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Trump Says He's Going To 'Get Apple To Build a Big Plant In the United States' (arstechnica.com)

In a Tuesday interview with The New York Times, President-elect Donald Trump said that he would incentivize Apple to "build a big plant in the United States, or many big plants in the United States." Ars Technica reports: Trump indicated to columnist Thomas Friedman that he is going to double-down on bringing factory jobs back to America, especially in the Rust Belt from Michigan to Pennsylvania.

FRIEDMAN: Are you worried, though, that those companies will keep their factories here, but the jobs will be replaced by robots?
TRUMP: They will, and we'll make the robots, too. [laughter]
TRUMP: It's a big thing, we'll make the robots, too. Right now we don't make the robots. We don't make anything. But we're going to. I mean, look, robotics is becoming very big and we're going to do that. We're going to have more factories. We can't lose 70,000 factories. Just can't do it. We're going to start making things.

Trump continued, saying that he had received a call from Apple CEO Tim Cook. As the president-elect recounted: "...and I said, 'Tim, you know, one of the things that will be a real achievement for me is when I get Apple to build a big plant in the United States, or many big plants in the United States, where instead of going to China, and going to Vietnam, and going to the places that you go to, you're making your product right here.' He said, 'I understand that.' I said: 'I think we'll create the incentives for you, and I think you're going to do it. We're going for a very large tax cut for corporations, which you'll be happy about.' But we're going for big tax cuts, we have to get rid of regulations, regulations are making it impossible. Whether you're liberal or conservative, I mean, I could sit down and show you regulations that anybody would agree are ridiculous. It's gotten to be a free-for-all. And companies can't, they can't even start up, they can't expand, they're choking."
A report from Nikkei last week said that Apple is exploring the idea of making iPhones in the United States, but the company has realized that it will cost more than double to make the shiny new gadgets at home.

471 comments

  1. Dear Apple fans: by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If he gets his way: Enjoy your next iPhone costing $3000.

    1. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Jhon · · Score: 5, Funny

      No.. you misunderstand. He's going to get them to plant a TREE. When it grows, it will be a "big plant"!

    2. Re: Dear Apple fans: by slasher999 · · Score: 2

      Apple has already stated that in the current market the cost to produce an iPhone in the US would be double what it is now. I don't expect an extra $100-$200 in cost would equate to an increase quite as large as that. With some tax cuts, incentives and deregulation the cost could realistically stay the same.

    3. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...with 91% of the increased price going directly to Apple profits :-D

    4. Re:Dear Apple fans: by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

      You misunderstand. He's going to "incentivize Apple". That means it will cost every taxpayer $2000 per iPhone, and the buyer $1000.

      Corporate welfare, no drug tests needed.

    5. Re:Dear Apple fans: by ShooterNeo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Double the COST. It currently costs $224 to make the 7. So it would cost $448 in the U.S. (probably less actually with automation, I bet this cost estimate is assuming the same labor hours per phone). If apple collects the same profit margin and passes the cost on, the phone would cost $224 more, or about $924.

      Annoying but not the end of the world and not $3000.

      I'm somewhat in favor of this. Not tax incentives - I just think that plants outside the U.S. that are allowed to import without tariffs should (1) adhere to OSHA and (2) pay their workers a living wage and (3) adhere to comparable environmental regulations as the U.S.

      Otherwise, it will never be possible for American manufacturers to compete if the foreign plants can be deathtraps that use slave labor and create mountains of pollution.

      http://fortune.com/2016/09/20/...

    6. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Greatness doesn't come cheap :-(

    7. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Mr_Trebuchet · · Score: 1

      They will be generational hand-me downs when we try to pay for them with our new sub-Chinese wages. I mean, who can object to $3,000 for something that your children's children will be using? And once we've stripped away net neutrality and any incentive for the phone companies to expand capacity there won't be any need to update to a newer model. Progress!

    8. Re: Dear Apple fans: by quantaman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Apple has already stated that in the current market the cost to produce an iPhone in the US would be double what it is now. I don't expect an extra $100-$200 in cost would equate to an increase quite as large as that. With some tax cuts, incentives and deregulation the cost could realistically stay the same.

      How much US tax does Apple actually pay now?

      China has the manufacturing infrastructure and ridiculously cheap labour, I have a hard time imagining that "tax cuts, incentives and deregulation" are going to make it competitive to move manufacturing to the US.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    9. Re:Dear Apple fans: by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

      Double the COST. It currently costs $224 to make the 7.

      No, nearly all of that $224 is component costs, which would be the same. The actual assembly labor cost is about $10. Most estimates are that it would cost about $20 in America. So offering Apple subsidies and tax breaks to shift production to America is stupid, but only slightly stupid. Of course, it is also illegal under WTO rules, but that is another matter.

    10. Re: Dear Apple fans: by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      With some tax cuts, incentives and deregulation the cost could realistically stay the same.

      More corporate welfare. I didn't think Apple was so poor. I guess it is in the Trump economy.

    11. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Otherwise, it will never be possible for American manufacturers to compete if the foreign plants can be deathtraps that use slave labor and create mountains of pollution.

      Why do you hate capitalism? If the market dictates that foreign plants can do it cheaper, it is our duty to use foreign plants.

    12. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Xenographic · · Score: 1

      > If he gets his way: Enjoy your next iPhone costing $3000.

      Wait, are you saying we're going to get a discount, too? :)

    13. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      Oh, I think it'll more than double the cost per unit to build them, because you can't pay only a dollar a day to U.S. workers, and you have to give them health insurance, retirement packages, etc. So I stand by it ending up with a suggested retail price of $3000.

    14. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I actually agree with the OP.

      The Organic Non-fat Gluten-free Home-Grown version can cost twice the normal model, and they'll be people who buy it.

      Just because the base cost stays the same means nothing for the company who doesn't care what they charge -- having the smallest platform size as still having huge profits means they don't care what people think about their costs (and people don't care what the cost is)

    15. Re: Dear Apple fans: by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

      Tax cuts ARE costs. So you're saying that the majority of Americans who care nothing about iPhones with their 15% market share should be supplementing the Apple fandom?

    16. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only way jobs are coming back if minimal wage is 20 cents an hour. Good luck Trump.

    17. Re:Dear Apple fans: by aphelion_rock · · Score: 1

      Trump can want all he likes, if it is not going to be cheaper to produce apple products in the US, it is either not going to happen, or Trump will be subsidising the production to the tune of $2,000 per device.

    18. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Serious question here:

      Cut taxes in the US? They're going to save 200k, which is nothing. Remember, most of their profits are routed overseas. Even at a 100% tax cut, that's not going to be nearly enough to encourage a company to stay.

    19. Re:Dear Apple fans: by ClickOnThis · · Score: 5, Funny

      No.. you misunderstand. He's going to get them to plant a TREE. When it grows, it will be a "big plant"!

      An Apple tree, FTW.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    20. Re: Dear Apple fans: by slasher999 · · Score: 0, Troll

      Actually it could. Apple pays every dollar of tax it is required to by law. That is a fact. What is also a fact is that Apple keeps huge sums off money off shore because the tax imposed on that cash were it repatriated to the US is relatively astronomical. A more corporate friendly tax system could see that money brought back and used here for lots of things - salaries included.

    21. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget that China owns 51% of any ventures on the soil. Yes, the Chinese government. This is why once a company does business there, they tend to stay there, because that subsidiary will just split off, make the same product.

      Imagine if someone said that any business on US soil has to have the US government be the primary controller? Wouldn't happen.

    22. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Luthair · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, they should fix the tax loop holes that allow multinationals to dodge their fair share of the tax burden.

    23. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or Apple could lower their profit margin.

    24. Re:Dear Apple fans: by The-Forge · · Score: 0

      Also you have to remember the cost to transport the parts. Right now most of the parts are semi-local. They come from down the street pretty much. Now all those parts have to be shipped to the US and handled separately through customs thus probably adding almost 50% to that cost at least.

    25. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A large part of the cost to build anything in the US is the corporate tax burden. Add on the additional cost and that Obamacare has saddled companies with and the additional burdens the EPA has piled on over the last 8 years and you'll have pretty much all of that additional cost Apple was talking about. Of course then you have the yen being artificially tied to the dollar to undercut us and an unfair trade agreement that adds salt to our self inflicted wounds.

      The US has basically thrown out the baby with the bathwater. We have made it so difficult for a business to exist in the US that it just doesn't make sense to build in the US and compete globally. Trump wants to remove these roadblocks so that we are on an equal footing with the competition.

    26. Re: Dear Apple fans: by pr0fessor · · Score: 2

      It's the deregulation that suddenly makes it much less expensive although you don't want to live near that factory. Ad to that a nice fat tax break and few subsidies....

    27. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Adriax · · Score: 1

      And then he's going to make them give their Apple Sauce Code for the iPhone to the fbi so they can catch terrorists.

      --
      I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
    28. Re: Dear Apple fans: by gtall · · Score: 2

      You are forgetting engineering infrastructure. There is a web of companies in China that help build iThings. Who is going to set up those companies in the U.S.?

    29. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      An Apple tree that grows Oranges.

    30. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Holy fuck, you sending them FedEx overnight?

    31. Re: Dear Apple fans: by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

      Remember, most of their profits are routed overseas.

      Most of their US profits are routed through a Nevada corporation to avoid paying state corporate taxes. Apple is proud to let the world know that they design stuff in Cupertino, CA, but they don't pay corporate taxes in CA.

    32. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I did.

      The problem is that the parts for the Iphone are also not made in the US. The memory chips, the CPU, the circuit board, not even the case.

      The added cost is shipping all the individual parts (plus the individual tariffs), handling the waste products, are all much higher than just shipping the final product with its fees.

    33. Re: Dear Apple fans: by pchasco · · Score: 1

      You are missing the point. The point is that they pay almost no taxes now. Even if Trump, by some miracle, managed to score a net-zero tax bill for Apple, that pretty much puts them exactly where they already are. Now all Trump would have to do is convince workers that it's in their benefit to work for the same wages, benefits and under the same conditions as the Chinese workers. And don't forget, all the components that are built and raw materials which are processed in China now need to be transferred to the USA or also manufactured here. Which again means the manufacturers of those components need to move to USA and operate at margins that their foreign counterparts do. And even after all of this, their products at best stay the same price, at worse still become more expensive. Only now there are fewer people who can afford them since they're working for much less. Well, there is one other way... Trump can just subsidize Apple. Pay them to stay here.

    34. Re:Dear Apple fans: by CCarrot · · Score: 1

      No.. you misunderstand. He's going to get them to plant a TREE. When it grows, it will be a "big plant"!

      If I cut up my apple and bury it, I do get tree(s)...care to try a little experiment with your iPhone 6 Plus? >:-)

      --
      "I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
    35. Re:Dear Apple fans: by martinX · · Score: 1

      But it will come with adapters, right?

      --
      When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
    36. Re:Dear Apple fans: by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 0

      If he gets his way: Enjoy your next iPhone costing $3000.

      No, Trump plans to invade China, seize the Apple Factory there, and declare it a pseudo-State of the USA.

      Of course, this will be a "Special Economic Zone", where existing Chinese labor laws, wages, environmental regulations stay the same. So, your new iPhone can be stamped with a "Made in the USA" label, but it will still cost the same as now.

      A win-win for everyone. Trump will call off his planned trade war with China and give them "a piece of the action" to keep them happy. And the cleanup of smoggy Shanghai will be the problem of the US.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    37. Re:Dear Apple fans: by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

      Won't matter. Last I saw, it was requiring a few hundred thousand with small hands, excellent fine motor skills, and the ability to do meticulous work for long hours. That isn't an American resource.

      Either Apple will have to compromise their design to make it robot friendly, or we'll have to import the workers.

    38. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Camel+Pilot · · Score: 1

      Obamacare has saddled companies with and the additional burdens

      Apple doesn't use Obamacare for it employees.

      Trump wants to remove these roadblocks so that we are on an equal footing with the competition.

      Great so we too can choke on polluted air like this...

      http://i1-news.softpedia-stati...

    39. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope. the labor overhead is nearly twice what it is overseas - the hidden expenses in the benefits - health insurance, retirement, general cost of living.

      Before I retired, the costs of a single employee was AT LEAST double what the salary paid was. Frequently it was even higher.

      So if the workers were expecting a $30,000 a year job, the cost to the company was between $60,000 and $100,000. And that was in 2008.

      Costs have not gone down.

    40. Re:Dear Apple fans: by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Actually...for those Apple fans that buy for status (I don't understand that myself, I buy some of their products because I like them, I"v never thought of them as a status object).....come with a BRAND for the higher priced versions.

      Next do the Apple iPhone 8USA +.

      Charge a premium for the versions built in the USA.

      Hell, it works for Fender, they have USA vs Mexican Strats....there's a price difference and it is worth it to some people to buy the US version.

      Frankly, I have NO problem with most anything that was slightly higher in price if it was USA made. I"d definitely consider paying a bit more for US jobs, and hopefully, quality.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    41. Re:Dear Apple fans: by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      An Apple tree that grows Oranges.

      No thanks, one Orange is enough. :-/

      Now an apple tree that grows iPhones...

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    42. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

      Organic Non-fat Gluten-free Home-Grown

      I want to point out that non-fat and gluten-free have legitimate reasons for existing. Perhaps you mean the Organic, Shade Grown, Free-Range, hand crafted version.

    43. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yet, the raspberry pi can be produced in the UK, and re-shoring manufacturing to the US (opposite of off-shoring) is a rising trend. I wonder how much of that "double the cost" is just apple giving Trump the middle finger.

    44. Re: Dear Apple fans: by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, they should fix the tax loop holes that allow multinationals to dodge their fair share of the tax burden.

      On the books, without the "loop holes" or deductions, whatever you term them, the USA has pretty much the highest corporate taxes in the world.

      Let's cut the corporate tax down as close to zero as possible. Let's only allow deductions for expenditures related to the business (new equipment, etc)...and that's it.

      Make it dead simple and dead cheap.

      We'd have companies flocking to our shores to set up shop, and we'd be employing lots of US citizens in the process.

      Corporations really don't pay tax anyway, they just pass it onto the consumers. Take it out of the equation and let the jobs and factories flow in...and employ our citizens.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    45. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Nehmo · · Score: 1
      When it's broke down, how much of the total cost is labor? On similar items, it's 15%. So, how would the total cost be double?

      (That was for the sake of argument. I don't see anything improper with making stuff in China.)

      --
      (||) Nehmo (||)
    46. Re: Dear Apple fans: by rogoshen1 · · Score: 3, Funny

      elon musk of course.

    47. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No he would be having them on ships that take weeks or months which add considerable cost to the supply chain, remove flexibility and turn around time and are subject to delays due to customs, dock works, storms. Quality control becomes a major issue as well, what previously would be yell at the manufacturer of component Y and get a new batch in a couple of days becomes yell at manufacturer 6 weeks after they produced the item and wait another 6 weeks for a new batch.

    48. Re: Dear Apple fans: by pchasco · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I am very liberal, and very much a Democrat. Yet, I completely agree. It makes no sense to tax a corporation. Tax personal income. Tax sales of goods and services. Allow a business to invest all its money in itself and it's employees.

    49. Re:Dear Apple fans: by tomhath · · Score: 1

      Nah. Doubling the cost of production would add what, 20 bucks to the price? Parts cost the same either place.

    50. Re: Dear Apple fans: by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 2

      It's not as simple as that. "More than double" could mean a lot of things. It could just refer to the production costs.

