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Go back to the Huffington Post where you belong, bleeding heart illiterate.

Ah Even pointing this out already is too much?

Get out of that fantasy world you live in .
 
Repression, riots, people no doubt hurt whats the headline "Impact on iPhone 5 Production Unclear" How sad to see everything reduced just so people can have the latest toy a bit earlier.

I'm with you.

"Four Americans and 28 Deportees die in plane crash" and "Kent State Students protest" comes to mind.
 
Priviate decision... aka Apple gets to choose where they have their products built. Not blackmailed into some unions workers BS desire to make or + an hour.
Actually then you ignore th rights of workers, a company has the right to hire who they against the wage they want but workers have the right to choose the company and the wage they want to work for .
 
Clearly there is something very wrong with this factory. Suicides, strikes, riots, explosions, etc - what's next?. Some reports have suggested that the riot started because Foxconn guards beat an employee. It seems that no matter what Apple does to try and monitor the situation at this plant it just isn't working. I think it's about time Apple started to consider building their own factories in China.
 
Cars are a different issue. Import taxes, tranportation per unit cost, storage, distribution are all significant components of localized manufacturing. No Americans would be interested to do small part assembly work at the Chinese pace, live in a dorm, nor for that matter pay $1500 for a disposable gadget. In the US one would have to work with the unions, American coffee breaks would halt production and fat people (the majority) with sausage-sized fingers will sue for being discriminated for not being able to participate. Forget it.

Yeah, suck it unions, you don't need to be able to collectively bargain, you should just be glad that the "job creators" pay you at all!

BTW, you do realize that, even with huge losses in the past couple decades, the US manufacturing sector is still nearly double the size of China's, right? Somehow we still manage to make things here....
 
Just to make sure you fully understand the definition...
Definition of CAPITALISM
: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market

Priviate decision... aka Apple gets to choose where they have their products built. Not blackmailed into some unions workers BS desire to make $20, $30 or $40+ an hour.
Capitalism, sure. But does the definition of capitalism include slave labor? Would you support capitalism based on slave labor?


Apple cannot compete in a free market by paying high school drop outs $40+ an hour union wages with lifetime union benefits. The very basis of a free market allows Apple to outsource labor and the only ones to blame are the good ol boy's in the USA supporting unions.
Why then Samsung (plant in Texas), Mercedes Benz (plant in Alabama) and Toyota (Kentucky) can compete, but Apple suddenly can't?
 
**** yeah, riot all day. that's the only way to get change. fight back you asians and have your ****ing revolution already.
 
I'd love to see Apple spend some of their $100B+ on bringing their manufacturing back to the US. Of course then they'd have to pay US taxes on that money....

As well as paying 15 times the labor rate. Well, only to the guy pushing the button to start the 10,000 robots who would be doing the actual assembly.
 
For their work conditions? I don't recall. For other things perhaps. But I don't think they were attacked for things relating to the environment or their supply chain.

They have received far more of their "fair" share of media focus since at least 1984. Actually, it's probably "fair", now. Considering the iDevices and stock price.
 
The iPhone is not actually manufactured in China. It's merely assembled there from components manufactured all over the world including the A6 processors manufactured by Samsung in Texas. Some of the Samsung haters on here would do well to remember that.
 
I too would love to see that in my lifetime. If any company could pull it off, it would be Apple.

But it's not really the tax money. It's the wages, the health benefits, and the fact that most of the subcomponents are already built in Asia.

That said, I'd really be interested in knowing just how much more an actual U.S. assembled iPhone would cost. 2x? 3x?

True, on the subcomponents. I'd like to see some manufacturing return here, and final assembly. I think the glass is still made in the US? The backplate, geez, that could be made here too -- as could most of the metal housing/body. Is the packaging even made in the US?

Apple might take a small hit to their profit margin to employ American workers, but those jobs would be a huge boost to the US overall.
 
Hypocrites?

Anyone who owns an Apple product is a complete hypocrite if you try and act like you give 2 poops about the working conditions over there. If you truly did, you would not buy an Apple product.

Anyone who posts anything on the internet is in the same category as an Apple consumer. The logic boards, CPUs, network adaptors, UI devices and screens that got your post to show up were assembled in the same working conditions -- no matter what brand is used. There is no existing fairly traded product to be had. Even if you could buy a device that is built in an OHSA-certified workplace by workers making at least a North American minimum wage to write your post, you'd still have a problem because the pipes are full of components that are full of parts from all over the globe.

Does that mean we should not be concerned about global working conditions? No. Does that make us hypocrites? Somewhat.

If one wants things to change, get involved as a citizen. Read. Think. Act as you see fit. Express your views. Modify your purchase habits. Write letters to CEOs. And discuss these issues with the tools you have. Even if there is a shiny Apple logo on it.
 
