iPhone Assembler Foxconn in Early Talks to Expand U.S. Operations

[Mac 128]

Yes. They aren't going to make $2 an hour though.
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I'm seeing the optimism in my area. Those that were pro Hillary are mostly saying lets see what he does. If he turns things around economically, they seem to be saying they will be OK with him.

So they're going to make less? Because even if Foxcon pays minimum wage, then the products they make will be so expensive that the workers making those products won't be able to afford them, as they do now. And minimum wage factory assembly jobs is far from to what the former $20+ an hour steel and coal workers are counting on trump bringing back to the US. The lives they led are not coming back, whether the work does or not. And that's the real issue, not whether the available jobs are in manufacturing, or service industries. The unemployed steel worker probably wouldn't care if he was cleaning toilets or girders, as long as he was being paid $20+ an hour. But that's not the reality here. Highly paid unskilled labor jobs are gone forever. The only option is to retrain the mindset, send these people back to school and return them to healthy living wages via the higher skills jobs that actually need to be done.

 

[Glassed Silver]

Then why isn't he with Obama?

The current US President?

Maybe because business-wise it's smarter to mingle with the guy you'll talk to for the next 4 years instead of a 1 month lame duck.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

That's great... but how much are new iPhones going to cost with dearer manufacturing thrown into the mix? They are already on the threshold of being too expensive as it is.

 

[johngordon]

Sorry if this has already been addressed. I guess in an ideal world it would be a great thing to happen, but there are many logistic reasons why it would be difficult.

Trump seems to have singled out Apple though - has it ever been addressed as to why some companies should be compelled to do it, and others not? Or is it that any can should they wish, and if they do they will be afforded favourable tax breaks in the US?

If that is the case, how will that work exactly, given that's pretty much what Ireland was doing, and came under severe criticism for?

Or is it just how Trump works - opens mouth, without thinking things through?

 

[k1121j]

Manufacturing jobs aren't coming back. The reason they went to these other countries is because labor is way, and I mean WAY cheaper over there, to the point that providing some tax incentives or something isn't going to bring it back here. If Trump were to put huge tariffs on foreign goods or something, more might take place here just so some goods are available, but guess what would happen to the price. That's right prices on those high tariff and then locally made goods would double overnight. Do you realize how much of the things we buy are made in these countries? Practically everything, and the prices would suddenly go up. Even if we were handing out $20/hour jobs like candy, people wouldn't be better off, because now they have to buy the $20 t-shirt at Walmart instead of the $5 t-shirt.

So do you have a painless solution? The way I look at it if someone doesn't fix this issue people wont be able to afford the $5 t-shirt. If you honestly think this is a non issue you have no idea how economics work...

 

[tooltalk]

Foxconn factory where people are payed $2 / hour. Is this really what you want in US?

Well, Foxconn won't be paying $2/hr in the US. Unlike Apple's dehumanizing labor camps in China, I suspect that there would be more robots and automation in Foxconn's new US plants.
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Sounds like every single new administration. It takes so long for any significant change to occur, they all claim credit for stuff that began long before they were even in the running.

Not sure if that's true. Son was holding billions in cash to invest in US after his Sprint purchase, but Obama's appointees/regulators made sure his plan (eg, T-Mobile merge) wouldn't happen. Of course, there are many companies / investors with billions and billions dollars looking to invest, but Obama created an environment where only banks and financial interests can thrive. I'm a pro-market, but not pro-business, kind of guy, and it's time to admit that Trump's is directly responsible for reinvigorating foreign investors' interest in the US again.

 

[uwdude]

So do you have a painless solution? The way I look at it if someone doesn't fix this issue people wont be able to afford the $5 t-shirt. If you honestly think this is a non issue you have no idea how economics work...

Well what is happening is that the world is changing very quickly, and soon there won't be that many jobs period. We are reaching the point where robots and computer kiosks will be able to replace a lot of the jobs. We are going to have to restructure our economy away from the current monetary and capitalist models to resource based economies like the futurists have been saying (look up the Venus Project as an example). In the short term though we may have to do things like a guaranteed basic income like some other countries are instituting, to make sure everyone is ok during this transition.

 

[Mac 128]

Well, Foxconn won't be paying $2/hr in the US. Unlike Apple's dehumanizing labor camps in China, I suspect that there would be more robots and automation in Foxconn's new US plants.
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So you imagine they'll pay $25-30 hour like all those coal and steel jobs Trump plans to bring back? There's no possibility they'll pay $7/hr minimum wage which has little chance now of increasing over the next four years?

And with all those robots and automation, how does opening a faxcon plant here help anything?

 

[k1121j]

Well what is happening is that the world is changing very quickly, and soon there won't be that many jobs period. We are reaching the point where robots and computer kiosks will be able to replace a lot of the jobs. We are going to have to restructure our economy away from the current monetary and capitalist models to resource based economies like the futurists have been saying (look up the Venus Project as an example). In the short term though we may have to do things like a guaranteed basic income like some other countries are instituting, to make sure everyone is ok during this transition.

A resource based economy is based on having an abundance of resources for everyone.... Sorry to tell you but resources are finite & limited at least on this planet so not sure how that would work???

 

[uwdude]

A resource based economy is based on having an abundance of resources for everyone.... Sorry to tell you but resources are finite & limited at least on this planet so not sure how that would work???

No it's more about distributing the resources to where they are needed, and making the right choices on what resources to make or harvest, versus companies deciding what they want to get and selling the goods to whoever has money.

 

[k1121j]

No it's more about distributing the resources to where they are needed, and making the right choices on what resources to make or harvest, versus companies deciding what they want to get and selling the goods to whoever has money.

its just scary to say the least ...

 

[uwdude]

its just scary to say the least ...

I agree, it would be a big change to our society, so that's scary, but I think it will happen over many years, perhaps the next 100 years or so. And unfortunately, it will require the whole world to work together and probably have a world government. Our world has gotten so small, and the players so multinational, that it's going to be required sooner or later. Then once robotics and AI are good enough, and there is a world body like the UN or whatever we decide on, then things like "Somalia needs X amount of food this year, let's plant x crops in the US and x crops in Canada to meet this and Somalia can provide X amount of tin mining for our electronics" can happen (no idea if Somalia has tin, but you get the idea). And that's even if the idea of having separate countries is still useful- I imagine having regions would probably be. It will be a long gradual change.