      China is quickly automating a lot of the factory jobs because Americans whine when Foxconn workers kill themselves. If they're going to completely automate a new product line the price difference between doing it in China and doing it in the US probably shrinks. Watch apple's videos on how the MBP is made. Count the workers.

      Add in a lot of other fringe benefits you get from bringing it back home. First off is the good publicity. Apple just needs to release a Trump Murica edition and the first Made in America smart phone would sell out in the south faster than they do in the north. "Made in America" is this christmas's hottest gift out in Trump country. Most stores are pushing their local/American products front and center.

      Then you have all the good for the environment feel good articles about how 1 ship moving iPhones from China is equal to X million trees. We reduced carbon emissions by this much. Subaru does Zero Landfill on their Car production lines, an iPhone can't be that much harder.

      Finally there are all the engineering benefits. I don't know how many Kickstarters I've watched fail because they did everything in China and didn't have a good translator. With on-shore workers you can have face to face meetings more often with manufacturing reducing 1) problems 2) improving quality.

      We've caught numerous getting ready for manufacturing. It's because people on the line give feedback straight to engineers. The average Chinese worker probably doesn't want to point out a problem they notice. Apple's been bitten by a few design flaws in the race to thinner and cheaper.

      Then you get the biggest benefit of funneling American money into somewhere in America. You could put it in the middle of the desert and run it on nothing but Solar. The CIA built their last data center in the middle of nowhere. All of that gives a net benefit to the area because the staff that it takes to run the data center needs to live somewhere. And they need a place to eat, shop, etc. When they go home they'll want 4G and fast Internet. There will need to be a hotel in town for when Apple executives fly in to check on stuff (even if it's just for a Press Shoot). Journalists will need a place to stay to cover events.

      Make "Big Data, Big Cloud" the 21st century Gold Rush.

    51. Re:Dear Apple fans: by gravewax · · Score: 1

      When was last you looked? 20 years ago? Foxconn etc are some of the most advanced and automated factories in the world, anything that can be automated is. But when you make 200 million widgets for just one of your customers every year you still have a massive staffing size to feed the machines, packaging, quality control and testing and just moving shit in and out as well as certain tasks that are still difficult to automate. You have a factory taking deliveries on a daily basis from hundreds of suppliers and shipping out millions of devices a week as well as all the auxiliary staff to support this (security, catering, engineering and maintenance, cleaning etc etc) , If they didn't have mass automation they would have a workforce 10 times the size and still would not be producing as much as they do. The ignorance of assuming these companies are all hand labour is astonishing.

    52. Re:Dear Apple fans: by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      Because we're incapable of building our own production lines and fab shops?

      An the world gets ready for Industry 4.0 companies are going to have to put in brand new production lines somewhere. It could be China or it could be in the US.

    53. Re:Dear Apple fans: by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      How many people do you think it's going to take to run a future factory? Electronics is going to follow the same path that the Auto industry did. How much health insurance, retirement and benefits do you think Robots take?

    54. Re:Dear Apple fans: by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      Make it the golden iTrump phone.

      He gets the license fee.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    55. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think the incentive would be in letting them re-invest their offshore cash hoard. Otherwise it can't really be used here without paying enormous taxes on it.

    56. Re:Dear Apple fans: by bongey · · Score: 1

      Tim Cook must be talking about planting trees too. FYI Tim Cook is the CEO of Apple. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    57. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Ranbot · · Score: 1

      The electronics industry has established a complete manufacturing infrastructure and supply chain in Asia that is not going to uproot itself just because Trump gives one US company, Apple, tax incentives and unspecified deregulation. Even if US policy could change this reality, China, Korea, Vietnam and other countries will counter with their own incentives in a race to the bottom the US cannot win. The reality is the US lost the electronics industry ~20 years ago, and it's not it's not coming back overnight or in a 4-year presidential term. If you [or Trump] need a second opinion just ask the US's last TV manufacturer, Zenith, who sold to Korea's LG in 1995! http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07...

    58. Re: Dear Apple fans: by EEPROMS · · Score: 3, Informative

      actually the ridiculous cheap labour in china stereotype doesn't exist any more, in fact wages in china now exceed USD$5 per hour. So why is the USD$5 per hour number significant, well when wages hit USD$5 per hour it becomes viable to replace the worker with a robot. Now this raises the question, does a robot in the USA perform any better or worse than in china, the answer is the robot doesn't care thus it doesn't matter were the robot resides. So now the only major differences for apple are infrastructure costs and taxes.

    59. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If his polling numbers are any indication, you have described a product that may have a future.

    60. Re:Dear Apple fans: by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      Also you have to remember the cost to transport the parts. Right now most of the parts are semi-local. They come from down the street pretty much. Now all those parts have to be shipped to the US and handled separately through customs thus probably adding almost 50% to that cost at least.

      Last I saw a report, the parts were coming from Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, all of which make more money off of each iDevice made than China. China is just a source of unskilled labor to assemble all the parts.

    61. Re: Dear Apple fans: by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      An additional clarification:

      Having a tax system with a high rate but plenty of loopholes is bad because it distorts the market drastically. Companies that are unable to find the right loopholes are unable to compete, and companies that look for things that can take advantage of loopholes instead of things that can make money on their own.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    62. Re:Dear Apple fans: by mea2214 · · Score: 2

      The IPhone will still be $600 but the government will subsidize $2400 in tax credits to either Apple, the buyer, or both. Trump will be applauded for lowering taxes. Win win.

    63. Re:Dear Apple fans: by ClickOnThis · · Score: 3, Funny

      No.. you misunderstand. He's going to get them to plant a TREE. When it grows, it will be a "big plant"!

      If I cut up my apple and bury it, I do get tree(s)...care to try a little experiment with your iPhone 6 Plus? >:-)

      You're planting it wrong.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    64. Re: Dear Apple fans: by ATMAvatar · · Score: 1

      I want to point out that non-fat and gluten-free have legitimate reasons for existing.

      How many people do you know that eat gluten-free foods because they suffer from celiac disease? I know plenty who only do so because they bought into the fad.

      --
      "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
    65. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Yunzil · · Score: 1

      Sure. Now you just have to figure out how to keep the labor costs below what it is in developing nations.

    66. Re: Dear Apple fans: by guruevi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually most of the engineering is still done in the US, especially with Apple. Companies that offshore engineering quickly learn that the Chinese don't care very much about things like copyright and patents.

      I once worked for a company that did offshore their plant to China including the engineers, a few months later the plant was abandoned and another plant was started by the engineers cutting out the US corporation. Some of those "counterfeit" parts were at some point implied into an oil rig springing a leak a few years ago.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    67. Re: Dear Apple fans: by MorePower · · Score: 5, Informative

      Allow a business to invest all its money in itself and it's employees.

      Any money they invest in themselves (as capital expenditure or R&D) or employees is already not taxed, since those are expenses. Only profits (going either to shareholders or sitting in reserve), after all the expenses are paid, get taxed.

    68. Re:Dear Apple fans: by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      Hell, it works for Fender, they have USA vs Mexican Strats

      It works and it doesn't. People have figured out that some of the pan-Asian guitars are way better than what's coming out of the US factories at a fraction of the price. There's only so much cachet you get from something coming out of a US plant unless the quality is commensurate with the price.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    69. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm more than willing for corporations to pay no taxes . In exchange, corporations are no longer considered legal persons and that the tax code gets rewritten such that personal compensation (not income) is taxed. No one works for free, including CEOs, even if they have a $1 salary. They get compensated in some fashion and that compensation has a fair market value at time of distribution.

    70. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Last year, $6bn on $18bn profits made in the US.

    71. Re:Dear Apple fans: by TheSync · · Score: 1

      Motorola tried to make the highly customizable Moto X phone in the US, but failed.

    72. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Again with this bullshit, "Corporations really don't pay tax anyway, they just pass it on to ...".

      - If this were true, no corporation would complain about corporate tax rates. Ever. Wouldn't even be worth the breath to say it;
      - If this were true, corporations would never use tax havens (Ireland, Bermuda, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Bahrain, Luxembourg, Libya (shipping), Switzerland, Hong Kong, British Virgin Islands, Barbados, Cyprus, etc.);

      Also, why can't this same argument apply to citizens? "Citizens really don't pay tax anyway, they just negotiate higher wages from their employers ...".

      No, more like, corporations want to pass their taxes on to customers, they try to pass their taxes on to customers. Whether they succeed or not depends on how much pricing leverage they have. As a result, many corporations actually do pay taxes. Thus the ever-present public discourse from the business community, requesting lower tax rates. They would only bother asking if the answer meant anything to them.

      Taxes are focused on sources of wealth. No government taxes those with no money. Corporations have wealth and thus they are subject to taxes. It really is stunningly simple. Follow the money!

    73. Re:Dear Apple fans: by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      But if you plant the seed from a Granny Smith you won't get a Granny Smith apple tree so why would I expect to get iPhone 6 Pluses if I plant an iPhone 6 Plus. /s

    74. Re: Dear Apple fans: by dbIII · · Score: 2

      Actually it could. Apple pays every dollar of tax it is required to by law

      A court in the EU recently ruled that it has not been doing so. I have no idea how you managed to miss that and suggest you pay some more attention to major news items. Please correct the fallacy that you have been spreading. I am going to assume that you are just poorly informed and not deliberately telling lies that grossly insult the intelligence of every reader here. You can't possibly be that much of an utter prick can you?

    75. Re: Dear Apple fans: by ghoul · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You can do so by having the government subsidize the workers through medicare for all, food stamps and matching salary grants for interns. Germany is a high income society but it manages to keep manufacturing at home because the corporations do not pay a living wage to apprentices. Instead the govt covers them with free medical care, free college, matching grants during apprenticeship and low rents (Germany keeps rents low via forced renting. You are not allowed to keep a house empty in Germany and high transfer taxes. This makes sure Real estate stays cheap). With low rent, no college debt, on the job training paid partly by the employer and partly by the govt, free medicare and subsidized food people can live on lower salaries. Yes this needs higher taxes on profits but it makes sure the profits are made in Germany instead of abroad.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    76. Re: Dear Apple fans: by TheSync · · Score: 1

      "they design stuff in Cupertino, CA, but they don't pay corporate taxes in CA."

      But they of course the salaries they pay to over 25,000 California workers end up taxed by California's high rate state personal income taxes, and California sales provide state sales taxes.

    77. Re: Dear Apple fans: by ghoul · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Or put a 30% tariff on iPhones manufactured in China and change the rules so that a Phone on the container from China is invoiced at or close to retail not some ridiculously low value. A 600 dollar iphone cost 200 dollar to manufacture in China and would cost 400 ollars to manufacture in the US. A 30% tax on the 600 dollar value means a 200 dollar phone becomes 380 dollars . Apple can eat the other 20 dollars and move production to US and get some good publicity.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    78. Re: Dear Apple fans: by ghoul · · Score: 2

      Actually Foxconn is going for robots in a big way in China. India govt has provided free land to Foxconn and lobbying hard to move production to India where workers are cheaper but Foxconn would rather put in robots in China than move the production to India. And China is taking the lead in robotics as most factories are in China so when it is time to automate they are being automated in China rather than moving them somewhere else and then automating them.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    79. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple could launch a special parallel line of US manufactured products with US flag patterns around the phone, and appropriate color and sound themes ready to go. Trump could then pose at the magazine covers with his platinum - rose cold - lapis covered USApple phone. It will be fashionable and huuuugely expensive.

    80. Re: Dear Apple fans: by dbIII · · Score: 1

      How many people do you know that eat gluten-free foods because they suffer from celiac disease

      Two.
      As for the fad, it's made life easier for them and it's opened my eyes a bit to some strange aspects of typical processed food. WTF are cornflakes not gluten free? Corn doesn't have gluten. The original flakes made by Kellog didn't have gluten. There's so much extra filler in just about everything. I eat plenty of gluten (it's good for nearly everyone) but I can see how hard it is for those who can not to avoid it up until recently.

    81. Re: Dear Apple fans: by sl149q · · Score: 3, Informative

      First it was an EU Commission.

      Second the commission ruled that Ireland's tax rate (for this specific case) was too low.

      Third Apple paid the tax required by the law in Ireland.

      Fourth Ireland is appealing the decision.

      Fifth it is unknown if the commission's ruling is enforceable on Ireland.

    82. Re: Dear Apple fans: by swillden · · Score: 3, Informative

      the tax code gets rewritten such that personal compensation (not income) is taxed. No one works for free, including CEOs, even if they have a $1 salary. They get compensated in some fashion and that compensation has a fair market value at time of distribution.

      This is already the case. All compensation, whether in the form of stock, use of company vehicles, company-provided housing, etc., is considered income by the IRS.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    83. Re:Dear Apple fans: by swillden · · Score: 1

      Because we're incapable of building our own production lines and fab shops?

      Certainly not. But if all of those parts are manufactured in the US, they'll cost more than $224.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    84. Re: Dear Apple fans: by sl149q · · Score: 1

      The big advantage Foxconn has in China is the ability to build very large factories and campuses that can house the hundreds of thousands of employees needed to run those factories. China has over twenty cities with a population over five million and six over ten million. So lots of places with lots of people that are willing to do the work.

    85. Re: Dear Apple fans: by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      As salaries are taxed, they'd keep their tax burden low by not paying more. The theory that they could pay more if they brought back the cash is not supported by data.

    86. Re: Dear Apple fans: by dbIII · · Score: 1

      China is quickly automating a lot of the factory jobs because Americans whine when Foxconn workers kill themselves

      No they are doing it to save costs. They don't care about such whining.

      I don't know how many Kickstarters I've watched fail because they did everything in China and didn't have a good translator.

      I've seen that happen with so many business ventures that it almost looks like some sort of deliberate money laundering pattern instead of the stupidity that it turns out to be. The classic was a major Telco that bought a Chinese ringtone company for quite a few million and found that the only "assets" were a few gigabytes of illegally downloaded mp3 files and an old Sun machine as a web server.

    87. Re:Dear Apple fans: by sl149q · · Score: 1

      The manufacturing cost (what Foxconn gets) is estimated to be in the $12.50 - $30.00 range.

      Doubling that would make retail prices go up by $50-$100.

      The bigger problem is how to build and staff of factory for a couple of hundred thousand people anywhere in the US.

    88. Re:Dear Apple fans: by ghoul · · Score: 1

      No one in China gets paid a dollar a day. Chinese minimum wage is 4 dollars an hour so around 35 dollars a 8.5 hour day. 1 and 35 is a big difference.

      Labor costs are only 10% of the 200 dollar cost of a phone (so 20 dollars) . So if instead of 4 dollars you paid 8 dollars an hour your cost would go from 200 to 220 dollars per phone. You could still sell it for 600 dollars and have a 390% profit instead of a 400% profit.

      What is more problematic is that the most number of iPhones are sold in China so manufacturing them in USA will lead to high transport costs to transport them to China. What could work is having factories in both countries manufacturing the phones to be sold in each country.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    89. Re: Dear Apple fans: by AK+Marc · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The one thing that the "liberals" forget is that the rich aren't people. They are corporations. So if you eliminate corporate tax, you eliminate tax on the rich. They incorporate, and pay nothing. Personal tax will be paid, to the minimum amount required, but a corporate tax cut increases taxes on the poor and cuts taxes on the rich.

    90. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I completely disagree. The corporate tax rate should be exactly what a person's tax rate with the same income would be.

