You know Apple pays taxes in the US, right? And employs a bunch of people who pay taxes in the US? All those out-of-work factory workers should get Apple Retail jobs or better yet, get an education and start programming or designing the next Apple product, because that's what Apple is doing for America.
And hey, look at you, an American stockowner of AAPL making some money for no effort on your part every time they split the stock.
You know what happens when we start slapping tariffs on other countries? They shrug and let you take all their jobs? Hahaha, no. They slap tariffs on your stuff too. You get a trade war, and since China has more to lose here than we do, they'll put much, much bigger tariffs on our stuff. China, as an emerging market, is not something we want to lose entirely, that will only benefit Europe and elsewhere. So, we'll be taking in less income, everything we have will go up in price 20% (because it's not just Apple products made in China, it's absolutely everything), and our lovely standard of living will go down in flames along with our economy. Can you afford to have your income go down while your cost of living goes up nearly 20%? How many people do you know can?
It's not always the most pleasant thing to stomach, but free trade results in specialization and everything that goes along with it. China right now specializes in unskilled manual labor. We specialize right now in designing and inventing things. Frankly, both sides benefit because China has a lot of unemployed, uneducated, poor people who need unskilled jobs, and we like designing and owning iPads. Building them, we can let somebody else do that, because our jobs over here require an education and creativity, and their jobs can be replaced by robots with Apple logos on them perhaps someday. Both sides make money, but that's not a bad thing. If anything, considering Apple's profits and market cap, we're getting the better end of the deal.
Would you honestly rather switch places with China? That's all you need to know.
