using Boeing as an exmaple of how jobs are created and destroyed and how a job in China or anywhere else from an American made company does NOT NECESSARILY MEAN that there is one less American job because of it. You think that. You are wrong. And that is the narrow focus of our little hypothetical story. You took that hypothetical and have me outsoursing bombers to China. BTW, I dont’ think we make the B 17 anymore…..

I would certainly be in favor of the military projects staying here even if the costs were higher….but we were clearly talking about the commercial Dreamliner project and economic theory, not particular state secrets. Get a clue.

Once agian, you cannot follow the logic of a conversation, explaining how you became an adult while knowing less about marcro economics than my teen kids. You cannot refute a single syllable of my Apple or Boeing examples…..

[central_va]

The manufacture of Apple in the USA would increase the per unit cost of an I-Phone. I am not sure but I would say 10%. But for that 10% we get thousands of employed non-union AMERICANS who not on the dole. A win for the taxpayer and for America. Not every decision is economic. Nobody thinks Apple would go out of business if the I-Phone was made in Arkansas. Are you saying that?

Because of economic border less soulless unAmerican "Captains of Industry" tariffs are becoming a necessity. There is an economic playground in America with 26 R-T-W states, if that isn't good enough than pay the tariffs out of the profit margin...

[C. Edmund Wright]

The manufactur of Apple products in the US would triple or quadruple the price of what they cost now. In other words, it would be a far smaller company - and entirely different company, with entirely different products.

So no, these Apple jobs in China are not taking jobs away from Americans…..they are in fact allowing Apple to grow so fast that tens of thousands of Apple jobs for support and the like are created here - that would not be here otherwise. Apple’s success, like most business success, is a win win for almost everybody. This is the dynamic that the protectionists and the unionist does not understand.

Again, you don’t have a clue about the economic reality….which is what all of this comes down to.

[central_va]

The manufacture of Apple products in the US would triple or quadruple the price of what they cost now.

Here comes the big Free Trade lie and scare tactic. What kind of BS is that? How much do you think labor is as a cost per unit? You call yourself an economic expert? You are an idiot and a fake. Do some research little man and come back with real numbers.

[central_va]

Labor costs related to Chinese iPhone 4G manufacturing is $6.54 dollars (4.6 euros) per unit, which means it’s 1.1% of its selling price, according to market research firm iSuppli.

This number is striking specially in conjunction with the report on the working conditions at Foxconn, a company responsible for making the iPhone and based in China, recently mired in controversy due to a wave of employee suicides. In contrast, the report highlights that Apple’s iPhone profit margins are around 60%.

Last June, iSuppli also calculated the total production cost of the device at $188 (152.4 euros). The analysis was based on the 16 GB version of iPhone 4, which could be purchased for $199 (161.3 euros) in the United States, which had an added contract plan with AT&T. Some of the prices of the components were, for example, the gyroscopic chip at $ 2.6 (2.1 euros), the A4 chip manufactured by Samsung, $ 10.75 (8.7 euros). The most expensive part was the device display, manufactured by LG Display at a cost of $28.5 dollars (23 euros).

[C. Edmund Wright]

It’s not just the labor unit cost…it’s the regulations, and the taxes, and the culture of the worker, and so much more. And it’s evemn more than that….the regulations in the US would prevent Apple from making some of the last second changes they can make in their assemblies. They would lose much of their flexibility. It would just be a totally different company, and a smaller company, but less nimble even as they were smaller.

They couldn’t be the same company, period.

But again, these jobs never existed in the US…..to assume that somehow they were ever US jobs is just ignorance on your part. It’s ignorant to assume necessarily that any offshore job is a net loss job to the US, though that is the case at times.

You continue to have no ability to look beneath the surface obvious…..you see a job in China and you assume it’s a US job. NO, not necessarily. And again, you fail to understand the tangental jobs created, and despite my asking about ten times, you have yet to utter a syllable about those. If there is one type of job that will always be in this country, it’s our port jobs…….have you ever thought about that? (NO, you haven’t).

[central_va]

This reference says it costs 8 dollars per unit:

[C. Edmund Wright]

But those studies ignore taxes, ignore regulations, ignore the entire manufacturing culture that Apple has created in China with entire cities built for one purpose, it ignores the workers comp law suits and the cost of buidling the factories here with all the liberal EPA regs and so on…..this study is bullshit..if it were not…if it were really that easy, Apple would certainly have built their factories here simply so they wouldn’t put up with the bullshit moaning of people like you.

When people who don’t understand business talk about business, it’s ugly.

[C. Edmund Wright]

You can’t understand a table. You are missing something huge in your “analysis”…..

[central_va]

Labor costs account for just 5% of an iPhone’s total cost. If we assume that half of that occurs in China, Foxconn’s labor amounts to around $10 of an iPhone’s final price tag. Not insignificant, to be sure, but Apple’s brand and reputation allow it to price its products at a 25% to 50% premium over competitors. You do the math: Apple shouldn’t be risking $25 to $50 to save $10.

[central_va]

You said the cost would triple if made in the USA right? That would mean a retail price of $1,800 for an I-Phone. Since labor is 1.4% then to increase that much, labor would have to be $1,200 per unit if made in the USA. $10 vs $1200, labor is 120 times more expensive in the USA? This makes no sense so you want to back off of the lies? Never mess with an engineer we do numbers real good.

[central_va]

I have advanced degrees in engineering, economics is child’s play.

[AD from SpringBay]

President Selfie has a nice ring to it. The first solution should include wide-spread use of this as his official title.

[C. Edmund Wright]

No, because all of those components, which are built outside of the USA, would also go up exponentially. As would all of the cost of compliances, etc. You picked one line item - which itself was flawed because of how it was processed - out of the whole thing and thought you understood the whole picture. Common mistake of folks who’ve not been there, done that.

And you assumed all the efficiencies, which were built into the very fabric of these cities, would be the same in the US, and they would not. Nothing would be the same, period. Like I said, this stuff is too complicated for most.

If they could have done it here, they would have.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Engineering is a very left brain type B field…..totally different than understanding the key component of economics, which is human nature, a very right brained type A exploit.

Most engineeers are lousy economists…..and most lousy economists are academic left brained types. It is probably your very skillset in engineering that prevents you from understanding macro economics…..and why I would be a damned lousy engineer…..

[Revolting cat!]

I like the ideas here. Tariffs! What else? Not worth typing, no one’s listening, no one’s executing. Exercises in futility and posturing.

[central_va]

I am holding all variables equal except assembly. A concept foreign to you. The supply chain can remain exactly as is with the shipping location for components in the USA. Yes it would cost more per unit. maybe 10 dollars? But the benefits are well worth it to me, someone who thinks about his country over 1% on the bottom line. I think Apple has 650 billion in the bank they could assemble and build components here to and still make a killing.

[C. Edmund Wright]

NO NO NO NO NO…..
You can’t do that…because your assumption that all variables would be equal had they done it in the US IS your basic flaw. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO ….it would have NEVER happened…..you are doing a static engineering of something that is not static. You are attempting to commoditize the dynamic nature of an entire culture that Apple built…..this is what type B left brains always do….and it never works. You have totally lost the exponential loss of efficiencies at every single step……..but those losses would have been there.

You just don’t get it. You never will. The genius of Jobs is that he was way above average in the engineering of his product and the right brain pursuits of human nature and dynamic economic changes……you are not such a genius….and neither than I. The difference again…I realize this, you don’t.

I have a memo to you from Milton Friedman: you an econ idiot. BYE .