      And for particularly wealthy people or corporations, it should be a much higher rate. Bring back the 70% bracket for corporate and personal incomes over $1million. Bring back the 90% rate for incomes over $1billion. The rest of the world's corporate rate being far too low doesn't mean ours should be.

      And capital gains are simply income, tax them as such.

      While we're at it, we charge sales tax for goods and services, let's institute a sales tax for stocks and bonds, at the same rate luxury goods are taxed.

    91. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are also a moron; money thus invested are expenditure, not profit, and thus not taxed.

    92. Re:Dear Apple fans: by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      No he would be having them on ships that take weeks or months

      Small valuable items such as CPUs and DRAM are not sent by ship. They are sent by air cargo.

    93. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Blah blah blah ROBOTS blah blah blah

      You sould like the self-driving car idiots. I got news for you: robots are not going to be doing all the work, they'll do SOME of the work, the rest will be done by PEOPLE because ROBOTS SUCK. For fuck's sake you can't even get one to fold a shirt properly in less than 10 minutes.

    94. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If he gets his way: Enjoy your next iPhone costing $3000.

      I'm really excited about this. Can't wait, it must feel so premium.

    95. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Harlequin80 · · Score: 2

      As an observation I don't associate "Made in the USA" with quality for anything except tools, and that is more brand specific than the made in the usa part. Certainly for cars its a huge minus when I'm looking at them.

      I associate country wide build quality with Germany and Japan. I have negative quality connotations associated with China and India, though both of those are losing that fast. Most of the rest of the world doesn't really get a thought.

    96. Re: Dear Apple fans: by mobby_6kl · · Score: 1

      That's really misrepresenting that situation, and you should know better before correcting people like that.

      Apple was following the Irish taxation rules and did not break any laws. What EU is claiming is that the tax regime constituted to state-aid which favored Apple and other companies. Not only Apple, but Ireland (and the US) disagrees about this and are appealing.

      www.economist.com/news/business/21706238-european-commissions-huge-penalty-against-apple-opens-up-new-front-war-tax

    97. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think that a plant to mass produce iphones in the US will take prohibitively long to set up - and the time it will take to achieve both sufficient quality and a high production output would take much longer than in China. Part of the knowledge is gone - it will take some time to reaquire.

    98. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Bender0x7D1 · · Score: 1

      That's crap. We can do a quick calculation to prove that statement.

      So, let's send all of our components on commercial air. Right now, for an advanced ticket, Beijing to LA is $310 on Expedia. So, let's bundle our components into the rough shape of a person - and let's say we make it about 200 pounds. An iPhone 7 Plus is just under 7 ounces. We'll throw in some additional packaging around the components, and say it is 8 ounces, or 2 phones/pounds (for easy math).

      With our "theoretical" 200 pound person shaped shipping container sitting inside the plane, that is 400 phones worth of components. Shipping for $310. Or, less than $1 per phone

      So, adding 50% to the cost? No. Not even close.

      Aside: When did tech folks/engineers stop doing "back of the napkin" calculations before taking a position on something?

      --
      Reading code is like reading the dictionary - you have to read half of it before you can go back and understand it.
    99. Re: Dear Apple fans: by speedplane · · Score: 2

      I am very liberal, and very much a Democrat. Yet, I completely agree. It makes no sense to tax a corporation. Tax personal income. Tax sales of goods and services. Allow a business to invest all its money in itself and it's employees.

      I entirely agree that we should not tax corporations at all. However, if we did this, we would need to tax dividends and capital gains at the same rate as income tax.

      --
      Fast Federal Court and I.T.C. updates
    100. Re: Dear Apple fans: by smooth+wombat · · Score: 0

      Let's cut the corporate tax down as close to zero as possible.

      Which means the individual tax rate will have to go up accordingly. Granted, people like Trump won't pay an increase in taxes which means the middle class will once again get shafted.

      If you think this isn't the case, look to Europe. They have low business tax rates but high personal tax rates. The tax revenue lost from low corporate tax rates has to be made up somehow and the only two ways to do that are to raise rates on individuals or through taxes at the local level.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    101. Re:Dear Apple fans: by rtb61 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Apple are not longer selling empty status, they are selling, 'I can afford to pay for my privacy', status. Now after the spy software planted by Chinese manufacturers in phones, the only way they can really still sell you privacy is to manufacture locally under strict security controls and when you switch on your phone and log in for the first time, download and install the security and encryption software from a secure offshore location (let's go with Iceland at this time).

      Apple selling you privacy unlike M$ selling your privacy, gives them a powerful marketing advantage and to make the most of that, they need to manufacture in a secure location (M$ are now pretty much stuck as being the perves of the internet spying on everyone foolish enough to trust them with anything, eww, only the poor have to sell the privacy to buy M$ shite).

      So it really would not take all that much assistance to drive a marketing driven production shift, especially if they promote privacy guaranteed notebooks and desktops. The perve douche bags at M$ are really vulnerable right now as the public demand for the basic human right of privacy grows, so Apple can really stick it to them real hard right now, by marketing and promoting "selling 'you' privacy rather than selling 'your' privacy".

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    102. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      But, Trump is the glorious god-emperor of the small-handed. With him at the helm, America's hands will be smaller than ever!

    103. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      It will be a tree that grows phones. See, anything is possible in a Trumpian universe.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    104. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Apple has already stated that in the current market the cost to produce an iPhone in the US would be double what it is now.

      Sell part of Texas to China and let China build a prison factory there. Technically, that would be "in" the US.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    105. Re:Dear Apple fans: by barc0001 · · Score: 1

      Nah. Just make sure you're not an Apple fan that lives near a factory. All those pesky waste disposal and EPA regs will be slashed to make this a reality. Enjoy your $900 iPhones with the knowledge that you're safely outside the contamination zone.

    106. Re:Dear Apple fans: by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 1

      Keep telling yourself that.

    107. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Apple pays every dollar of tax it is required to by law. That is a fact.

      It sounds more like an opinion than a fact. It comes down to credibility, doesn't it?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    108. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The WTO is definitely broken then. Ireland has never had to grow up over women's rights because their women have always gone to England for the day for abortions, and similarly, it refuses to grow up over taxes because the EU and Britain subsidises it's shortfall. Recently we learnt the EU can't even force Ireland to collect those taxes. That is a subsidy letting Apple evade tax in the US.

    109. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, but a raspberry pi and an iPhone are two completely different creatures. Not to mention, one is produced by a profit seeking company, and the other isn't.

    110. Re: Dear Apple fans: by barc0001 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem comes when you see people in the company start to use the company as their credit card. Don't forget, according to the US Census there are 28 million small businesses in the US. What happens when the tax burden is shifted onto the owner as he takes profit? He or she might do what I've seen others do. Use the company to pay for as much as they can and take a paltry salary.

      One guy I knew took a 30K a year salary as President of his own company and was quite vocal that everyone in the company got paid more than he did so they better work their asses off in appreciation. And on paper looking at his paystub that was 100% true. But he didn't tell most people that the company rented a 2 bedroom apartment in a tower downtown for "out of town" clients that he happened to live in for free, and the company vehicle was his vehicle, and the reason he would take staff out to dinner to chat was so the company would pay for dinner as a business expense, business trips to Europe coincidentally were in cities near Alps ski resorts, etc. So while he made only 30K, his out of pocket expenses were about $600 a month because the company paid for everything else.

      I'm not saying the tax shift would be a bad idea, I'm just saying once it happens I would expect to see a lot of what I described above start happening.

    111. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Somehow the argument became about Apple. What about the dells, hp, etc? They do the same thing with less margin. But somehow Apple is all anyone talks about.

    112. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A tax system with a high rate and plenty of loopholes is evil for another reason. You need teams of lawyers to take advantage of the loopholes.
      Fuck the lawyer scum. Their kind helped create the loopholes in the first place; nothing like being in a position to enable your own job security. We'd be better off if some 70-90% of the lawyers were out in the cold, and were instead forced to do something productive, like turn tricks in the back alley for pocket change.

    113. Re: Dear Apple fans: by KenHansen · · Score: 1

      Oh, I think it'll more than double the cost per unit to build them, because you can't pay only a dollar a day to U.S. workers, and you have to give them health insurance, retirement packages, etc. So I stand by it ending up with a suggested retail price of $3000.

      A 256 Gig iPhone 7 has a retail list price of $849, and it currently costs $224 to manufacture. What percentage of that $224 is actual human labor? 1%? 5%? Let's say it's 5% (but I'm pretty sure that's a high number), that means it costs $11.25 per phone for manual labor. Assuming Apple maintains it's $625 profit per iPhone, that means labor costs would have to ballon from $11.25/iPhone to about $2,151/iPhone, about a 200x increase in labor costs. If it is the 1% I think it is, then the labor costs in America would have to increase 1,000x current costs assuming Apple is content with $625 profit per phone.

    114. Re:Dear Apple fans: by CCarrot · · Score: 1

      But if you plant the seed from a Granny Smith you won't get a Granny Smith apple tree so why would I expect to get iPhone 6 Pluses if I plant an iPhone 6 Plus. /s

      Maybe you'll get Blackberries?

      --
      "I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
    115. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He'll be remembered as the Steve Balmer of Apple.

    116. Re: Dear Apple fans: by dougdonovan · · Score: 0

      lets hope cook stays ceo

    117. Re: Dear Apple fans: by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Third Apple paid the tax required by the law in Ireland.

      Incorrect.
      Please look up the topic and try again.

    118. Re: Dear Apple fans: by MikeMo · · Score: 1

      I don't know how this "they pay almost no taxes" think got started. They paid over $13B in 2015for US federal taxes alone. The beef people have with Apple is that they aren't paying US taxes on money made overseas by keeping it overseas. And they have been accused of having a sweetheart deal with Ireland, which Ireland denies.

    119. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Hell, it works for Fender, they have USA vs Mexican Strats....there's a price difference and it is worth it to some people to buy the US version.

      You`re 100% right. Back in the day Fenders were also Made in Taiwan besides the US. The American ones were really prized.

      Made in USA matters, and it is a good move to structure your business so as to take advantage of that.

      *And I`m not even American. ;)

    120. Re: Dear Apple fans: by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Apple was following the Irish taxation rules and did not break any laws

      False - hence the ruling that they did not follow Irish taxation rules.

      I really do not understand why you are doing this. Is it a fanboy thing and Apple can do no evil even though it was set up way back in the Sculley days?

    121. Re:Dear Apple fans: by hambone142 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I agree with you. I'd pay a premium to have a US built product. Add Harley Davidson to the list, BTW.

      I once proposed the same to Meg Whitman several years ago. My response: No response.

      I believe this is why she was siding with Hillary.

      HP has more jobs in India than it has in the US.

      Disclaimer: I voted for neither candidate so save your wind.

    122. Re: Dear Apple fans: by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You are still missing the supply chain impact; all the parts are available nearby in China. That has an impact on cost as well...

    123. Re:Dear Apple fans: by hambone142 · · Score: 1

      My company (a very large computer manufacturer) eliminated it's retirement package and health insurance for most retirees and all future retires.

    124. Re: Dear Apple fans: by psmoot · · Score: 2

      The one thing that the "liberals" forget is that the rich aren't people. They are corporations.

      Uhh, how do you figure that? Every corporation is owned by someone. Think about it: if a company had a single share outstanding, how much would the company have to pay to buy that one share back? Answer: the entire value of the company and it's future earnings. It can never be possible.

      So if you eliminate corporate tax, you eliminate tax on the rich. They incorporate, and pay nothing.

      Yeah, that's just not true. There's no Bill Gates Inc. which holds title to Bill Gate's assets and pays all his expenses. At best he's got his assets in a trust. Every time the fund gives money to the Billster for another jet, that's taxed as Bill's income. All incorporating or putting in trust does is change when the income is recognized and tax paid. The IRS takes a very dim view (*caugh*Clinton Foundation*caugh*) on using a corporation or foundation to convert personal expenses into untaxable corporate expenses.

    125. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apple already makes the Macbook Pros in the US.

    126. Re: Dear Apple fans: by C0R1D4N · · Score: 1

      He also wants to pull out of free trade deals, so tariffs could have a huge impact too.

    127. Re: Dear Apple fans: by AaronW · · Score: 2

      It makes every sense to tax corporations since they rely and use government services at least as much if not more so than individuals do. They rely on government to enforce contracts, patents, copyright. They use government built roads. And government has to clean up after them when they make a mess and declare bankruptcy. They also rely on government funded education for their workers.

      --
      This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
    128. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Highest quality = German, maybe Scandinavian.
      Good quality = Japan, South Korea
      Acceptable quality = British, Australian, American
      Low quality = Chinese, Indian.

      There FTFY

    129. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And Apple would tie the government up in the courts for years.

      Because they would claim unfair taxes and demand that EVERYTHING made in china be treated the same.
      Clothes, Shoes, Books, tools, circuit boards, etc etc etc , i.e. a VERY large portion of consumer products.

      Can you see the US consumer accepting a 30% increase in prices in damn near everything wiht no pay increase ?

    130. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Gussington · · Score: 5, Funny

      How much US tax does Apple actually pay now?

      China has the manufacturing infrastructure and ridiculously cheap labour, I have a hard time imagining that "tax cuts, incentives and deregulation" are going to make it competitive to move manufacturing to the US.

      Donald: Tim, we're going to offer huge tax cuts.
      Tim: But Donald, we don't pay any tax, just like you
      Tim and Donald both laugh hysterically for hours....

    131. Re: Dear Apple fans: by scatbomb · · Score: 1

      I'm saying this all of the time (ok not ALL of the time) and get nothing but confused looks.

      I mean, massively profitable billion dollar companies aren't really paying taxes anyway. They keep it offshore. Why do we keep this burden of massive corporate taxes in place when it only affects those who are too poor to bypass it by abusing the loopholes? Makes no sense at all.

    132. Re: Dear Apple fans: by bongey · · Score: 1

      CPA Corporate Tax manager wife says your full of shit. You are forgetting property tax, corporations get taxed on basically anything they own and some states even down to the desks and chairs.

    133. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Every item in an iPhone is small, a couple of hundred small items. So basically you think they will start sending 30-50 thousand tons a year by air cargo from china? those are going to be bloody expensive iphones. companies only use air cargo when absolutely necessary as it adds significantly to cost even for small items.

    134. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I love this

      1) get rid of regulations
      2) give big tax cut
      3) apple opens US plant where minimum wage workers pop the back cases on iPhones made in China.
      PROFITI!!!

      Same old shit...

    135. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      corporations generally can afford complex tax codes, that's not helping or hurting them.

      What you want is tax codes that provide a sustainable return for activiities in the common interest. Might be dead simple -- but doesn't have to be cheap. Sustainable funding for better: education, transportation, medicine and FUCKING DOING SOMETHING ABOUT CLIMATE INSTABILITY.

    136. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What would happen if people could afford them anyway, for example by being well paid for skilled labour that's currently being farmed out to China?
       
      A rising tide lifts all ships. The knock-on effect would be tremendous and if it works for Apple, others could follow. If Trump is serious about trimming down that half-million pages of IRS regulations it will seriously improve the potential for US of A to dig itself out of Obama's hole. And if chopping the IRS down means that Apple starts paying corporate income tax then it'll be a huge win for the US gov't too. As of now they're hardly paying a single red cent to finance more bombs on brown people^w^w^wsocial security.

    137. Re: Dear Apple fans: by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      All compensation, whether in the form of stock, use of company vehicles, company-provided housing, etc., is considered income by the IRS.

