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Good, they should be buying American instead of Chinese garbage. Not too long ago you LeftNuts were whining incessantly about Walmart stocking up on Chinese junk and how it hurts American made products, now you flipped 180 degrees and favor Chinese junk. Unbelievable.
1. Sam Walton swore he would slant wal-mart toward American products and he did. In fact, we once made a product to sell to him and had the advantage of being US- made.
When they turned it over to the stock market and new management, they insisted "Go to china or we can't do business with you any longer" to most all vendors.
2. Most everyone shops at wal-mart on occasion. The point is still valid - that lower cost consumer goods has somewhat helped the "forgotten man and woman" survive.
3. There is and was real concern about Wal-Marts making downtowns in rural America into ghost towns. That's water over the dam now - wal-mart won, but it's not always a good thing.
China makes a number of incredible products - quality as good as any in the world. This includes iphones, the macbook pro I am typing on, DJI Drones and much more.
Maybe in the past some of it was junk...and plenty of companies still specify and import junk. But it's a hoot for folks to think or say their products cannot be world-class. In fact, in many industries (like those DJI Drones), neither Americans nor Europeans can even get close. Nothing.....a virtual monopoly (probably a 95% market share for Chinese made drones).
Actually the total cost of an iPhone is $75. It costs $5 to assemble and it consist of 4 parts coming from USA, JAPAN, Germany, Korea and now on the newer phones many are from China, Netherlands etc. The issue with the liberal minded folks, they want to have it both ways, exploit other countries for their resources and sell at a huge profit at home. then they advocate for rising minimum wage, like they cared in the first place. Like that California faRMER ON TV crying that ICE had arrested some of his illegal worked and the rest were scared to come to work. The media wants you to see Oh how sad, what a soft hearted person.
The reality is that his real concern is not politics or people, he only cares about his bottom line, minimum investment-maximum profit. He paid these illegal folks $5 per hour working them to the ground, so he can turn around and put his wonderful USA made produce in Whole Foods and sell it for 3000% profit. If the CA farmer really cared about people and equality, he would pay $15 per hour wage and hire folk legally authorized to work in USA. this folks is abuse. This encourages other people to risk their lives crossing the border illegally because they know it's easy getting paid under the table.
Most countries out there want to sell goods in the best economy in the world USA. Why not make it equal playing field ?
The problem is much bigger than what you see, the stupid western liberal companies, helped China build their economy, while their own economy crumbles (Italy bankrupt-22% unemployment, Spain-bancrupt, Ireland-Bankrupt, Greece bancrupt, Eastern Europe is barely hanging on, Germany Holland, France are the few making it and keeping everyone else afloat. China's plan was to steal western technology and they succeeded. They stole the iPhone and China Huawei made a replica and improved on it and now it outsells iPhone and Samsung. The Chinese government hired says who came to Canada disguised as immigrants with fake degrees, who obtained jobs at Blackberry, and worked themselves up in the company, until they had access to the blueprint of Blackberry. They stole it and quit their jobs and few back to China. Blackberry complained to Canada trade minister who accused China of techno espionage.But too late. China implemented the technology for their own benefit and started making
knock off phones. Blackberry stock had to be delisted from the market as it had dropped below 50 cents. China also bribed an insider in USA windmill chip/software manufacturer and stole their logic and software blueprint. No China is the largest manufactures of complete windmills I ate world. The USA company can not compete on the word market any more. Look what modern top of the line highways railways and infrastructure China has, 30 years ago most people drove bicycles. USA railways and bridges are crumbling. We've become the third world. The USA is getting raped on the world stage, and we sit here, smile and wave flags, while China and everyone else is become a world player and dominator. Because USA is so nice and we don't want to hurt anyone's feeling, let's all be friends mentality. Where did that take us. Americans made more money 30 years ago and the average USA income in the last 30 years has not remained stable but has decreased. Imagine we work like crazy here stressed out to the brim, trying to keep afloat while Apple says yeah we are proud US company and believe in Social justice and equality thats why we will pay $5 to a Chinese person to assemble our $75 phone , so we can sell it for $800 to these dummies in America and move our headquarters in another country to reap huge profits, while not paying taxes in America.
lmao..It's only $7 labor because they are being made in sweatshops. It seems you don't understand a few things as well. You should be mad at Apple for paying so little for manufacturing while capturing 2/3 of the price in profit. If they weren't so "greedy" Leftist term here, they could pay a decent wage for manufacturing it here in the US and everyone wins.
They prefer Chinese child labor, slavery & suicide nets around the factories to the American economy flourishing, wages increasing & unemployment going down, because God forbid Trump might get credit or it hurt their election chances.
I'm not talking about flipping a burger or waiting for the fryer to beep on a $6 meal. I'm talking about manufacturing a technical device that costs 1k. Good grief.
I was in electronic manufacturing back in the 80's. Got out of it because it is a low margin gain. back then everything was starting to go to Japan. Now its probably Bangladesh.
1. Sam Walton swore he would slant wal-mart toward American products and he did. In fact, we once made a product to sell to him and had the advantage of being US- made.
When they turned it over to the stock market and new management, they insisted "Go to china or we can't do business with you any longer" to most all vendors.
