Why Apple Makes iPhones In China And Why The US Is Screwed

[Pepsi]

• Tweet

Why Apple Makes iPhones In China And Why The US Is Screwed

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.

Manufacturing an iPhone in the United States would cost about $65 more than manufacturing it in China, where it costs an estimated $8. This additional $65 would dent the profit Apple makes on each iPhone, but it wouldn't eliminate it. (The iPhone average selling price is about $600, and Apple's average gross margin is about 40%. So Apple's gross profit on each iPhone is probably in the neighborhood of $250.)
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.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/you-simply-must-read-this-article-that-explains-why-apple-makes-iphones-in-china-and-why-the-us-is-screwed-2012-1#ixzz1kEahBAgJ

[Case_Closed]

Precisely why I don't have an Apple product to my name.

Buy American!

Toshiba!  Fuck yeah!!

[Boffo]

$8 to $73  thank YOU unions.   $73 to $600  thank YOU Steve Jobs

but who am I to talk, I just gave Microsoft $320 for a disk.....................

[Pepsi]

Something lime 80% of consumer electronics are made in Asia now.    We've lost the who sipply chain.   

[Case_Closed]

I think Newt is going to balance the lopsided trade agreements with have with foreign countries, Pepsi, so it would probably be a good idea for you to vote for him.

[Case_Closed]

Also, Newt is going to lower the corporate tax structure to make it appealing to the companies that have fled Obama's disastrous Corporate Wars against businesses and his attempt to shame people for being successful, so we'll be flush with jobs again.  So, maybe you should vote for Newt this time, Pepsi.

[Pepsi]

I think Newt is going to balance the lopsided trade agreements with have with foreign countries, Pepsi, so it would probably be a good idea for you to vote for him.

Can you link me to a policy statement or similar Newt has made?   I think you're making that shit up.   

"In the US, there exists a coalition of union leaders who prefer protection over competition. This liberal coalition complains about companies’ outsourcing jobs while insisting on corporate taxes that encourage companies to go overseas. They prefer that government impose on business obsolete, absurd work rules, even though these raise costs, lower productivity, and make America less competitive in the world market."

"The challenge to American economic supremacy from 1.3 billion Chinese and more than 1.1 billion Indians is vastly greater than anything we have previously seen. India’s embrace of capitalism and China’s bizarre combination of Marxist-Leninist government and free market initiatives will create a future where one-fourth of the world’s markets will be controlled by these countries. Those who advocate economic isolationism and protectionism are advocating a policy that could help China and India surpass the US in economic power in our children’s or grandchildren’s lifetime."

Gingrich on free trade

[Case_Closed]

Can you link me to a policy statement or similar Newt has made?   

Of course I can.  But you wouldn't read it, and if you did read it, you would spin it so much, you'd make Linda Blair look like she had a crick in her neck.

I just found out yesterday on another board that some of the most brilliant Liberals I've ever known in my life had never heard of Saul Alinsky and his relationship with Obama.

Never have I been so disgusted and disappointed with a political mind-set of people like I am right now of that of The Liberals.

Never.

[Pepsi]

Of course I can.  But you wouldn't read it, and if you did read it, you would spin it so much, you'd make Linda Blair look like she had a crick in her neck.

I just found out yesterday on another board that some of the most brilliant Liberals I've ever known in my life had never heard of Saul Alinsky and his relationship with Obama.

Never have I been so disgusted and disappointed with a political mind-set of people like I am right now of that of The Liberals.

Never.

Of course you can't.

Alinsky died when Obama was 11 years old.   Must have had some relationship huh?

I don't know how you get through the day, assuming you have mirrors in the house?

[johnhp]

Of course you can't.

Alinsky died when Obama was 11 years old.   Must have had some relationship huh?

I don't know how you get through the day, assuming you have mirrors in the house?

Why would he prevaricate about something so easily shown to be false unless his goal is to make rightists look terrible?

[Case_Closed]

Alinsky died when Obama was 11 years old.   Must have had some relationship huh?

I don't know how you get through the day, assuming you have mirrors in the house?

Words are eternal.  Alinsky is the absolute "base" of Obama's ideology.  It cannot even be denied.  Everything Obama does, from creating disharmony among his constituents to "never letting a crises go to waste" is Alinsky.

You've never heard of Alinsky until today; have you?

And if you have, you've never read what he wrote; have you?

And if you have read what he wrote, you never even entertained the idea that Obama transposed his philosophies into his own; have you?

[Pepsi]

Words are eternal.  Alinsky is the absolute "base" of Obama's ideology.  It cannot even be denied.

This is a very valuable lesson, if I can teach you anything try to digest and appreciate what I'm telling you now:  Just because wingnutters keep repeating something over and over does not make it true.

Now, about Gingrich's position vis a vis jobs being outsourced, what's he going to do again?

[johnhp]

Words are eternal.  Alinsky is the absolute "base" of Obama's ideology.  

You claimed they had a relationship...you are prevaricating.

[Pepsi]

You claimed they had a relationship...you are prevaricating.

Give the guy a break, he learned this from Oily Titz "in person" and then the notion was reinforced on a several tea nutter blog, perhaps even a talk radio show, that's very strong correlation of "evidence".

[johnhp]

Give the guy a break, he learned this from Oily Titz "in person" and then the notion was reinforced on a several tea nutter blog, perhaps even a talk radio show, that's very strong correlation of "evidence".

The same dentist whose fine was appealed and rejected by SCOTUS even though the prevaricator stated that it was being appealed?  Maybe prevarication is a compulsion for him.