      Yes, but capital gains are taxed at a lower rate. That should not be. As usual, when the tax code gets more complicated, it's a sign that malfeasance is occurring.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    138. Re: Dear Apple fans: by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Perhaps you mean the Organic, Shade Grown, Free-Range, hand crafted version.

      Organic: may or may not mean anything.
      Shade Grown: does mean lower environmental impact
      Free Range: not only better meat and eggs, but lower cruelty for people who care
      Hand Crafted: not made in a gigantic vat of bug parts

      You may not care about any of this stuff, but quality and sustainability are relevant to many people.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    139. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > The IRS takes a very dim view (*caugh*Clinton Foundation*caugh*) on using a corporation or foundation to convert personal expenses

      You got the wrong one. It was the Trump Foundation, funded by others, that paid Trump's legal penalty and bought him paintings. Also it was that one that was illegally soliciting for donations - and was banned from continuing to do so.

    140. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What Federal Property tax that Trump controls are you referring to? There is none.

    141. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > "Citizens really don't pay tax anyway,

      Well, Trump doesn't apparently, but he does claim that his businesses pay tax - the income tax of his employees.

    142. Re: Dear Apple fans: by AK+Marc · · Score: 1
      https://lawnk.wordpress.com/20...

      Reality disagrees with your argument. Please check reality and try again.

      These personal corporations are most used by athletes, because athletes have the largest income/wealth ratio of anyone.

      With your airplane for Bill Gates Trust, you did it all wrong. The trust buys the plane and holds it, no income for Bill. Then when Bill flies, the trust sells a seat to him at $5000, the "market value" of a first class seat. So Bill gets private and exclusive use of a $150M airplane for $5000, and the "tax" is on the $5000 he withdraws from the trust to pay the trust.

      Bill wouldn't own the plane. As you state, that'd be stupid (from a tax perspective).

      The IRS takes a very dim view (*caugh*Clinton Foundation*caugh*) on using a corporation or foundation to convert personal expenses into untaxable corporate expenses.

      The Clinton foundation has done nothing wrong, and is not under criminal investigation. It's the Trump foundation that has been illegally used to pay personal debts of Crooked Donald. The Clinton Foundation is under investigation because thousands of unsubstantiated accusations have been laid against it, and that triggers an "investigation" even with an absence of wrongdoing.

    143. Re:Dear Apple fans: by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      Enough with the carrot, we need the stick. Then Apple will turn over a new leaf -- they will have a big plant here, get rid of all the deadwood, and plant its roots in the USA. Expect lots of branching out.

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    144. Re:Dear Apple fans: by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      Maybe you'll get Memberberries?

    145. Re:Dear Apple fans: by rkordmaa · · Score: 1

      He wont, it all good and well to talk taxes and crap, but where oh where are they going to find 100 000 americans willing to sit 12h a day 6 days a week behind a conveyor line inserting the same damn screw into an iPhone every 10s for months on end for a minimum wage? Only way to do it would be to bring these workers from outside US, say why not China? Kind of defeats the point.

    146. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The nuts don't fall far from the Apple tree.

    147. Re: Dear Apple fans: by hyades1 · · Score: 1

      That would never happen. As a "liberal", I'm surprised you haven't noticed this. Even when handed large amounts of money, they simply off-shore the money for the benefit of stockholders.

      --
      I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    148. Re:Dear Apple fans: by ShooterNeo · · Score: 1

      Great reply. Yeah, slashdot has become pretty toxic, I don't even know why I post here either. Reddit is somewhat better though it has deep flaws as well.

    149. Re:Dear Apple fans: by ShooterNeo · · Score: 1

      A quick google search says it's $2 an hour. Got a source for the $4 an hour? Either way, it's actually much closer to the U.S. $7.50 than I would have thought.

    150. Re: Dear Apple fans: by lgw · · Score: 1

      You may not care about any of this stuff, but quality and sustainability are relevant to stupid people. Thus, Apple could sell it.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    151. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      considering apple doesn't actually make anything (they outsource), they have nothing to worry about this.. and neither do we, other than the fact trump (or someone worse than him) will be president for the next four years.

    152. Re:Dear Apple fans: by no1nose · · Score: 2

      I would gladly pay more for the iPhone 8USA Plus. Especially if it meant the phone was made paying fair wages and not taking advantage of third-world workers. We have low prices on most items because of the advantage we take on workers in these other countries. Apple is rich, but on the backs of humans working in slave-like, or, much, worse, conditions.

    153. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd pay a premium to have a US built product.

      You're _already_ paying a premium for Apple products. Are you willing to pay $6,000 for a laptop that Apple would like to see tossed in the bin after 2 or 3 years so you can buy the latest and greatest?

    154. Re: Dear Apple fans: by schnell · · Score: 1

      Only profits (going either to shareholders or sitting in reserve), after all the expenses are paid, get taxed.

      Just FYI, the profits going to shareholders are already being taxed to the people receiving them - as income on dividends on capital gains tax on increased stock price when they sell their shares. And the reserve is either reflected in an increased stock price (taxed in capital gains on sales) or eventually used in some other way that will get taxed. If they use that reserve to buy other companies, the individuals who held shares in the acquired company will pay tax on the gains commensurate with the price paid. Companies can't "sit" on money forever without it ending up being taxed in some other way.

      --
      "95% of all Slashdot .sig quotes are incorrect or completely fabricated." -Benjamin Franklin
    155. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      ... and that triggers an "investigation" even with an absence of wrongdoing.

      I know what you're trying to say, but generally, an investigation is how you establish that there is an absence of wrongdoing. Or more accurately, establish that there is no evidence of wrongdoing. (Can't prove a negative, etc.)

    156. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      Ireland denies that it's illegal. They don't deny the deal exists.

    157. Re:Dear Apple fans: by jeremyp · · Score: 2

      Ha ha.

      I like the way people assume that taking work away from workers in the Third World is doing them a favour.

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
    158. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      Ireland is not claiming Apple has not paid it taxes due. If you have evidence to the contrary, please share.

    159. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      The ruling is that Ireland did not follow EU tax law, not that Apple didn't follow Irish tax law. If you can't keep this straight, perhaps you should retire from breathing.

    160. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      And property taxes on their campuses.

    161. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      My wife is highly intolerant, though tests indicate she doesn't have celiac. My daughter does have it. I have a friend whose daughter has it. My sister's father-in-law has it. Celiac and gluten intolerance is not rare.

    162. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      *are not rare.

      Silly brain-finger interface.

    163. Re: Dear Apple fans: by jeremyp · · Score: 1

      Not incorrect. The ruling was that the Irish government was breaking EU rules, not that Apple was breaking Irish rules.

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
    164. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      Apple doesn't use Obamacare for it employees.

      That doesn't make any sense at all. Obamacare is a law. You don't use laws for your employees. That's not even a thing.

    165. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not at all true.

      The fair market value of the parts is almost insignificant compared to the complete cost of the supply chain. - Apple plans every part out, years in advance. (It's why apple's margins are so huge)

      The complex supply chain is in china. The part makers are in china. The factories Apple invested in to expand capacity are in china.

      Unless you're going to dig up a big chunk of china and transport it off the west coast, the supply chain does not come to the USA.

      You could, perhaps, ship everything overseas and do the final assembly in the US - But the question is why? It's only part of the build and you'd be spending more money for very little benefit.

    166. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Whilst an individual business has to strive for maximum efficiency each may require a separate payroll, marketing, HR department, and so on, so it's possible for the overall SYSTEM to be less efficient overall than a well run monopoly in that market segment at that point in time.

      Smith's essential message was that the competition to be the most efficient in the near future will spawn a drive to increase the overall efficiency of the system over time.

      Thus at any given point in the time, a government service, due to economies if scale, can be the most efficient system, if well run, and there is nothing about it being government run that means it is a priori less efficient. Government services can also be badly run and inefficient, especially where there is corruption and insufficient oversight. Whether government services can be efficient over a longer periods is a more complex issue. It may be that a less efficient monopoly is more efficient a system than many smaller entities that are individually efficient in the context of the system.

      Essentially, you need to look at the systems level, both statically and dynamically, and have an evidence base, rather than just throwing out well-worn phrases. And before anyone attacks me for supporting government services above others, I'm not, just espousing that need for an evidence based systems approach.

    167. Re:Dear Apple fans: by davester666 · · Score: 1

      terrorists hiding as journalists. huge cells of them all across the US.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    168. Re:Dear Apple fans: by bickerdyke · · Score: 1

      I think China can do quality, too, if you ask them to and pay for it.

      Germany on the other hand would show you the door if you asked them to do cheap. That's a matter of labor costs/cost of living and pride over here. So we rather come up with something that's worth the premium as we know that we have to compete with China and no one will shell out more if you can get the same quality elsewhere.

      --
      bickerdyke
    169. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Guy+Harris · · Score: 1

      Apple already makes the Macbook Pros in the US.

      MacBook Pro, or Mac Pro?

    170. Re: Dear Apple fans: by dbIII · · Score: 1

      perhaps you should retire from breathing

      Oooh - the fanboys are really worked up about Apple being caught out - to the death is it? Jumping on a thread from nowhere with something like that after a complete denial of reality?
      How fucking pathetic. If you can lose it so badly just because of a bit of creative book-keeping from decades back by a CEO most Apple fanboys despise gets then how do you cope from day to day?

    171. Re: Dear Apple fans: by dbIII · · Score: 1

      No, it's the EU claiming it.
      Did you really just jump on these thread to attempt such a pathetic distraction and wish me dead? Are things really so bad that you feel a need to bully somebody on the internet?

    172. Re: Dear Apple fans: by dbIII · · Score: 1

      OK Mr Pedantic goalpost shifter - "Apple did not pay the tax to the Irish government that was required by EU rules" - happy now.

      So when did governments influenced by extreme crony capitalism become OK?

      I thought you people didn't like the idea of others being able to buy their way around the law like you get in absolute monarchies and other authoritarian systems. A get out of jail free card of others but you get screwed. Are you really cheering for that?

    173. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      UK IT contractors do this all the time.
      Their company gets paid £500 a day say for the work they do, of which they then pay themselves £25,000 a year.
      They also give themselves a share in the company, pay a dividend on it, then buy the share back, thus using the dividend share allowance, and your capital gains tax allowance. Do the same for your significant other who is also named as a director of the business.

      You can have a company Christmas party for you and your significant other for £50 each for a meal - tax free.
      You can pay your pension tax free.
      You can buy yourself a company computer tax free.
      If you work from home at all, a proportion of your bills can be paid from the company.
      Travel expenses, and potentially work lunches can be claimed from the company too.

      All in all, despite an income of £100,000+ (based on 200 days working, it's likely to be closer to 220 for most people), you pay tax as if you earned 1/3rd of that. You then leave the rest in the company and continue paying yourself after you "retire". If you need it, you can always pay yourself a bonus and take a tax hit.

    174. Re: Dear Apple fans: by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Actually it could. Apple pays every dollar of tax it is required to by law. That is a fact.

      Ha, HaHa, HAHAHAHHAHA oh, good one. Even with all the off shoring the pay a fraction of the tax. But it's ok, ask them to pay less tax and they might then end up paying about the same but it will then be ok. They can keep billions of dollars sitting there doing fuck all except staying out of circulation.

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    175. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you not read the bit about removing regulations, thereby allowing US plants to be deathtraps that can 'use slave labor and create mountains of pollution'. Win!

    176. Re:Dear Apple fans: by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Otherwise, it will never be possible for American manufacturers to compete if the foreign plants can be deathtraps that use slave labor and create mountains of pollution.

      Why do you hate capitalism? If the market dictates that foreign plants can do it cheaper, it is our duty to use foreign plants.

      Your duty? To place the acquisition of money above all other things? Are you Ferengi?

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    177. Re:Dear Apple fans: by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      Korea is getting pretty good. The Hyunday Diesels are among the best cars you can buy in terms of feature and reliability and not overpriced either. For my recent purchase it was between a Hyundai or a BMW diesel. I chose the BMW but it was a very close-run thing.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    178. Re:Dear Apple fans: by silentcoder · · Score: 4, Insightful

      People here in South Africa often declare that we should scrap all our labour laws and protections (which are basically non-existent compared to Europe) in order to compete with China. I think that's a completely stupid idea. We can NEVER compete with China. They have over a billion people who are willing to work for peanuts. We have 50 million - no matter how low we go, they can always undercut us.

      There's no POINT in trying to compete on price, we'll never win - so we may as well treat our workers well and try to compete on quality instead. Germany got that right.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    179. Re:Dear Apple fans: by silentcoder · · Score: 2

      It is actually. What happens if people start refusing to buy things made in slave-labour like conditions ? You force the third world companies to change their labour practises in order to keep making money.

      So no, you don't "take work away" - you make their work conditions better - unless you're seriously claiming that the owners of Chinese factories don't want to make money !

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    180. Re: Dear Apple fans: by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      >There's no Bill Gates Inc. which holds title to Bill Gate's assets and pays all his expenses
      Oh yes there is. Only it's usually not called "Bill Gates Inc" it's called "Randomlyassignedcompanyname Inc" and is registered via layer of shell companies so thick it's absolutely impossible to find out who actually owns it.
      Were you in a coma during the Panama-papers leak ? What the fuck do you think all those anonymous shell companies are FOR ? They exist to own the assets of rich people, and pay their expenses, so that rich people don't have to pay tax.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    181. Re:Dear Apple fans: by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      it works for Fender, they have USA vs Mexican Strats

      I'm sure Mr Trump isn't happy about the latter.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    182. Re: Dear Apple fans: by RuffMasterD · · Score: 2

      I saw something similar happen to a New Zealand semiconductor company. They built a factory in China, partly funded by a joint venture with a very large Chinese company. This Chinese company happened to own Chinese chip manufacturers who competed directly with the NZ company. Then as the factory neared completion, the Chinese manufacturers flooded the market and prices plummeted. The NZ company was desperate, they couldn't compete, even with a brand new factory. This is when the Chinese investor kindly offered to buy the new factory. For a hefty discount of course. Coincidence, or was the Chinese partner large enough to absorb a short term loss on one hand in order to make a profit on the other? Five years later and the NZ company still hasn't recovered.

      --
      Human Rights, Article 12: Freedom from Interference with Privacy, Family, Home and Correspondence
    183. Re: Dear Apple fans: by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      Organic: may or may not mean anything.
      -- Means "carbon based". A complete scam. No clear definition exists for stuff marketed using it. You could stick the label on anything.

      Shade Grown: does mean lower environmental impact
      -- Agreed

      Free Range: not only better meat and eggs, but lower cruelty for people who care
      -- I wish. Sadly real free range barely exists anymore. What is sold as free range now is not actually all that distinguishable from battery farmed. Real free range does exist but there is no way to tell it appart in the shops. So much so that the actual "let the animals live in the pastuer" farmers are starting to rebrand as "pastuer-grown" and similar terms. Personally, I do care. Domestication was not an act of one species enslaving others. It was an act of symbiosis as species cooperated for mutual benefit, instead of predator/pray we became partners. The cows got a much better life in much bigger numbers because we protected them - a few got killed for meat and we took a lot of milk from them but they benefitted from the deal equally which is why they agreed to it (seriously - you think humans could FORCE a wild bovine to do anything it didn't want to do ? Those things can kill you with a footstep) Factory farming destroys the symbiosis and turns humans instead into parasites. I refuse to be a parasite. And since it's hard to find reliably non-parasite meat in domesticated brands I have switched almost exclusively to veal. At least with veal it's still predator/pray - which is not something my conscience bothers me about any more than a lion's conscience does. But I am not okay with being a parasite. I do have the advantage that veal is quite cheap here - exactly because it's NOT farmed. The game farmers don't rely on the meat sales to be profitable, they already made their profits selling the right to shoot the animal to dumb, rich (mostly American) tourists. Selling the meat to me afterwards is a just a bit of bonus money. Indeed kudu or springbok is often CHEAPER than beef, and ostrich is almost ALWAYS cheaper than chicken or beef.

