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Pafoofnik

macrumors member
Apr 14, 2014
85
276
Shouldn't moving a company's production facility be up to the company and not the country in which the facility is currently located? Oh, wait. I forgot who's really running Apple.
 

Baymowe335

Suspended
Oct 6, 2017
6,640
12,451
If you’re in a part of the world that has already largely beaten COVID it’s less of a concern. And that could easily be a file photo from a year ago.
Could be. Or masks aren’t the end all, reporting is different, and geography is different. “Beaten Covid” is certainly an objectionable conclusion just bc you aren’t seeing the case numbers and deaths reported. I have a good friend in China and transparency and media are literally nothing like the US. It can’t be understated just how different the media has handled Covid in the 2 countries.

For Apple, this is probably more about getting as much diversity in the supply chain as possible.
 
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benlukes

macrumors regular
Jul 13, 2014
134
161
I got a better idea. How about moving the assembly to the United States and the upper mangers all take a slight pay cut to pay for it? :p
Usually the math doesn’t work out like that. For many companies the CEO could get paid nothing and it wouldn’t have a major impact on the pay of the employees. Don’t know if that is the case for Apple or not, but I suspect it is.
Wow, all this is may be true, but does it stop you from buying products made in China?
It definitely means I try not to. It’s not easily currently given how much is made there, but I definitely support companies moving their production elsewhere.
 
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benlukes

macrumors regular
Jul 13, 2014
134
161
Hopefully, Apple won't have a problem in China come January...
Hopefully they will and Biden will continue these efforts. This article shows the trade war is working. We should double down on it. China cheats routinely and they shouldn’t be rewarded for that. Companies that manufacture there are funding China’s efforts to invade and bully other countries, imprison the Uyghurs (not surprised that this is one of the choice words Apple autocorrect doesn’t know), and crack down on their own people, among other things.
 
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rme

macrumors 6502
Jul 19, 2008
292
436
Hopefully they will and Biden will continue these efforts. This article shows the trade war is working. We should double down on it. China cheats routinely and they shouldn’t be rewarded for that. Companies that manufacture there are funding China’s efforts to invade and bully other countries, imprison the Uyghurs (not surprised that this is one of the choice words Apple autocorrect doesn’t know), and crack down on their own people, among other things.
I'm sure they (just like Americans) tell themselves they're "standing up for what's right".
 

PinkyMacGodess

Suspended
Mar 7, 2007
10,271
6,226
Midwest America.
I have been disappointed in the quality of a bike trainer that I bought that was 'Made in Vietnam'. They used the cheapest screws and the thing squeaks quite a bit. A squeaking iPad would really suck. :oops: They keep finding worse places to manufacture their goodies we can't seem to live without, while spreading their IP all over the globe. Sounds like a great idea, doesn't it...
 
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PinkyMacGodess

Suspended
Mar 7, 2007
10,271
6,226
Midwest America.
Cost of labor is significantly cheaper in Vietnam, thats really the reason for moving there.
And after Apple sets up shop, the standard of living doesn't go up very much.

Apple should be forced (coerced) to unionize their employees, and require contractors to allow their employees to organize and demand worker protections, and an increased standard of living. Only by finding the hell holes that corporations can exploit, and making the labor costs similar, are manufacturers going to be driven back to our shores, and then IP can be protected. I'm sure China has siphoned off as much of Apple's and all the others IP as they can.

Suicide nets aren't 'worker protections'. Not by a long shot...
 

GuruZac

macrumors 68040
Sep 9, 2015
3,605
11,494
⛰️🏕️🏔️
I have been disappointed in the quality of a bike trainer that I bought that was 'Made in Vietnam'. They used the cheapest screws and the thing squeaks quite a bit. A squeaking iPad would really suck. :oops: They keep finding worse places to manufacture their goodies we can't seem to live without, while spreading their IP all over the globe. Sounds like a great idea, doesn't it...
Don’t blame the country of origin. Blame the company who outsourced manufacturing to those countries. Those companies ask for a product to be built to certain standard.
 

nylonsteel

macrumors 68000
Nov 5, 2010
1,553
491
progression of cheap yet accomplished workmanship over the years
japan - korea - china - vietnam
 

827538

Cancelled
Jul 3, 2013
2,322
2,833
There's four major factors driving manufacturing away from China:

1. Cost of labor has steadily risen and is no longer competitive with the likes of Vietnam, India, Africa etc.
2. Trade wars between China and the West have caused supply chain uncertainty and tariffs have increased costs.
3. Distrust of China and its human rights record, people don't want to buy products made in China.
4. Automation means it's becoming more affordable to build in the West again as you don't have to pay as much for labor.
 
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Maximara

macrumors 68000
Jun 16, 2008
1,707
908
I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not.
I did say it was overly idealistic.
Assuming you’re not, it seems you’re trying to suggest that moving production to the US would allow for maximized profits. The cost of labor is higher in the US, so without changing prices, I fail to see how that works.
The wages in many European countries and Japan are higher (even when converted to US $) and they were cleaning our clocks for a long time so this argument doesn't fly.

Compare two game companies. Nintendo and Blizzard/Activision.

Nintendo Executives: Oh our sales are not so good. Let's take a pay a pay cut so our employees can keep their salaries and their jobs.

Blizzard/Activision Executives: Oh our sales are not so good. Let's lay off a crap load of people so our executives can keep their insanely high salaries.

It is sad when a Japanese company is living up the the overly idealized world of Yankee Dood it then an United States company.