This reminds me of this theory - the elimination of company sponsored pension plans and the rise of 401ks has turned everyone into an account manager demanding higher returns. To achieve higher returns, companies constantly evolve in ways to slash costs and create stock value without creating company or employee value. Labor is the quickest way to cut costs. Retirement plan values rise, investors are happy, demand more return, more cuts are made, products move to lower cost markets, more working class Americans become unemployed, the cycle repeats.
Actually the total cost of an iPhone is $75. It costs $5 to assemble and it consist of 4 parts coming from USA, JAPAN, Germany, Korea and now on the newer phones many are from China, Netherlands etc. The issue with the liberal minded folks, they want to have it both ways, exploit other countries for their resources and sell at a huge profit at home.
You are wrong about the true cost of an iPhone.
It's actually almost $400 in parts to make an iPhone X. That doesn't include the cost of the software - Software developers make an average of 135K per year
at Apple - and it takes a whole bunch of them to write iOS. That is how American workers make money on the phone, not spending 30 seconds snapping the parts together to make a few bucks.
It's interesting that the cost to put Face ID on the phone is more than the cost of assembly.
Your average bottle of wine sells for twice what the retailer bought it for - 4X the price if you buy it in a restaurant. Apple doesn't make an extraordinary amount of profit on a phone.
It wouldn't cost that much more to make it in the US - that is why Foxconn is building a plant in Wisconsin to build TV screens. The absolutely ridiculous tax breaks they are being given will more than cover the increase in wages. And now they are angling to take water out of Lake Michigan
and possibly endanger this Great Lake. At what cost to all of us who live here? Let them make it in China.
"This Ohio factory thought it could bring U.S. jobs back from China. Then Trump got involved."
So, the guy invests in equipment, productivity and capability and can even meet Chinese pricing....and profit! But he loses this (and will lost other) contracts due to tariffs.
It's basic common sense - but the POTUS doesn't have that.
For those unfamiliar with a complex industrialized and "knowledge based" economy, here's an example:
The Labor in an iPhone is $7. Total materials less than $200, which are sourced at very low profit margins from all over the world (including the US - Corning Glass for one).....
However, when I buy an $800 iphone, $600 of that is US based profits and money.....and much more then results from my use (cell networks, apps, accessories, etc.). Over the life of that phone, the total economic activity is probably $2000 or so...mostly to US corps and even "little shops" for apps and repairs, etc.
So, which would you rather have in the USA? The $7 labor or the thousands in profits from the sales, service, apps, cell networks, repairs, accessories, etc.????
It would seem the answer is obvious. Yet, Trumpies must not understand this. To their credit, the economists and most of the Republican and Democratic parties DO.
Tariffs don't apply to US companies. Only to importers.
Tariffs don't apply to US companies. Only to importers.
I think this has been explained multiple times.
Let's pretend that China can produce steel at $10 per pound.
Let's pretend that it costs a U.S steel company $15 per pound to produce the same quality steel.
So, the U.S. Government puts a $6.00 tariff on steel imported from China to help the American steel mill be competitive. Now the U.S. Steel is cheaper. Hooray! American steel producers reopen mills, hire lots of people, and U.S. manufacturers begin buying steel from the U.S. steel mills because the Chinese steel is now more expensive.
If there is 20 pounds of steel in your washing machine, and that cost $200 when the washing machine manufacturer bought it from China, it now is costing $300 to buy the steel from the American Steel manufacturer.
The cost of the steel in the washing machine just went up 50%. Will the washing machine cost the same thing to the consumer? It will likely cost 20% more for the finished product. If the washing machine company cannot sell the same number of washing machines with a 20% price increase, they will need to lay people off. Maybe they will go out of business. Then who will buy the steel?
Let's pretend that China can produce steel at $10 per pound.
Let's pretend that it costs a U.S steel company $15 per pound to produce the same quality steel.
So, the U.S. Government puts a $6.00 tariff on steel imported from China to help the American steel mill be competitive. Now the U.S. Steel is cheaper. Hooray! American steel producers reopen mills, hire lots of people, and U.S. manufacturers begin buying steel from the U.S. steel mills because the Chinese steel is now more expensive.
If there is 20 pounds of steel in your washing machine, and that cost $200 when the washing machine manufacturer bought it from China, it now is costing $300 to buy the steel from the American Steel manufacturer.
The cost of the steel in the washing machine just went up 50%. Will the washing machine cost the same thing to the consumer? It will likely cost 20% more for the finished product. If the washing machine company cannot sell the same number of washing machines with a 20% price increase, they will need to lay people off. Maybe they will go out of business. Then who will buy the steel?
Who wins here?
Great post!
Tariffs on raw materials are the best way to kill what remains of the US manufacturing economy. It is such a stupid move that it must be intentional. There is no way that people like Mnuchin don't understand how this works.
Just like he hoped, Trump's cult is only paying attention to the tiny amount of jobs created in steel mills and coal mines, while they ignore the long term ramifications of the tariffs that will lead to the loss of thousands of jobs and the closure of many factories. This will only accelerate the movement of manufacturing jobs out of the US.
I wonder how soybean farmers will feel about losing their farms so Trump could buy a few votes in swing states?
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