      Hand Crafted: not made in a gigantic vat of bug parts
      -- I would still feel better if it said "washed hand crafted" :P

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    184. Re: Dear Apple fans: by mobby_6kl · · Score: 1

      Why do you assume either of us are Apple fanboys? Can't we just be facts fanboys? You tried to correct someone with wrong information and in a pretty condescending manner at that. I just pointed that out and provided a refernce which clearly explained the ruling and why you were wrong.

      Maybe "stop breathing" was too aggressive, how about "stop posting" instead :P

    185. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure and also you promise to work in Apple's factory for $1 a day, right?

      The reason businesses are moving their factory operations offshore is labor cost; not regulations.

    186. Re: Dear Apple fans: by limaxray · · Score: 1

      I know this is supposed to be a joke, but Apple doesn't pay *US* taxes because US taxes are stupid high compared to the rest of the world so they just don't bring their foreign earnings home. Apple instead invests this money overseas in countries that have more reasonable tax policies (read, anywhere else in the industrialized world). If you want companies to start investing in the US again, you're going to have to at least bring taxes on par with the rest of the world, if not lower. You can't just tax everyone into oblivion and not expect them to take their toys and leave.

    187. Re: Dear Apple fans: by EvilAlphonso · · Score: 1

      Ireland doesn't deny the sweetheart deal, they deny that it was illegal... while they were already phasing it out with a target date of 2020 because it was illegal.

      Apple is also not paying tax on money made in the US through cross-licensing of IP, to the tune of $13B a year, from a shell entity in Dublin that doesn't pay tax in anywhere. There are at least two separate Apple corporations in Ireland, one has employees while the other just has a management board.

    188. Re: Dear Apple fans: by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Organic: may or may not mean anything.
      -- Means "carbon based". A complete scam. No clear definition exists for stuff marketed using it. You could stick the label on anything.

      "USDA Organic" means fuck-all. It literally means only that people are not using stuff on a banned list, that really is it. And that's assuming you believe them. "Oregon Tilth Organic" certification means a lot more. And then there's fringey hippie certifications like biodynamic. On one hand, that includes superstitious rituals involving soil in a cow horn or something. On the other hand, it is actually a meaningful organic certification. By the definition produced by the father[s] of the movement, it's not actually Organic Farming unless you return manure to the fields in a cyclical system (it's trivial to look this stuff up on Wikipedia.) You also physically cannot have a sustainable, organic, vegan food production operation. Plants eat animal poop. You cannot do organic sustainably without involving animals.

      TL;DR: "USDA Organic" certification is worse than meaningless because it is fake, but Organic Farming is a real thing with real benefits, however stupid the name is.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    189. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Luthair · · Score: 1

      Let's cut the corporate tax down as close to zero as possible. Let's only allow deductions for expenditures related to the business (new equipment, etc)...and that's it.

      We'd have companies flocking to our shores to set up shop, and we'd be employing lots of US citizens in the process.

      What you're suggesting is becoming a tax haven, and in reality what happens is a lot of multinationals have headquarters in law firms or post office boxes not actual corporate presences.

    190. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      You're barking mad.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    191. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Which says nothing, because the whole basis of the scam is moving where the profits are made.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    192. Re: Dear Apple fans: by swillden · · Score: 1

      All compensation, whether in the form of stock, use of company vehicles, company-provided housing, etc., is considered income by the IRS.

      Yes, but capital gains are taxed at a lower rate.

      Stock and option grants are taxed as income, not capital gains. Change in value between vesting and sale is capital gains... which may be less than the income tax rate or may be the same, depending on how long the stock was held. All of the other things I mentioned are income, not capital gains.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    193. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Corporations absolutely DO pay tax. If they could pass it on to consumers, they would. But they can't, because they already charge what the market will bear. If they increase prices because of increased taxes, they WILL lose sales, and they WILL make less money.

      Income taxes are on PROFITS. Wages paid to employees are EXPENSES. If anything, lower corporate taxes will encourage companies to fire employees, because they can make more money if they're not paying those employees and aren't taxed on the increased profits.

    194. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Enigma2175 · · Score: 1

      The IRS takes a very dim view (*caugh*Clinton Foundation*caugh*) on using a corporation or foundation to convert personal expenses into untaxable corporate expenses.

      What personal expenses is the Clinton foundation paying? I haven't seen any reports of that. The problem that people had with the Clinton foundation was the perceived "pay for access" for big donors when Hillary was SoS. Now the Trump Foundation on the other hand, only seems to pay for personal expenses for Donald Trump. Paying for such things as a Tim Tebow football helmet, defending lawsuits filed against Trump, two paintings of Trump himself and making campaign contributions to the attorney general who was investigating his company for fraud. The Clinton Foundation does a shitload of actual charity work and benefits mankind. In contrast, the Trump foundation does little or no charity work and mostly benefits Trump. Why even include that stupid little jibe in your post? It was a fine, factual post until you had to make it partisan. We get it, you don't like Clinton (for the record, I don't either), but taking a dig at a foundation that does good work after the political reason to do so is mooted is just petty and stupid. If the Clinton Foundation is breaking the law then let the authorities shut them down, like New York did to the Trump Foundation.

      --

      Enigma

    195. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A huge source of pollution is transporting goods from overseas. The huge ships used for that burn the dirtiest, foulest oil.

    196. Re:Dear Apple fans: by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      Only if you forget to weed your garden.

    197. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Finally, Apple can go fully organic with their products!

    198. Re: Dear Apple fans: by DarthVain · · Score: 2

      Then offer them tax loop holes if they invest in making America great again!

      Trump "I fixed the tax loop holes AND got Apple to build plants in the USA, am I great or what!"

    199. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep living in your Hollywood science-fantasy land, mister neckbeard. You're going to have to keep working, keep driving your own car, and you won't get a robotic sex-slave either, so suck it up and come live in the Real World with the rest of us. If we have to suffer, then EVERYONE has to suffer. Oh and by the way thanks so much for voting for Trump, I hope you all get bone cancer and die horribly.

    200. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      quote =====
      So it really would not take all that much assistance to drive a marketing driven production shift, especially if they promote privacy guaranteed notebooks and desktops. The perve douche bags at M$ are really vulnerable right now as the public demand for the basic human right of privacy grows, so Apple can really stick it to them real hard right now, by marketing and promoting "selling 'you' privacy rather than selling 'your' privacy".
      unquote=====

      Any notebook or desktop PC can be privacy guaranteed by removing proprietary software and having Linux or BSD installed ....

    201. Re: Dear Apple fans: by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      You don't need an "investigation" to determine that I did not kill Prince. But if 10,000 people claimed I did, in the absence of any shred of evidence that I did, there might be an investigation, which would quickly prove I wasn't in the country at the time, had no motive, means or opportunity. That there needs to be an investigation to "prove" the obvious shows the system is broken. Unfounded accusations have resulted in Hillary being under constant investigation for 30 years now, at a cost of more than $1B. I can think of better things to do with $1B than investigate a single person who was never convicted. The sad thing is, some take that as proof that she's guilty and the system is broken. The system is broken, but not how the Hillary Haters claim.

    202. Re:Dear Apple fans: by hucker75 · · Score: 0

      They already cost too much. Apple fans are stupid enough to pay anything for something shiny.

    203. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Missed opportunity for Apple' tree to "grow lemons."

    204. Re: Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Quality requires respect. That is something American bosses will never give their workers. Respect of the worker died with the Hippies and it is never coming back. Therefore America will never produce Germany level quality... unless we switch to a multiparty system that actually respects the workers. I hate to say it, but it works. Germany is the only major country with a fully functioning Democracy, which is odd, because less than 100 years ago Germany was run by a slightly crazier version of Trump.

    205. Re: Dear Apple fans: by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Why do you assume either of us are Apple fanboys

      Reality denial and some pretty extreme anger from another poster.
      It's extremely obvious what Sculley did and it has persisted to this day with Apple reaping the benefits and Ireland choosing the special deal of a few jobs over taxation. They were bullied into it. Now that it's all been ruled on beyond reasonable doubt there is all this denial and anger. Pathetic. Just blame Sculley and move on instead of wishing death on people that wish to discuss reality instead of fanboy fantasy.

    206. Re: Dear Apple fans: by psmoot · · Score: 1

      The problem comes when you see people in the company start to use the company as their credit card....One guy I knew took a 30K a year salary as President of his own company... But he didn't tell most people that the company rented a 2 bedroom apartment in a tower downtown for "out of town" clients that he happened to live in for free, and the company vehicle was his vehicle, and the reason he would take staff out to dinner to chat was so the company would pay for dinner as a business expense, business trips to Europe coincidentally were in cities near Alps ski resorts, etc.

      IANAL (but I'm married to a tax accountant). That sounds an awful lot like tax fraud. If a company gives you a benefit like free use of an apartment, I believe you're supposed to pay taxes on the fair market value of that benefit. If you charge something as a business expense (e.g. a dinner), there better be a legitimate business purpose. Auditors also look at the general pattern of behavior and just have to make a case for it walking and quacking like a tax-fraud duck.

      The IRS takes a dim view on these things. For example, if you use a room as an office and write off the price, you better not use that room for anything else.

    207. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      that could be funny if it weren't so dangerously accurate

    208. Re:Dear Apple fans: by dywolf · · Score: 1

      its actually true.
      apple tree growing is a bit of an art.
      and they aren't really grown from seeds because apples don't run "true to the seed".

      if you planted the seeds from a Granny Smith, you'd get an apple tree.
      but it wouldn't produce Granny Smith apples.

      that is, you don't really get the specific cultivars from re-seeding the seeds.
      rather its the combination of your root stock and scion stock that you graft onto it.

      unlike many other crop cultivars that are the result of genetic breeding (tomatoes), apple cultivars are a result of the art of botanical grafting, and as such raising an apple orchard has more in common with banana production than to tomato production.

      and actually, that makes quite a bit of sense:
      -tomatoes grow new plants quickly each year. you can go through generations of breeding tomatoes relatively quickly.
      -whereas an apple tree takes years to grow, and years to mature before it actually produces fruit, thus it takes a human generation or more just to get 1 or two generations of apple trees.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    209. Re:Dear Apple fans: by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      I take it you work for (or used to work for) an American company.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    210. Re:Dear Apple fans: by Karlt1 · · Score: 1

      How is an item bought for "status" when have the people in the U.S. who own smartphones own
      iPhones?

    211. Re:Dear Apple fans: by ghoul · · Score: 1

      $2 is the average across China but the coastal cities have higher minimum wages than the western interior and the Apple factories are on the coast

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    212. Re:Dear Apple fans: by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

      Wow. Just spotted this response, and can't help but replying.

      All hand labor, no. That hand labor is critical to the product's profitability, yes. Could we produce the exact same product at that volume in this country without a heavy cost increase, no. We would change the product and produce it with virtually no employees. It would employ a lot of construction folks up front and a smattering of maintenance folks during its operation.

      First of all, 200 million widgets, even as complex as smartphones, can be built by a few thousand people today, easily. Foxconn is the tenth largest employer in the world because they use people as robots.

      They now work diligently to keep the extent of that secret, but it was clearly reported as recently as 2012. I can't find the detailed engineering analysis I read a couple of years ago showing why the iPhone design required hand assembly whereas others could be assembled entirely without human hands. Too bad, it was much more technical than the following two links on the work conditions required to produce iPhones at such a high profit level - though you might notice the following statement in the first.

      "Both the iPhone and the iPad are assembled almost entirely by hand. Three hundred and twenty-five pairs of hands per device, to be precise, over a period of five days."

  2. hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The only regulations that would bring those plants to the US would be permitting slave labour. they already avoid taxes.

  3. Breaking: Assad to impose US-wide "No Apple Zone" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not really, he's not so completely fucking mental he thinks he can create legislation for a foreign government. Unlike some mentals!

  4. robots will be big! by hij · · Score: 2

    I for one am glad that robots will soon be big. I have always hoped to live in an age where robots are a thing. Making them big is just the icing on the mechanical cake.

    --
    Believe nothing -- Buddha
    1. Re:robots will be big! by DickBreath · · Score: 2

      You may be glad robots are big. But I would prefer that they fit inside my home where they can do useful things.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    2. Re:robots will be big! by thewolfkin · · Score: 1

      You may be glad robots are big. But I would prefer that they fit inside my home where they can do useful things.

      See when the robots are big they will BE your home.

      --
      Just another second banana
    3. Re:robots will be big! by Sowelu · · Score: 1

      Suuupermaaan.

    4. Re:robots will be big! by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      The robots won't just be big, they'll be YUGE!

  5. The Man Who Would Be King by nospam007 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Somebody seems to overestimate his powers, mental and constitutional.

    1. Re:The Man Who Would Be King by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So why did you vote for him? How did you not know this was going to happen? How did you not realize he's not living in the same reality the rest of us are?

      I didn't vote for him, OR the other one; don't blame me when it all goes to hell.

    2. Re:The Man Who Would Be King by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He has NO clue what abilities of the President are, the powers that come with job or even what the job entails. Yet idiots voted for him in, mostly just because they hated the other option worse than him.

      He thinks being the president is like being the owner of a company and you have absolute control over everything. He's never even read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, nor does he have a clue about the history of this country or the world.

      He wants America to be "Great again", yet American has never ever been better than it is today and in a little more than 4 years, after his mess has been cleaned up, we can start moving forward again.

      I guess I'll get to see what it was like living in the 40's and 50's for 4 years. Fortunately I'm a white man. I feel bad for all the women and other races living in America though.

    3. Re:The Man Who Would Be King by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's still a fucking good idea.

    4. Re:The Man Who Would Be King by sexconker · · Score: 1

      American has never ever been better than it is today

      The housing market, the job market, the middle class, our civil liberties, and just about everything else would like to have a word for you. But they're can't, because they're dead.

    5. Re:The Man Who Would Be King by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Somebody seems to overestimate his powers, mental and constitutional.

      So did Obama.

    6. Re:The Man Who Would Be King by CaptainDork · · Score: 5, Funny

      I feel bad for all the women and other races ...

      Women aren't races.

      Except Danica Patrick

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    7. Re:The Man Who Would Be King by bongey · · Score: 1

      King Obama with the Democrat senate that removed the filibuster rules for budget changes, ie tax law changes. Oh Tim Cook already said he would build more here if the tax laws were changed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Yes you are an idiot.

    8. Re:The Man Who Would Be King by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know a president of any company who has "absolute control over everything". What universe do you live in? If a company president had absolute control over everything, the company would be the richest, most successful company ever on the face of the earth. That is, until the next company's president exercised his/her absolute control and made that the best company that ever existed, and so on, and so on.

      A president can set direction, but must rely on a multitude of people to fulfill that vision. How is being president of the U.S. any different?

      Let "all the women and other races" feel bad for themselves, so much so that they fight back and solve their own problems, if your predictions ever come to pass. Especially, let the blacks feel bad for themselves because they were never able to crack the glass ceiling of the presidency. Oh wait.... Nevermind.

