Lol. That's BS. It doesn't matter where it's made. It's the design and manufacturing process, which would be the same if they did it here in the US. It's just cheaper to do in China. And what machines from the 80s are you still running? Lol.
Ever since I became an AmEx holder, AppleCare is worth less to me. I mean, it'd only be 1 extra year of warranty. $200 for the 3rd year, on a machine that costed only $1000-1200 isn't really appealing to me.
Your buying into the Fox News created myth that everything made in China is of comparable quality and costs less to manufacture. There are extreme differences in the manufacturing process, metals and materials used just to name a couple of things that affect the quality of the product.
I know of one laptop maker who had to forgo a certain finish they wanted on their product because the Chinese after months of trying could not replicate the process. A smart phone manufacturer last year had to give up on what might have been a revolutionary design in the shape of phone because the Chinese factory could not make the phone and keep the quality within acceptable tolerances. Funny thing is that prototype models from both companies were made here in the U.S. in a small facility and after rigorous testing held to quality standards. There are more examples of compromises I could name that have to be accepted whenever manufacturing is moved to Chine, but these two should illustrate the point.
As for it being cheaper to make the product there, that is sometimes true and often not. Steve Jobs said in an interview about a year before he died that Apple could make about everything they sell here for the same cost, but they didn't want to. If you are familiar with their last manufacturing facility in California it was highly robotized. Very few humans worked at the plant and none on the assembly line. Your argument then is that the Chinese work cheaper than a robot, which is nonsense.
Lastly, I never said I still used old computers. I said I had some from the 80's, the oldest one from 1986 and another from 1987, that still run. I can't say the same for some of these Chinese made ones that I've bought the last couple of years that have died already.
