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Bernie Sanders Wishes Apple Would Move Some Manufacturing to US and Pay 'Fair Share' of Taxes
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Most people think that electronics stuff gets made in China because of cheap labour or low taxes but in reality it's mostly because of the supply chain. The area of China where Apple have their stuff made has a very dense concentration of facilities where the component parts required for the products can be manufactured or sourced. To try to replicate that in some part of the USA would take a long long time and cost a fortune. On the labour side, the biggest advantage is the incredible scalability of the workforce where they can call upon legions of skilled workers at relatively short notice to meet the demand for the latest iDevice. It's difficult to imagine reproducing that in the USA at any cost or on any timescale due to cultural differences.
You can't build 70-80 million iPhones a quarter just anywhere!
You can't build 70-80 million iPhones a quarter just anywhere!
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Don't be insulting, lol. Puddle of slime should be first!
WRT offshoring labour, for Apple it makes sense because it's cheaper to get their products made in China. The cost of local labour is too high. But why is this? Local Unions pushed the cost of labour up. It's for the same reason that Mexicans are allowed to flood in - cheap labour. Bernie is whinging about a problem that was, in big part, a product of 'the left' that he represents.
It is a combination of both and many other things, which politicians will never tackle or solve.
USA has major education problems. Most people do not want their children in factories at assembly lines.
Hence nobody trains them for that, regardless of whether they actually have the brains for anything else.
Not everybody is gifted and a genius (Plus too many people everywhere).
The amount of engineers and other trained workers in China is far greater than in USA.
Add the corporate tax structure, OSHA and many nonsense regulations protecting workers far beyond reasonable and it's just not a good environment to bother to make products here.
That is all without even minimum wage regulations and the problem of illegals all doing whatever manual labor there is and Americans don't want to do.
(Heard this on some comedy channel: Life is good: Jesus is mowing my lawn!
Money will just not go where too many people (governments) want to get a cut.
And, why pay more than one has to for anything?
Bernie has zero clue of running a corporation or production of the magnitude of Apple.
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Apple will move back to the US when conditions are such that they won't be paying an arm and a leg to manufacture here. Read: not at all if Bernie gets his way with his tax plans.
Bernie Sanders' enthusiasm for rapacious taxes and onerous regulatory burdens make him among those responsible for the shift of American jobs overseas.
I'm surprised at the response to Bernie's statement. I didn't see anything wrong with what he said. I wish Apple would bring more manufacturing jobs back to the US too. It may not be economically perfect for Apple to do so but it's not like they're hurting for cash either. Bringing Mac Pro assembly here was a good first step and while I don't expect Apple to announce the iPhone being made in the US any time soon (or ever), it would be nice if they brought manufacturing of some other lower volume products here.
I don't think he's wrong about Apple trying their best to pay as few taxes as possible but thats true of literally every company. It's not Apples fault our current tax laws make it so easy for them. It's not tax evasion if the loopholes exist for them to legally exploit.
I don't think he's wrong about Apple trying their best to pay as few taxes as possible but thats true of literally every company. It's not Apples fault our current tax laws make it so easy for them. It's not tax evasion if the loopholes exist for them to legally exploit.
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Dam socialist and their high taxes, free healthcare, education, and liberal ideas!
Go Trump!
Hey woman! Get back in the kitchen and make me a sammich!
Go Trump!
Hey woman! Get back in the kitchen and make me a sammich!
"In a December interview with Charlie Rose, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave some color on why Apple products are made in China. "It's skill," he said, going on to explain that China has focused heavily on training people to create machinery and parts for electronic devices."
I honestly fell off my chair laughing when I read that quote by ******* Cook. He must think we're all stupid.
They make their stuff in China because they can use slave labour to make it for a pittance and sell it on at massive markup. That's why they've got billions in the bank.
I honestly fell off my chair laughing when I read that quote by ******* Cook. He must think we're all stupid.
They make their stuff in China because they can use slave labour to make it for a pittance and sell it on at massive markup. That's why they've got billions in the bank.
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How is it loophole, exactly? A tax should be in exchange for something — goods or services. Why does the US government feel entitled to a cut of profits that Apple earns overseas in another country? It's ridiculous.
Bernie says a lot that I agree with, but this isn't one of them.
I can't believe how many people here in this thread support tax evasion. That is disgusting.
Seriously?
I think they're actually discussing the reason for it, which is why companies are manufacturing in other countries to begin with. Our taxes here are insane.
The first US president who is not welcome in any other country in the world. It would be a laugh.
Oh and I would love to be there when he realises he is only the president of the USA, not god.
I honestly fell off my chair laughing when I read that quote by ******* Cook. He must think we're all stupid.
They make their stuff in China because they can use slave labour to make it for a pittance and sell it on at massive markup. That's why they've got billions in the bank.
You're probably not stupid but you don't understand Apple's business and you clearly don't understand Tim Cook.
If I was hiding my income offshore and paying no income tax, most people would be pretty dang upset. I am only making 70K a year though and my tax dodge would be small. The backlash would be far greater than the tax avoidance by a long shot.
A company like Apple hides BILLIONS of dollars offshore to avoid paying taxes, and they get defended like crazy for doing so. I am not saying Bernie is 100% correct here, but some of you really need to get off Apple's Kool Aid train and realize that Apple does some shady stuff.
A company like Apple hides BILLIONS of dollars offshore to avoid paying taxes, and they get defended like crazy for doing so. I am not saying Bernie is 100% correct here, but some of you really need to get off Apple's Kool Aid train and realize that Apple does some shady stuff.
How are they hiding it exactly? They report on it publicly every 3 months. Take a look at the link posted on page 2 of this thread showing how much corporations pay in tax. Apple pay more than IBM and many other big companies as a proportion of earnings.
I didn't realize that Apple never had money overseas while Jobs was in charge. That's news to me. Even so, I have no problem with Cook making his viewpoints known, and even allowing his viewpoints to affect the way Apple does business. I don't always agree with him, but I don't have to. No two people will agree on everything, and I understand that.