      BTW - I didn't vote for Trump. I just hate whiners.

    9. Re:The Man Who Would Be King by MooseTick · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The housing market, - As of 2015, home prices have returned to near their historical highs (https://www.chase.com/news/062716-market-recovered)
      the job market, - 4.9% seems pretty low (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=us+unemployment+rate+2016)
      the middle class, - the nation’s aggregate household income has substantially shifted from middle-income to upper-income households. This seems like a good thing (http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/09/the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground/)
      our civil liberties, - The Patriot Act isn't a good thing, but those great 1940s and 1950s had US Japanese detention camps and red scare tactics from the likes of Joseph McCarthy.
      and just about everything else - Right after Obama took office (3/6/2009) the DOW was at 6626. Today it closed at a record high of 19,083. The NASDAQ and S&P have had similar results. Its a stretch to give a president credit or blame for stock market results, but those are the kinds of results most Americans like to see. Even if they don't directly invest, their 401Ks and the companies many work for are likely performing much better.

    10. Re:The Man Who Would Be King by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it is almost as if sexconker comes from an alternate universe

      NPR had an interesting interview with the 'king of fake news', and he let on that they had tried to do the same thing with liberal memes, but that the liberal audience just would not buy into the bs and avoided them

      He said that there was something about the conservative media market what craves validation and support for their ideas.

      I think that it is because they have been conned with a load of bull, and are terribly afraid that they have been conned, so they seek out more con men so that they do not have to face the harsh facts.

    11. Re:The Man Who Would Be King by blindseer · · Score: 1

      He has NO clue what abilities of the President are, the powers that come with job or even what the job entails.

      Remember that as POTUS he is the de facto head of his party. Republicans control the House, Senate, and many state governments. If he wants to make it good business to build factories in the USA then he's in a good position to do so. As a now former CEO he should understand that there are a lot of things outside of his control but he had a lot of influence on people in his company, on his past customers, current and past suppliers, upon which he can rely to make a lot of things go his way. He can use his influence as the head of the Republican party to get laws passed, his power as POTUS to enact and execute laws, and his experience in business to make the sale to other business people.

      When Trump talks business I tend to believe him. When he talks about things he is much less experienced with then I'm much less likely to believe any of his promises. That's when he should rely on his VP, military advisors, cabinet members, etc., and have them speak for the executive branch and/or GOP.

      When Trump started his campaign he was out of control. He was often disrespectful, loud, and long winded. I noticed a big change in his demeanor about the time of his second debate. He calmed down, became more pensive and reserved, and generally became "presidential". I realize he's slipped up a few times since then but I expect him to grow into the role.

      At least I hope that he'll grow into his new role as POTUS because if he doesn't then the next four years will be "interesting".

      Oh, and about this comment:

      He's never even read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, nor does he have a clue about the history of this country or the world.

      I believe that he's grabbing up GOP governors to positions in his administration because he realizes he needs people with experience in government administration to help him out here. He will do his homework, including reading the Constitution, because that is what successful business people do. He's been running international corporations for a very long time, I think he's got an idea on how the world works. What he doesn't know he'll have to learn on the job like every other POTUS before him did.

      Call me a GOP shill if you like, I don't care. I'm trying to be realistic here.

      Speaking of being realistic...

      I guess I'll get to see what it was like living in the 40's and 50's for 4 years. Fortunately I'm a white man. I feel bad for all the women and other races living in America though.

      For someone that just pointed out the constitutional limits on POTUS just how do you expect Trump to make the USA worse for women and minorities? Is he going to single-handedly reinstate segregated schools? Revoke women's right to vote? I think you need to read the Constitution.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    12. Re:The Man Who Would Be King by bug1 · · Score: 1

      He didnt say it was better for everyone... perspective.

    13. Re:The Man Who Would Be King by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Somebody seems to overestimate his powers, mental and constitutional.

      You'd think the people who were convinced that he'd never get elected would catch on, but they keep getting surprised.

    14. Re:The Man Who Would Be King by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well yes, thanks to Bush and the republicans who started it. Nice try though, you cunt.

  6. Slave Labor by Princeofcups · · Score: 0

    So Trump would prefer using Americans as slave labor over using Asians and taking the tax burden off the poor billionaires. Thanks!

    --
    The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
    1. Re:Slave Labor by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      Let's be pretty clear here. It will be American robots manufacturing iPhones, instead of Asian ones.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Slave Labor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But we're building the robots! Didn't you RTFA?

    3. Re:Slave Labor by DickBreath · · Score: 1

      It would be American robots building iPhones either way. It's just a question of whether it would be American robots on American soil, or on foreign soil. Trump will realize that Android phones are robots and therefore no manufacturing changes are needed.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    4. Re:Slave Labor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, the robots are made in China.

      they would have to be imported as well.

    5. Re:Slave Labor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yep lets give them 10's of billions of tax breaks so they can let us sell them a couple of billion dollars worth of machines which will be manufactured by a tiny number of people with the profits all going to yet another big company. Bringing plants like Apple to the US will do sweet fuck all for jobs or US income in general and most likely it will actually require the government to have massive concessions for it to happen.

    6. Re:Slave Labor by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      Exactly. There's nothing innovative about a corporate tax rate race to the bottom.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    7. Re:Slave Labor by hambone142 · · Score: 1

      "Robots" don't really manufacture cellphones. SMT (Surface Mount Technology) pick and place machines load the printed circuit boards. Soldering is done in a convection oven. Humans are used for things like installing the PC board, the battery and connecting the flex cables. Also with testing the devices to some extent (although some of that can be automated).

      There's very little human labor involved in assembling the phones.

      FWIW, very few (if any) SMT pick and place equipment manufacturers make their equipment in the US and it wouldn't be cost effective to start up such an equipment manufacturer here due to the low volume sales and high expense of the equipment.

  7. lol by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Get Apple to build a big plant in the United States"

    So, an Apple tree?

  8. That's OK. by grumling · · Score: 4, Funny

    No big deal. From what we've seen so far, tomorrow he'll Tweet about how wonderful it is that Apple is making their phones in Asia instead of the US.

    Too bad Steve Jobs isn't still around to take that phone call. The reality distortion fields would have caused a rip in space-time.

    --
    "Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
    1. Re:That's OK. by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      It already has. That's why Apple is building a SPACESHIP.

  9. And he's going to get the Chinese to pay for it! by beamdriver · · Score: 0

    Seriously...what the hell is this guy smoking and why isn't he sharing?

  10. Re:Breaking: Assad to impose US-wide "No Apple Zon by DickBreath · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    What makes you so sure? He said he's going to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem. No regardless of how you feel about whether that's a good thing or not, the real question is: How would he do that? Does he have the authority? Would he just declare it to be so and the rest of the world would go along? (Note: the name "Donald" means "ruler of the world", and this "donald" is the first I've ever heard referred to as "The Donald".)

    --

    I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
  11. It will cost more than double by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good, then charge more than double. Maybe you could trim down you're ridiculous profit a little too while you're at it.

    1. Re:It will cost more than double by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      awwww can't afford apple products on your liberal mandated, self-entitled, minimum wage? just because YOU have to live with less doesn't apple does. get over yourself.

  12. Double the cost? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So instead of having 95% of profit, they will have 90% if they don't increase the price. They can survive.

    And I can't wait to see Apple announce the new iPhone US as the top level innovation.

  13. Why does anyone care what this fool says? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Still at a loss...

  14. Re:Breaking: Assad to impose US-wide "No Apple Zon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Donald Trump isn't in office yet and the linked bill passed congress a week ago.

  15. Re:Breaking: Assad to impose US-wide "No Apple Zon by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Informative

    He said he's going to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem.

    Trump is pushing to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. A position that previous presidents have avoided since the founding of modern Israel. Most countries have their embassies in Tel Aviv.

    How would he do that? Does he have the authority?

    Executive order. But I'm sure Congress will want to put in their pound of flesh for the congressional record.

    Would he just declare it to be so and the rest of the world would go along?

    Nope.

  16. manual labor? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How much manual labor is needed for an iPhone anyway?

    Also it feels like the price gap between apple and samsung is decreasing, so apple could use some price boost to make the devices more desirable if only for being pricey, due to lack of other selling points.

    Decrease in quality also won't matter much, after a year or two they're supposed to be replaced anyway. Dries up the used phone marked, and makes the new ones even more desirable justifying even higher prices.

  17. Taxes, regulations etc ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. Regulations are not created by some evil Liberul cabal in Berkeley that sits around smoking weed and drinking espressos saying, "How can we make business more difficult. Regulations arise because there is at least a few assholes who think, "If it's not illegal, then it's OK!" - even if it causes the deaths of people. So these regulations didn't come out of thin air - somewhere, they are (or were) protecting someone.

    2. Corporate taxes are comparatively excessive in the US - even compared to evil Socialist European tax systems. BUT, any tax cuts means revenues will have to be made up somewhere else and let's give up on the fantasy that lowering taxes boosts the economy enough to wash out the tax cuts.

    3. The stock markets are hoping that the Republican controlled government does what Republicans do best: cut taxes, spend like a motherfucker, and borrow the short falls. "Bringing manufacturing jobs back" looks like a cover for doing just that.

    4. And when deficits go further through the roof, the Republicans will just blame Obama.

    5. I bet Trump's imagined wealth that this will in fact happen.

    1. Re:Taxes, regulations etc ... by sexconker · · Score: 1

      1. Regulations are not created by some evil Liberul cabal in Berkeley that sits around smoking weed and drinking espressos saying, "How can we make business more difficult. Regulations arise because there is at least a few assholes who think, "If it's not illegal, then it's OK!" - even if it causes the deaths of people. So these regulations didn't come out of thin air - somewhere, they are (or were) protecting someone.

      2. Corporate taxes are comparatively excessive in the US - even compared to evil Socialist European tax systems. BUT, any tax cuts means revenues will have to be made up somewhere else and let's give up on the fantasy that lowering taxes boosts the economy enough to wash out the tax cuts.

      3. The stock markets are hoping that the Republican controlled government does what Republicans do best: cut taxes, spend like a motherfucker, and borrow the short falls. "Bringing manufacturing jobs back" looks like a cover for doing just that.

      4. And when deficits go further through the roof, the Republicans will just blame Obama.

      5. I bet Trump's imagined wealth that this will in fact happen.

      1: Plenty of regulations are awful and need to be scrapped. See most things related to the ADA, for example.

      2: Corporations aren't fucking paying ANY taxes because they use loopholes to claim they're headquartered in Ireland or some shit. Lowering the corporate tax rate and tightening those loopholes would be a massive net gain.

      3: Don't pretend you know what the stock market wants. Don't pretend that it's based on reality in any way.

      4: You're assuming deficits will go further through the roof. Even if they do, what's the acceptable cutoff period for blaming Obama? Is it 8 years after the acceptable cutoff period for Obama and the Dems blaming Bush Jr. for everything from the economy to that big yellow thing in the sky? If not, go fuck yourself.

      5: Oh, envy and salt. Good to know.

      Trump's a moron in many ways and an asshole in general, but he's not wrong here.

    2. Re:Taxes, regulations etc ... by hey! · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, the US has the highest corporate tax RATE. It also has the most generous corporate tax deductions, making it tricky to do an apples-to-apples comparison. For the record the "effective tax rate" -- what corporations actually pay, is around 27.1%, compared to the OECD average of 27.7%.

      On the other hand not all corporations are equal. Companies like Apple can hire the best financial and accounting brains on the planet. The complexity of tax code makes it easier for a company like Apple to evade paying, shifting the tax burden to smaller corporations.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    3. Re:Taxes, regulations etc ... by wbr1 · · Score: 1

      1. Regulations are not created by some evil Liberul cabal in Berkeley that sits around smoking weed and drinking espressos saying, "How can we make business more difficult. Regulations arise because there is at least a few assholes who think, "If it's not illegal, then it's OK!" - even if it causes the deaths of people. So these regulations didn't come out of thin air - somewhere, they are (or were) protecting someone.

      You are missing some things. There are regulations that are meant to protect as you mentioned. they protect people, the environment etc. However there is a second class of regulation. This class is lobbied for by business interests. these regulations create artificial market barriers to other businesses. A case in point is all the local, state, and federal wrangling companies like Comcast engage in to create regulations that stop or greatly increase costs for municipal broadband or other carriers to have access to existing infrastructure. Another example is the push to extend the reach and duration of various IP laws. This class of regulation is great for incumbent business as they have already passed the barriers or have the scale (or laws on their side) to easily circumvent them. These are detrimental to society and a free market in general and also typically stifle innovation.

      Unfortunately, at least so far it seems, that Trump is more interested in removing the former type of regulation, things like environmental and labor regulations. Time will tell what really happens though.

      --
      Silence is a state of mime.
    4. Re: Taxes, regulations etc ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is acceptable for Republicans to blame Obama for everything, even the things that don't actually exist, that never happened, as well as the things that occurred before he was born in Kenya.

      This is because they know he caused the Civil War, ran over Santa Claus, sank Atlantis and caused the curse of the Bambino. He's black, of course he's guilty.

    5. Re:Taxes, regulations etc ... by itsenrique · · Score: 2

      What exactly about the ADA needs to be scrapped? Let me guess, you've never been disabled....

    6. Re:Taxes, regulations etc ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Regulations are not created by some evil Liberul cabal in Berkeley that sits around smoking weed and drinking espressos saying, "How can we make business more difficult.

      And yet the end result is about the same as if that had happened.

    7. Re:Taxes, regulations etc ... by Gussington · · Score: 1

      2. Corporate taxes are comparatively excessive in the US - even compared to evil Socialist European tax systems.

      They are excessive on paper, but almost no-one pays them, so the net revenue is much less.
      I'd be interested to see a comparison of actual rates paid vs on paper.

    8. Re:Taxes, regulations etc ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FDR was just a commie. Remember kids worked 18 hours a day in dangerous conditions, because they wanted to. FDR ruined it with all his job killing regulations. Now kids have to go to school, instead of digging for coal.

    9. Re:Taxes, regulations etc ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The corporate tax rate in the Netherlands is 50%. 40% if it is a corporation with stocks.

      Unless you are a foreign company based in the Netherlands than the tax is way lower.

    10. Re:Taxes, regulations etc ... by limaxray · · Score: 1

      The fact that certain companies can get lower effective rates is really really bad. This creates distortions in the markets that help the politically favored rather than the most productive. If anything, the rate should be lower and the same for everyone - showing that the average effective rate is on par with other countries just further underscores how fucked up the US tax code is. To make the average appear OK, it means some people are paying a fuck lot and others are paying very little if anything.

    11. Re:Taxes, regulations etc ... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      When politicians talk about cutting regulations and red tape, what they usually mean is taking away your rights as an employee so that businesses are more competitive with places like India and China.

      Trump is saying that he wants to temp Apple back to the US with a mixture of tax cuts and making American workers cheaper.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    12. Re:Taxes, regulations etc ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As someone who's been on crutches since I was 6 (way before the ADA) and now a wheelchair, I too would like to know what things related to the ADA are awful and need to be scrapped. PLEASE reply with more details.

  18. products will be more than double by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not just cheap labor, but being close to the supply chain in China also makes manufacturing cheaper.... for Foxcon.

    Robots are getting cheap enough that Foxcon is replacing cheap Chinese workers with them. So if they set up a factory in the US, they're not going to fill them with "high-priced" American labor, they'll be full of Chinese manufactured robots.