Additionally, while there are some goods cheaply manufactured in China, all things held equal, there is no verifiable study showing US manufacturing of the same item would yield higher quality. American exceptionalism has trained citizens that “Made in America” means better quality, but that’s not guaranteed.
If you include quality of life in that "higher quality" then yes moving it to the United States (Mexico is in "America") would be an improvement. Heck, given the conditions in some Chinese factories working in the Victorian-Edwardian nightmares made famous through novels like The Jungle or Midnight is a Place would be an improvement.

It wouldn't surprise me if things like Bloody Ludlow happened and the Chinese were very good about covering it up.
Being an American, I’m certainly for America first. But I also studied economics and know well enough that bringing manufacturing back to America wouldn’t allow for our economy to be the most competitive possible on an international stage.
I disagree. A good reason the United States companies were getting their clocks cleaned was money that should have gone back into the company was going into the hands of management. For the longest time the CEO of Toyota didn't even reach the US$1 Million mark while the CEOs of old Detroit standbys were pulling in 30 times that amount...and that is not counting all the MBAs (or as my late mother use to call them Moron of Business Administration) and other middle management position that you wonder why they even exist.
 
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Maximara

macrumors 68000
Jun 16, 2008
1,707
908
... and make production more expensive? No no, the whole idea is to make THE iPhone expensive, not production. Production costs have to be reduced to the minimum, so eventually, if there is a way to exploit Vietnam and the young hands there, Cook will do it. Profit Profit Profit - above all!
If that was true then they would not pay the CEO and those below them insanely high salaries as salaries are an expense and therefore cuts into (net) profit which inter cuts into the dividends the shareholders get. EA Shareholders finally woke up to this fact and likely further realized the simple fact that money going in the executives pockets was money not going into their pockets via dividends.

The problem is the average investor is an idiot and doesn't understand the difference between gross profit and net profit.
 

Brandhouse

macrumors 6502a
Aug 6, 2014
550
882
Hopefully, Apple won't have a problem in China come January...
That's what happens when the Great Orange Idiot beats his child like chest, not only you in the US, but we're paying for it Oz with wine, coal, beef and many other exports into China. :mad:
 

sideshowuniqueuser

macrumors 68030
Mar 20, 2016
2,863
2,874
it’s not purely a money issue. Apple’s suppliers overseas employ over a million people collectively. There simply aren’t enough people with the necessary skills here in the US. Amazon has a hard time filling a fraction of that number of positions for their warehouses, and most of them are barely capable of sticking items in boxes.
That's partly because Bezos is an evil, greedy, stonkingly rich bastard who doesn't care much about his employees, and thus no one is busting to work for Amazon.
 

dannys1

macrumors 68040
Sep 19, 2007
3,662
6,787
UK
Oh lord. America is FAR from perfect but the difference is stark. I would hope your post was made in jest...

I mean you can apply most of the things said to America, especially at the moment. I also love how you call it "defence spending" when all you've done is attack other countries for 50 odd years now, what are you defending against?
 

ian87w

macrumors G3
Feb 22, 2020
8,704
12,636
Indonesia
I got a better idea. How about moving the assembly to the United States and the upper mangers all take a slight pay cut to pay for it? :p
That is easier said than done. If you look at the factories in China,it is impossible to implement that in the US. It's unfortunate, but thats reality, especially for the volume and agility that Apple probably demands.
 

genovelle

macrumors 68020
May 8, 2008
2,104
2,681
I got a better idea. How about moving the assembly to the United States and the upper mangers all take a slight pay cut to pay for it? :p
Remember, Trump claimed he made a deal for Apple to do so back at the beginning of 2017. That plant is still not working out. The numbers don't make sense. Americans want jobs that pay 4 times what makes sense for high quality personal technology. Flip phones yeah. A miniaturized super computer with built-in high speed internet and professional grade cameras that shoot and edit 4K video. Not so much.
 

psingh01

macrumors 68000
Apr 19, 2004
1,571
598
In the past when asked why manufacturing of apple products can’t be moved from china back to the US, Apple would say there was a “manufacturing culture” in china that cannot be replicated. All the component factories are there in close proximity. It makes everything easier....I guess vietnam has that “manufacturing culture” too. ;)
 
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Maximara

macrumors 68000
Jun 16, 2008
1,707
908
Remember, Trump claimed he made a deal for Apple to do so back at the beginning of 2017. That plant is still not working out. The numbers don't make sense. Americans want jobs that pay 4 times what makes sense for high quality personal technology. Flip phones yeah. A miniaturized super computer with built-in high speed internet and professional grade cameras that shoot and edit 4K video. Not so much.
Trump claimed a lot of things that were not true with the election being "stolen" from him in the sort of wild eyed conspiracy that belongs in the same class as Black helicopters out of Area 51 piloted by Gray Aliens who answer to Elvis being the latest trip into Fantasyland.

"THE FACTS: He didn’t do that. He visited an Austin factory that’s been making the Mac Pro for Apple since 2013." - AP FACT CHECK: Trump and the Apple plant he didn’t open

Another fact in that article:

"Apple announced in September that it would continue having the Mac Pro line made in Austin, after the Trump administration agreed to waive tariffs on certain computer parts from China. It said on the day of his trip that it has started construction of its new campus in the city."

I would like to point out "TSMC announced it will build a 5nm fab in Arizona at a cost of about $12 billion with support from that state and the U.S. federal government." is something Trump can take credit for but like nearly everything else he has done there are serious questions.

"The Taiwanese firm will likely be hit by a new U.S. rule aimed at curbing global chip supplies to Huawei, which it placed on a black list last year on national security grounds." shows there are other issues regarding the makers of offshore chips for the United State...its a lot easier to keep chips that are on shaky national security grounds in the US then control where an off shore factory may ship or or how good its security is.
 
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