Foxconn Hires 50,000 More Workers as Apple Boosts iPhone 16 Production

[Earendil]

I'm an American making half that and saving plenty while being in a mid-sized city (I believe anyone making $120K/year and "isn't able to save anything" is more likely just bad at or unwilling to do money management), but I agree with your point in general.

(The main category where local cost-of-living isn't relevant is travel/expatriation.)

I assume they meant 10k a month household income, and even that is almost twice the median US household income.
Minus taxes, minus loans, minus supporting your dependents (childcare/pre-school being huge), and paying for survival items, doesn’t usually leave you with 40% left over.

My wife and I are closer to twice the median. 3 kids but no loans. We save “plenty” for retirement, but nowhere NEAR 40% (not enough to buy a house in our area in the near future, or to save significantly to help our kids past 18 for example).

And yeah, people are generally bad at managing money, you’re right about that. But it’s also true that most American households have disposable income in the single digit percentages, or no disposable income at all.

 

[Ramchi]

The sources he provided, would be my guess.

There are enough stories of unrest in Foxconn and many managed escape from the prison like setup which we have been hearing from all quarters. Once you go inside the factory the apparently everything changes for the worker it seems

 

[atomic.flip]

Well this is going to be awesome for the American economy. Glad to see a US company reinvesting in the community. LOL

 

[spcopsmac21]

I'm an American making half that and saving plenty while being in a mid-sized city (I believe anyone making $120K/year and "isn't able to save anything" is more likely just bad at or unwilling to do money management), but I agree with your point in general.

(The main category where local cost-of-living isn't relevant is travel/expatriation.)

It’s morphin time.

 

[fromgophonetoiphone]

I assume they meant 10k a month household income, and even that is almost twice the median US household income.
Minus taxes, minus loans, minus supporting your dependents (childcare/pre-school being huge), and paying for survival items, doesn’t usually leave you with 40% left over.

My wife and I are closer to twice the median. 3 kids but no loans. We save “plenty” for retirement, but nowhere NEAR 40% (not enough to buy a house in our area in the near future, or to save significantly to help our kids past 18 for example).

And yeah, people are generally bad at managing money, you’re right about that. But it’s also true that most American households have disposable income in the single digit percentages, or no disposable income at all.

The thing is CoL is so local. People like to cite the median income but it's often not that useful as a stat. The median income is actually rising RAPIDLY in HCOL like the SF Bay Area and Cupertino. What was just over $100k a few years ago is now over $130k. But still that doesn't tell the story because $130k won't let you afford any home. With prices and today's interest rates you need well over $300k and even then you'll feel house poor as you throw away $10k+ per month at a home.

Daycare here is $3000+ per month easily and even home daycares easily run $2500/month or higher. If you're really good at shopping you imght be able to find something more in the 2200-2300 range.

There's a reason they pay engineers $300k+ to move from whatever LCOL/MCOL or even other seemingly HCOL city over to the SF Bay Area because you need a LOT of money to settle down and raise a family here.

Anyway, back to the original topic of saving though, Americans are bad at saving. Asian culture has a lot about frugality and modesty and not wasting money on luxury goods, etc. A lot of emphasis about saving even if you make good money.

 

[Earendil]

The thing is CoL is so local. People like to cite the median income but it's often not that useful as a stat.

I don’t disagree that CoL is local. But if the topic is generalizing what Americans can or can’t do with 10k a month, I feel it’s worth pointing out how most, by a large margin, don’t make that in America. It’s not a good stat to guide an individual, but it is a good stat for understanding America.

 

[iMac The Knife]

Hopefully they will treat these 'employees' better today than they have in the past.