  19. Why the Rust Belt? by painandgreed · · Score: 1

    Will these incentives specifically state rust belt states? Why exactly would they put these plants there rather than New England or the West Coast? Labor costs? Most of the parts are coming in from Korea, Taiwan, and Japan so wouldn't a West Coast shipping port be better? China only does the assembly.

    While Trump is dreaming up stuff to do, he should try and get all those electronic parts manufactures back here in the US.

    1. Re:Why the Rust Belt? by guruevi · · Score: 1

      Coastal states uniformly have higher state taxes and regulations. Also more welfare state and resulting crime which is why they are overwhelmingly democrat. Trump can't order the states even as president to do anything about their own taxes.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    2. Re:Why the Rust Belt? by ghoul · · Score: 1

      a big assembly plant has a lot of influence. If the assembly plant is in the US and the assembler lets it be known that they will preferntially take parts from plants down the road the subcomponent manufacturers will also set up plants in the same city. This is why govts give subsidies to setup the big assembler as the resulting ecosystem pays back in increased taxes what they gave as subsidies

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    3. Re:Why the Rust Belt? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Why exactly would they put these plants there rather than New England or the West Coast?

      The good old pork barrel - it makes things huuuge like an exploding space shuttle (the o-rings were to link parts spread out to different states for political influence reasons).

    4. Re:Why the Rust Belt? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      new england and west coast vote for democratic party for the main part unlike the rust belt.

    5. Re:Why the Rust Belt? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More importantly, coastal states have broader demographics, leading to a naturally more accepting, liberal viewpoint. Comparatively, land-locked states lean red, have more homogenous populations, and a resulting duller culture.

  20. Don't be so dismissive by chispito · · Score: 1

    He is riding a wave of anti-globalization sentiment, he has both houses of congress, Chinese factory wages have risen steadily, and most of you laughing now were probably laughing in the same way on November 7.

    For crying out loud, use your imagination. This is one of the most concrete, attainable, and consistent things he's said.

    --
    The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
    1. Re:Don't be so dismissive by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 1

      This is one of the most concrete, attainable, and consistent things he's said.

      And I'll believe it's happening when Apple starts building the plants.

      For what it's worth, companies don't build domestic plants if foreign ones are cheaper to utilize. And there aren't enough regulations to remove to make the cost differential work out. Maybe with a tariff on all foreign constructed phones, but you'll need a steep tariff.

      Somehow, I don't think the Donald can get all that done. Especially with half the R's in the House and Senate still yelling about free trade now that the TPP is dead.

      --
      That is all.
    2. Re:Don't be so dismissive by Lisandro · · Score: 2

      This is one of the most concrete, attainable, and consistent things he's said.

      How? I'm genuinely asking. Has Apple showed/communicated anything that supports this affirmation?

    3. Re:Don't be so dismissive by Dorianny · · Score: 4, Insightful

      He is riding a wave of anti-globalization sentiment, he has both houses of congress, Chinese factory wages have risen steadily, and most of you laughing now were probably laughing in the same way on November 7. For crying out loud, use your imagination. This is one of the most concrete, attainable, and consistent things he's said.

      Convincing the "Poorly Educated" to vote for you by promising that you will bring Manufacturing back to the U.S is a lot harder then convincing the Highly Educated (CEO's) to actually bring those Manufacturing plants back. For one those CEO's will actually want to see Plans and Details and the Trump campaign lacked either of those

    4. Re:Don't be so dismissive by hey! · · Score: 2

      Well, I see a hitch in this plan: Apple doesn't actually make most of its popular products itself.

      I certainly think it's possible to make a token number of devices here, something with symbolic value. But it's not going to be easy to build up enough domestic capacity to make a significant dent in our imports. For one thing Foxconn has got a lot experience doing this, and that's valuable -- worth actual money which will have to be added tot he cost. Probably the easiest way forward is to get Foxconn to build a plant here. But it's still not going to make a big difference.

      To make a big difference fast, you have to take steps that are so drastic that they are sure to ignite a trade war, which will (a) raise domestic prices and (b) cost US export jobs. Even if this is a good thing in the long run, but there will be pain in the short run.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    5. Re:Don't be so dismissive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, and expect the next announcement that China will be buying planes from Airbus, The government has decreed Linux to be the OS of choice, Google is blocked as is Facebook , those same factories will now produce Chinese branded PCs.

      Asia, especially China, is where all the consumer growth is, Trump could just see the US locked out of the Asian markets.

      Worse, as Trump cancels other trade agreements, China, the EU will see this as an opportunity and the US will put at risk $2 Trillion worth of exports.

      However, at best, Apple will only make goods for the US market in the USA, collect the tax breaks, and still make the majority of its products in China.
      Meanwhile the US gets locked out of cheap rare earth materials and may have to pay China an export tax. Just how will the US consumers react to the majority of the domestic goods rising in price by 30% while wages remain stagnant ?

      The US has nothing to threaten China with, whats it going to say "In 4 years time... you just wait...we will make our own stuff (maybe)"
      China's response will be "Well for the next 4 years, kiss our ass, pay out new taxes and you are cut off from raw materials"

      Whats the US going to do ? will the US market accept no new products for 4 years (until they can be made in the US), the corporations will not accept this, the consumer will not accept it either. Will they accept shop shelves being empty, MORE local jobs being lost ? The US economy being damaged, permanently ?

      Heres the point, the US does not automatically win, not matter what Hollywood says, no matter how often you shout USA USA USA.
      The 96% of the worlds population that does NOT live in the USA also get to vote with their wallet, and they will vote for Cheaper goods from China, no one cares about the US employment except the US.

    6. Re:Don't be so dismissive by chispito · · Score: 1

      This is one of the most concrete, attainable, and consistent things he's said.

      How? I'm genuinely asking. Has Apple showed/communicated anything that supports this affirmation?

      I don't know; He could fail. It just doesn't seem as crazy as people make it sound around here.

      We read "the company has realized that it will cost more than double to make the shiny new gadgets at home," but Trump probably reads "Apple made an opening offer, so negotiations can commence."

      What will it take? Tax breaks? Tariffs? Other incentives? He doesn't need to make it cost less to manufacture all their products in the US than overseas, he just needs to make it worth their while, or worth a subcontractor's while, to open a (single) factory in the US.

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
    7. Re:Don't be so dismissive by Yunzil · · Score: 1

      Which is the attainable part?

    8. Re:Don't be so dismissive by chispito · · Score: 1

      Apple doesn't actually make most of its popular products itself.

      He will claim a victory if a subcontractor opens a factory to manufacture iGoods (and whether it has any positive impact, I think most people would agree that at least counts as Apple opening a factory).

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
    9. Re:Don't be so dismissive by Lisandro · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but will that alone make a difference?

      Think of it this way: Apple already has a shitload of cash available to spend in the US - they're building a huge campus in Cupertino right now, for Pete's sake. They don't build manufacturing plants for a reason; it would make their products way, way more expensive. No amount of tax breaks or tariffs will realistically change this in the near future.

    10. Re:Don't be so dismissive by chispito · · Score: 1

      Which is the attainable part?

      Apple can afford it. It is just a matter of convincing them, and their stockholders, it is in their long term best interest.

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
    11. Re:Don't be so dismissive by dbIII · · Score: 1

      It will take a special deal for Apple that others cannot get.
      Welcome to the world of crony capitalism. It's the way Putin does things so it must be the choice of a "strong" leader.

    12. Re:Don't be so dismissive by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Which is the attainable part?

      The battery.

    13. Re:Don't be so dismissive by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      Convincing the "Poorly Educated" to vote for you by promising that you will bring Manufacturing back to the U.S is a lot harder then convincing the Highly Educated (CEO's) to actually bring those Manufacturing plants back. For one those CEO's will actually want to see Plans and Details and the Trump campaign lacked either of those.

      And convincing the shareholders, who only really care about profits, is even more difficult. For example, from Can Trump Save Their Jobs? They’re Counting on It on Nov 13, 2016:

      ... manufacturers are seeing relentless pressure, from investors and rival companies, to automate, replacing workers with machines that do not break down or require health benefits and pension plans. Wall Street hedge fund managers are demanding steadily rising earnings from Carrier’s parent, United Technologies, even as growth remains sluggish worldwide.

      Carrier isn’t changing its plans.

      The Carrier plant here is plenty profitable. But moving to Monterrey, Mexico, where workers earn in a day what they make here in an hour, will increase profits faster.

      Even Robin Maynard, a Carrier team leader who enthusiastically backed Mr. Trump, acknowledges that even a phone call from the Oval Office to the company’s executive suite might not be enough to save his job. “Hopefully, he can do something for us,” Mr. Maynard said. “But I think it’s out of the C.E.O’s hands. It’s in the hands of the shareholders.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    14. Re:Don't be so dismissive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you miss the part right in the post where it said Apple has already looked into making iPhones here? That's meaningful in of itself.

  21. Why is this even news? by Lisandro · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's yet another Trump hyperbolic promise with no grounds on reality. Has anyone noticed he never elaborates on the how? It is easy to promise the moon and it is, evidently, also easy for most of the population to buy it at face value alone.

    Hell, i can do it as well: I'll talk with Tim Cook myself. And we'll have great, huge, American iPhone factories, with American robots - cause wee don't make anything, but we're going to. Our robots will be tremendous and we'll have 200,000 new factories putting incredibly advanced new iPhones every year. American iPhones to make America Great Again(tm)!

    1. Re:Why is this even news? by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Here's the "how": National Security Letter handed directly to Tim Cook. Build your shit here and pay some portion of taxes or take a permanent vacation to Super Gitmo while we force your staff to put backdoors into every iThing made form here on out.

    2. Re:Why is this even news? by Lisandro · · Score: 2

      Seriously, is that an actual expectation? Because if that ever came close to happening, Apple would just pack its billions in overseas funds and become an European/Asian company.

    3. Re:Why is this even news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Either that, or we'll put all kinds of iThings into your backdoor.

    4. Re:Why is this even news? by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      I think a lot of people have a fairly exaggerated view of what the President of the United States can do. Everything I'm reading here suggests there's no implied threat, but rather that Apple will receive vast amounts of taxpayer-funded largess, in the form of big tax breaks. Considering that manufacturing is more and more automated all the time, even if Apple bites, I'm still not exactly clear what benefit any of this will have for the average American worker. None of them would work for the wages that someone in China would, but no American consumer is going to pay ten times what they pay now for an iPhone, so it really does amount to the US government blowing a hole in its own finances for a marginally better position as per manufacturing.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    5. Re:Why is this even news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not that easy. The vast majority of its people don't have work authorization for any country other than the US. Unless it wants to lay off pretty much all its people and start over again as a company, it can't really do that.

      If it went ahead anyway, I would see that being the end of it having significant sales in the US, its largest market. It could be replaced by a US-based phone company (e.g. BLU), particularly if they went and hired all the Americans that Apple had to ditch here when it pulled out.

    6. Re:Why is this even news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It sounds just as easy as Trump blackmailing Cook though.

    7. Re:Why is this even news? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Isn't that the sort of shit we accused Castro of?

    8. Re:Why is this even news? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      He better send one of those letters to every Apple shareholder, who actually own the company, too.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    9. Re:Why is this even news? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      It's yet another Trump hyperbolic promise with no grounds on reality. Has anyone noticed he never elaborates on the how?

      He doesn't know how nor does he have the attention span for that.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    10. Re:Why is this even news? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      I think a lot of people have a fairly exaggerated view of what the President of the United States can do

      I saw that in a big way with Obama. People expected some radical with the power no English King has had since King John instead of a lawyer working slowly through established processes. Trump would like to bring those days of King John back (the real thing who left people locked up to starve not the Disney version). He may make some progress that way but if he follows the rules he won't get far.
      He's not going to follow the rules but others who do may get in his way from time to time.

    11. Re:Why is this even news? by itsenrique · · Score: 1

      This.

    12. Re:Why is this even news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ain't gonna happen. tim cook is not some unknown cleric from jerkwaterstan.

    13. Re:Why is this even news? by Gussington · · Score: 1

      Considering that manufacturing is more and more automated all the time, even if Apple bites, I'm still not exactly clear what benefit any of this will have for the average American worker.

      Zero. Since you seem to know how it works, you'll know exactly how this plays out.
      Tim is smarter than Donald so will win whatever the exchange is. That will likely be some incentive to build a couple of factories here. Apple will put a token factory here or two at less cost than the reward, then after the press dies down, slowly wind them up and continue back on plan A. Apple will get rich. Donald will look good in the news for a week, but everyone except Apple will be worse off.

    14. Re:Why is this even news? by newslash.formatblows · · Score: 1

      I suddenly want to buy hats, ties, steaks, and a crappy diploma from you.

    15. Re:Why is this even news? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      he never elaborates on the how?

      Did you read TFS? He says by cutting corporate taxes and regulations. Those are *some* of the reasons Apple builds in Asia. There are other reasons too. But talk about that, don't pretend that Trump offered no means towards progress there.

      It's a huge problem and Tim has addressed it publicly before. He said that he can't even get the screws he needs in the US and in China the screw factory is just down the street. So, to make iPhones in California you first have to figure out why there are no mini screws made in California, and fix those problems first. Taxation and regulation is *part* of the problem.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    16. Re:Why is this even news? by Lisandro · · Score: 1

      No, that is not the reason Apple builds in Asia. That's the reason Apple keeps a lot of its funds overseas though; taxes offshore are way cheaper.

      The reason Apple products are built in Asia is that the entire pipeline is way, way cheaper than producing locally. The screws you mention is a perfect example of something that won't magically happen overnight by taxes and regulations alone - even if you convince someone to build a screw factory they will still be cheaper to import. China spent decades on building this manufacturing/economical infrastructure; it doesn't happen overnight.

    17. Re:Why is this even news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, dumbass. Instead of being all negative, why don't you start brainstorming ideas to help him out with the "how".

    18. Re:Why is this even news? by Lisandro · · Score: 1

      Hey, dumbass. Instead of being all negative, why don't you start brainstorming ideas to help him out with the "how".

      Why the fuck should i? I didn't run for president. Do you want me to make Trump staff picks as well?

    19. Re:Why is this even news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jesus lord it's right in the post. Apple has ALREADY looked into it so it must not be that far-fetched. And Trump said he'll lowed restrictive regulations and give tax incentives. It really isn't that hard. If you really want it. And are the frikken President.

    20. Re:Why is this even news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, *read* the quote in the post. Again. Twice if necessary.

  22. new ghost town in Cupertino? by k6mfw · · Score: 1

    I'm watching this big flying saucer taking place and wondering if it will become abandoned. I heard Apple does more of its business outside the US, all manufacturing and much of the engineering was offshored. They also have tens of billions in cash reserves so if under too much pressure, it seems they could easily abandoned the US altogether (will that make Microsoft the ***only*** source for typical computer OS?). It seems Trump divert trade and interactions with China (and do more with Russia?). Considering California (blue) is an outlier from the rest of country (red), "shooting down the flying saucer" may be a goal for new administration (yes, I'm imagining stuff). However, Apple hasn't made a lot of friends since (along with Google and others) have driven up housing costs in Silicon Valley.

    --
    mfwright@batnet.com
    1. Re:new ghost town in Cupertino? by TheSync · · Score: 1

      "Cupertino-based Apple now has about 25,000 employees in the Santa Clara Valley, but a series of long-term leases and building and land acquisitions over the past four years, including its new under-construction "spaceship" campus for as many as 13,000 workers, would allow the company to nearly double that workforce in the coming years." source.

