Apple's Initial Investment in U.S. Mac Production Estimated to Create 200 Jobs

People whine too much. It's creating positive jobs. It's not alot but people are forgetting how much it is to do manufacturing in the United States. It's not cheap. And it's some of the worst decisions to do economically for that company.

The only way we will ever get manufacturing back in the states is through major tax breaks to suppress the costs. That's the only way. Chinese Labor is 1/10 that of the U.S. and their quality is just as good. They work harder and don't complain as much. The culture is completely different. The U.S. can't sustain a manufacturing plant with the Americans truly supporting it. What does that mean? It means Americans willing to pay the premium it will cost to buy it american made. Those iphones from china are 700, they are not 2300 if it comes here to support all those jobs Apple will have to create. Will everyone support buying them at a Premium price to ensure that manufacturing continues? My guess is no. Americans are as selfish as anybody else (me included) and you say want these things, and rant about it. Well prove it with your money.

SomeDudeAsking said:

Golly, 200. Whoop-e-do. /s

Foxconn is like a million.

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its start at least!

190 of which will be security guards

10 people will operate the automated machinery

Laird Knox said:

It never ceases to amaze me how many jackasses there on these forums.

SeaFox said:

You obviously haven't been a Mac user that long, then.

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Your point?

I'm not sure what people bitching about something positive has to do with my ownership of Macintosh products.

Please..only the war veterans !

wonder how many Americans Samsung will be employing at Austin, TX... obviously not 200.

e-coli said:

Any company hiring in the US is subject to the minimum wage laws.

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Yes, which is less than Americans were making in such jobs before!

To my knowledge, this type of factory work was never a minimum wage job. It used to be considered a "skilled" job back then, and they paid more for it.

Krazy Bill said:

Not likely. As long as there are people in China willing to work for peanuts.

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Likely to change, and already is. The average wage in China has risen highly in the past 10 years. Eventually they will normalize with the rest of the world. The only cheap labor pool left will be Africa, but there the infrastructure cannot even support manufacturing.

That's not even my point, however. As technology advances the cost of building an automated assembly line will invariably become cheaper than human labor, even Chinese or African labor, and it's only a matter of time.

iGrip said:

What you say is true in large part. The question is how we deal with the situation, both politically and economically.

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No one wants to consider such situations, but they're already lurking in many parts of the developed world. The short term solution to unemployment from the collapse of the rust belt was a migration to the service industry (in the US). That will only hold so much water before it's time to consider the ramifications of a large class of unemployed manual laborers.

Ultimately, higher education will become more pervasive, and doing rote jobs will be less and less of an option. Those who could not step up would invariably be supported by society in some form.

Michael Scrip said:

Many of these "Jobless Americans" were making good money at some point... but their job got eliminated due to downsizing when the economy took a dive.

If you were once making $80,000 a year... but now you're jobless... I doubt you'd want to work at Apple's computer assembly factory anyway.

Oh... and there are plenty of jobs... just not many jobs like you used to have.

Again... if you were making $80,000 a year... you won't be taking a job at Staples or McDonalds (both of which are hiring at a store near you)

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You certainly have a point and we all have heard about this. Yes, it's true, then what are we to do with these highly skilled workers? Many of their jobs are now in India and China. Thanks to these big companies. Working at low-wage jobs is NOT the answer to better America (ALL Americans).