Capitalism, sure. But does the definition of capitalism include slave labor? Would you support capitalism based on slave labor?
Do you mean before or after 1865?

Why then Samsung (plant in Texas), Mercedes Benz (plant in Alabama) and Toyota (Kentucky) can compete, but Apple suddenly can't?
To be fair, those companies only do it to save cash in other ways. Earlier this year, for example, Toyota was looking at making Japan-destined Camrys in the US since it cost less (or they were projecting it would) to ship the finished car to Japan than all the parts to assemble in Japan.
 
As detailed in an undercover report from earlier this month, Foxconn's Taiyuan facility is involved in the production of the iPhone 5 black plate,


Hmmm.. I wonder how all the SCUFFGATErs feel about this one. They spent all their waking moments trying to scratch the crap out of the the black plate, using heavy microscopes to search out barely imperceptible flaws, using high powered 35MM cameras to take pictures, and filming videos for Youtube bragging about how flawed the black plate is...

And who knows if Foxconn management didn't read all these findings, the big blowup over the supposed inferior quality of the black plate, and they may have even gotten a nasty call from Apple. Next thing you know they are taking it out directly on the workforce causing the resulting riot to happen.

It's not that much of a stretch. We are a global economy now, and trashing a product all over the forums can have serious repercussions for the manufacturer of said product, even thousands of miles away. The Chinese are very proud and I don't think they would feel so great about all this negativity cast toward their product.
 
Not such a bad example - Oakley's founder started Red Digital Camera, who assemble their products (high end electronic and optical equipment) in California, and are investing in a new plant in Nevada. These are prime foxconn style items. So it is possible, and it doesn't have the crushing impact on bottom line that many expect.

While, I agree, RED has a much different and much smaller market aimed at a professional to prosumer user base. They aren't focused on a consumer mass market the same way many others are. They can afford to set higher prices on high demand items built in lower quantities, so they don't have the same need to reduce costs in bulk volume purchases or unskilled labor.
 
CNBC reports (guests on the TV broadcast) it is the factory that made 3GS until August and switched to 4 and 4S. That factory also makes Dell and HP laptops. The "riot" was in the housing area. Of the 76,000 employees on-site under 2000 were concerned with the scuffle.

Welcome to western culture, gents. I don't think these former rural farmer folks are used to high density living conditions.

Rocketman
 
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Apple ought to have Chinese speaking observers and employees at plants full time with full right to speak to workers without reprisals to workers. Worker morale ought to be a high priority for Apple. Perhaps they do but they aren't picking up the necessary intelligence.

China is going through a normal progression of workers seeking better conditions, more money and to be treated with respect. Every developing nation goes through it.

Apple customers must demand more from Apple's subcontractor employee treatment.

The US ought to give companies a tax holiday to repatriate funds for US investment only. No dividends to stockholders. The federal government would "redistribute" the taxes and waste it. By reinvestment, real good paying jobs are created. :apple:
 
OK. First we'll need to find 25,000 mechanical engineers to retool factories every time there is a new product. Then we'll need to build out infrastructure. Plus we'll need to add port capacity to handle the influx of shipments from suppliers.

It isn't as simple as waving a wand. In particular the lack of engineers is something that Steve Jobs pointed out in a meeting with the president.

And it's not as simple as telling the President to do something about it either.

For there to be an increase in engineers, there must be a labor market that can support those graduates, and the training must be made widely available and affordable (taxes paid on overseas treasure chests would help in this respect).

Port capacity and other infrastructure should meet demand, not be built to entice it - that's how white elephants are made.

What is the President supposed to do, if one of the flagship American companies is not prepared to put its resources into tooling up the workforce and investing in the US? After all the fuss are we now to believe that Big Business thinks it's the state's role to generate jobs?
 
OK. First we'll need to find 25,000 mechanical engineers to retool factories every time there is a new product. Then we'll need to build out infrastructure. Plus we'll need to add port capacity to handle the influx of shipments from suppliers.

It isn't as simple as waving a wand. In particular the lack of engineers is something that Steve Jobs pointed out in a meeting with the president.

People believe what they want to believe, but it never fails to astonish me how willingly everybody always bought into Steve's BS.

A company with more than 100 Billion USD in CASH reserves could easily lay out a three to five year plan to a) build the factories it needs and b) at the same build the schools necessary to train and educate the workforce that it requires to run those factories in its home country. They manage to invest billions of dollars in data centers that need MORE highly educated and skilled people than a FACTORY that is basically run by robots.

If they wanted, they could. But like any other corporation, they are run by pure greed and don't want to take any responsibility. That is what globalization is all about.

But what do you guys think will happen once all production and technical jobs have been "outsourced" to countries like China and our own countries are run by the few remaining lawyers and the rest is unemployed?

You're right. THAT is the day when production might come back, because that is the day when WE will work for a dollar per day.

I wonder if you will still love your shiny iToys then.
 
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