      Yes, Apple gets the majority of its revenues from outside the US, but still most design & software development is done in the US.

    2. Re:new ghost town in Cupertino? by ghoul · · Score: 1

      Apple did setup an Engineering center in Bangalore last year. Also with those 25000 employees Apple also employs another 15000 contractors in SCV mostly from Infosys, Wipro, CTSH, IBM and Exilant all of which have another 15000 offshore in India. Jobs was opposed to having Engineering in India (He just didnt like India. Something to do with his trip to India to find himself Go Figure) but Cook is open to it. Since a majority of Apple employees in Engineering are already Indians many are happy to relocate back to India on expatriate salaries and bring up the offshore center. An Easy way is to absorb the existing Contractor engineering workforce as Apple Employees of Apple India.
      Apple will still stay headquartered in the US as the Indian govt will not let them play the Irish sandwich trick but that doesnt preven them from moving Engineering to India just like they have move manufacturing to China, Japan,Korea,Taiwan. Apple also has Engineering setups in UK and Singapore and Apple Call centers are spread all over the world.
      I dont have the exact numbers but wouldnt be surprised to know that a majority of Apple Employees are already based outside the US.
      Eventually only the hardcore engineering and the marketing would stay in SCV and the rest could move. However the move will not be because of costs. Indian salaries are already at 1/3rd of US salaries and with the overhead of outsourcing and/or remote teams cost is a justufcation only till the difference is 1/3. its more about getting away from a regulatory environment as well as go where there is an overabundance of engineers so you can pick and choose the best.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    3. Re:new ghost town in Cupertino? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      "Cupertino-based Apple now has about 25,000 employees

      In the early 1990s I did some contract work for second string steelworks that employed that many people in one small city. The same company had a larger steelworks in another state.
      All I'm saying is that Apple is not the major employer that is being suggested.

  23. this is easier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Its easier to make the rest of the world pay US level wages so outsourcing provides no gain.

  24. They're magic regulations, also evil by thewolfkin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I mean, I could sit down and show you regulations that anybody would agree are ridiculous.

    Classic Trumpism. What are these mythical regulations? Name something? give an example? Instead when a reporter wastes their time going over regulations they find the industry pretty on par and then Trump backpedals saying we over exaggerated what he meant and what he said was just a joke. Ugh we have to do FOUR YEARS of this nonsense? He can just say what he wants and no one's going to stop him?

    --
    Just another second banana
    1. Re:They're magic regulations, also evil by Atmchicago · · Score: 1

      Not only that, but forcing companies to build domestically is itself a type of regulation. Or, Trump could give corporations huge tax decreases, they'll pocket the money and then continue business as usual!

      --

      You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it dissolve.

    2. Re:They're magic regulations, also evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Further, there's often good reason regulations were put in place in the first place. I'm sure there's some cruft so if he wants to take a look and get rid of things that no longer make (or never made) sense, that's ok, but a lot of them I would imagine are worker protections, environmental regulations, and similar. I'm not so sure getting rid of those is a good idea...

    3. Re:They're magic regulations, also evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Limiting the maximum size of soft drinks that can be legally sold in NYC.

    4. Re: They're magic regulations, also evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Limiting the maximum size of soft drinks that can be legally sold in NYC.

      A) Not a federal regulation, Trump would have no jurisdiction

      B) The NYC regulation was already overridden by the state courts

      C) Why do you shits never know about container laws for beer in Alabama?

      That last one is a real law.

      Yet...

    5. Re:They're magic regulations, also evil by bongey · · Score: 1

      The same thing Trump has been talking about for the last 18 months or so, changing corporate tax laws, which by the way Tim Cook already said is the problem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    6. Re:They're magic regulations, also evil by MooseTick · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "What are these mythical regulations?"

      They can't dump all that industrial waste into the US waterways anymore like they can in China. That gives them a competitive advantage.

      Also, they have to pay those whiny workers a minimum wage. And meet OSHA requirements. Also, causing them to lose a competitive advantage.

    7. Re:They're magic regulations, also evil by MooseTick · · Score: 1

      "Limiting the maximum size of soft drinks that can be legally sold in NYC."

      Great example. I'm sure plenty of companies are moving offshore due to soda size limitations.

    8. Re:They're magic regulations, also evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He can just say what he wants and no one's going to stop him?

      He could fucking torture you at GITMO and nobody would stop him. No, things aren't good.

    9. Re:They're magic regulations, also evil by guruevi · · Score: 1

      How about this:
      Every purchase >$600 a business makes needs a 1099 filed with the IRS (went in with ObamaCare).
      Ever started a business? You need ~$200-2000 for various licenses just for being allowed to run it, often yearly. Liquor licenses, a leftover from prohibition can sometimes cost $20k between local, state and federal regulations.
      Want to put a digital display or an arcade in, get ready to get an advertising or gambling permit.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    10. Re:They're magic regulations, also evil by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      if AMC can't sell an 32 oz coke for $5.50 then we will get out of NYC

    11. Re:They're magic regulations, also evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was a law, not a regulation, and a local one at that.

    12. Re: They're magic regulations, also evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You poor, poor thing. How do to manage under such a great repressive atmosphere?

  25. *Whoosh* by Idou · · Score: 4, Insightful

    FRIEDMAN: Are you worried, though, that those companies will keep their factories here, but the jobs will be replaced by robots?
    TRUMP: They will, and we'll make the robots, too. [laughter]

    *Whoosh*

    I feel like for the next 4 years America will be used as kind of a learning tool for Trump (a, "Trump University", if you will) to learn very basic economic and government principles. . . poorly. And all it will cost is the well being of an entire nation. . .

    --
    Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
    1. Re:*Whoosh* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why is that an unfair statement? Manufacturing in the United States is higher than ever. The jobs have been reduced because we are fantastic at automation and heavy industries. We export industrial automation equipment to China (and just about everywhere else too).

      Put your emotions aside and look at the big picture. Are we going to do the work here and benefit from it, or are we going to go into more debt because of growing trade deficits? That is the choice.

  26. Don't be so stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For crying out loud, use your imagination. This is one of the most concrete, attainable, and consistent things he's said.

    the bar is REALLY FUCKING LOW here

  27. The U.S. cannot be service-based by acoustix · · Score: 2

    A service based economy cannot survive in the long run. You must create/produce something of value. A service economy will run out of money eventually. Every county must produce for themselves as well as import/export. Finding a healthy balance is difficult.

    The U.S. must also become more competitive on corporate taxes. We need to be smart about allowing both personal and corporate money to flow into the country with minimal tax because that money was already taxed where it was "earned". That allows more investment and spending in the US.

    --
    "A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
    1. Re:The U.S. cannot be service-based by TheSync · · Score: 3, Interesting

      A service based economy cannot survive in the long run. You must create/produce something of value.

      Fortunately, US manufacturing output is at an all-time high. The value added by U.S. factories is more than $2 trillion a year, equal to the next three countries (Japan, Germany and South Korea) combined.

    2. Re:The U.S. cannot be service-based by ghoul · · Score: 1

      The US is sitting on a shitload of oil. it can become a resource based economy exporting oil. It doesnt need to be service based. It also has a lot of farmland which can grow way more crops than can be eaten here so the same can be exported. Teriary and Secondary are not the only choices , you can be a primary economy i.e. a resource exporting economy too. There will always be jobs for tractor repairmen and mining machinery operators.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    3. Re:The U.S. cannot be service-based by Ksevio · · Score: 1

      Produce yes, but having jobs isn't a requirement for that.

    4. Re:The U.S. cannot be service-based by Gussington · · Score: 1

      A service based economy cannot survive in the long run. You must create/produce something of value.

      Says who? As long as someone is producing something, the services people continue to take a fee moving it through the chain. And there's a lot more money in services than production, which is why all the poor people work in production and rich people work in services.
      Singapore and Hong Kong are good examples. They make nothing yet are wealthy and prosperous.
      A strong economy is fueled by the movement of money, that is all. And services move money faster than production so will always be the key to success.

    5. Re:The U.S. cannot be service-based by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, this is myth number one: "We don't make anything any more". The US makes lots of stuff, lots and lots, yep, lots.

  28. The problem is not the plant by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 3, Informative

    Look, perhaps many of you don't understand how modern factories work, you're stuck on the old concepts of assembly lines with a few robots and a lot of humans.

    A modern factory, for the most part, has robot trucks and forklifts and many robots doing work.

    And very very few humans.

    They operate 24/7/365 in the dark, unheated and uncooled.

    Not a lot of jobs there.

    They are even BUILT by robots for the most part.

    That's what an Apple factory in the US would be. A 2018 plant with very few jobs. Unless you're a robot.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:The problem is not the plant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While that is correct, there will be LOTS of people building the factory and infrastructure around it. there will be trucks bringing material all day, trucks taking products out, maintenance people, inspectors, service technicians and engineers, programmers, guards, administration etc. and the whole supply chain will create companies and jobs all along the way. of course lots (most) of stuff will come in boxes from china, but for some things it will be easier ( = cheaper) to produce in US. even if it was some stupid packaging glue.

      yes, there will not be as much jobs as people hope for, but there will definitely be lots of jobs created.

    2. Re:The problem is not the plant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still better than having it in china right?

  29. Buzzword Bingo time by darthsilun · · Score: 1

    ... would incentivize Apple to "build a big plant in the United States, ...

    Incentivize? I don't recognize that as a word except when I'm playing buzzword bingo during a meeting.

    Maybe he "... would provide incentives for Apple to build plants..." ?

    #justsayin'

    1. Re:Buzzword Bingo time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny, because Merriam-Webster recognizes is as a word
      http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incentivize

  30. specifics by bugs2squash · · Score: 1

    What specific regulations are preventing Apple manufacturing in the USA ? What specifically will be their reduction in tax bill ? Because lacking specifics I'm imagining the regulations that prevent forced labor camps and toxic wastelands, and a tax change that goes from Apple pays something to we all pay apple.

    --
    Nullius in verba
    1. Re:specifics by bongey · · Score: 1

      Listen to Tim Cook,who already said he would build here if the tax laws changed. Trump will get this done, so keep doing your OMG Trump. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ap...

    2. Re:specifics by Lisandro · · Score: 1

      He's talking about overseas funds, not factories. Pretty big difference.

  31. There are no startups, said nobody, ever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...And companies can't, they can't even start up, ...

    Hmm. All those startups in Sili Valley, RTP, Boston, and etc., must be figments of our liberal imaginations then.

  32. If you haven't guessed by now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That Trump is full of shit then there is no hope for you.

    Trump was elected because he was a White male after the US went batshit crazy because a Black president didn't destroy the nation and all those Brown immigrants arent stuck in ghettos but actually opening up businesses, buying homes, etc. Now the Nazis are marching and the goofy rich con job is trying to fix his image before the US rulers and mobsters decide he needs to take a ride like JFK.

    Fuck shit no wonder why half the world thinks US people are dumb as hell. You prove it constantly.

  33. Re: And he's going to get the Chinese to pay for i by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Same meth the Nazis that voted for him are. Isn't it hilarious the Nazi candidate is such a dumb shit? Wouldn't be able to stop laughing if it wasn't for the fact that dumb shit has control of the largest military in the world.

  34. Calculations by Nehmo · · Score: 1

    I'm glad he disposed of Hillary. But now that that done, I've done some calculations. It turns out it would be cheaper to send Trump to China than it would be to bring Apple here. That's the answer.

    --
    (||) Nehmo (||)
  35. Efficient not to ship over seas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You save transport costs if you make things in the US that are sold in the US. There is a huge amount of supply chain infrastructure necessary to start making iPhones and iPads in the US though. The price will have to go up or they will have to be subsidized, neither seems very appealing.

    And Trump is right, the US should make robots.

  36. 60 Min: Tim Cook already said he would by bongey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Tim Cook already said he would build factories here if the corporate tax laws were changed, which is Trump is going to get done with republican congress. Going OMG Trump is getting a little old. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    1. Re:60 Min: Tim Cook already said he would by bongey · · Score: 1

      Grammar fail today, come to think of it, that is everyday.

    2. Re:60 Min: Tim Cook already said he would by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      In other words, Cook, like any CEO, will happily build factories in the US, providing the US government subsidizes them.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:60 Min: Tim Cook already said he would by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean, if Apple pays no taxes after deductions, he'll build iPhones here. Bribe them with no taxes. Essentially removing the taxes from revenue, which creates either higher taxes for us, or declines in necessary spending, or both.

    4. Re:60 Min: Tim Cook already said he would by Lisandro · · Score: 2

      Have you seen the link you posted? He's talking about repatriating overseas funds, not factories.

    5. Re:60 Min: Tim Cook already said he would by bongey · · Score: 1

      Try to educate yourself, the tax rate inhibits growth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... http://www.forbes.com/sites/ti...

    6. Re:60 Min: Tim Cook already said he would by Lisandro · · Score: 1

      Oh yes, because Apple has been having a lot of growth issues, earning problems and just an overall lack of desire to invest in the US. Take a drive through Cupertino and look for the white mothership.

    7. Re:60 Min: Tim Cook already said he would by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The point? I will happily donate lots of money to Charity and hand out $100 bills to the homeless I see on the street if you completely zero out my income taxes.

      Does it sound any different? Of course he will provide "jobs" if we give out more in tax cuts than the "jobs" pay out. 400mil or whatever in tax cuts in one year to then pay out 200mil in "jobs" wages.. Sounds like a good deal doesn't it?

      This jobs bullshit has got to stop. If I could dump my trash out in the street (regulations) and piss in the lakes (EPA) I'd be able to be more competitive with other workers who have to stop working and use the restroom. I'd definitely pay more in taxes with that clever edge over my fellow countrymen.

      If they just abolished speed limits and let me run over small women and children who dare cross the road I'd be more competitive in the workplace. Think of all the money it would bring the healthcare industry.

      These "jobs" and reductions in "regulations" sounds to me a lot like the mocking above.... No reason small guys can't get to ignore some taxes and laws too!

    8. Re:60 Min: Tim Cook already said he would by ghrom · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the voice of reason.

  37. What are the assumptions in that 2X conclusion? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What are the assumptions that went into Apple's 2X cost conclusion? Did they assume the same number of workers? The answer to that is that the US factories would be more automated. The big thing that makes sense in terms of adding cost is that supply line--we've outsourced so much of that, it we'd have a devil of a time getting it up and running.

    Really though, each "smart" phone represents the export of a lot of things such as environmental degredation and labor exploitation. If it really only costs twice as much to make them here, that's lower than I thought.

    Apple could hire people that aren't slaves, and they could comply with environmental regs, assuming that Trump doesn't trash them all. If you Apple weenies won't pay 2X for something that's "green and fair trade", then you should just turn in your progressive cards, or whatever it is you like to call yourselves these days.

  38. Re:And he's going to get the Chinese to pay for it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He probably thinks one wall of the factory could be part of the wall Mexico is going to pay for, thus Apple only needs to build 3 walls (paid for by China) and well all know China build great big beautiful walls.

    By the time the factory to build the robots is built, Trump will be impeached.

    When Trump means he will negotiate new trade deals, he probably means that each country will have to build a Trump Tower (at their expense) and pay him royalties for the next 20 years to use his name on the buildings.

  39. Yes, and I'm Rick James, b*itch! by MobyDisk · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Trump is a brilliant improviser. One way to redirect criticism is to accept the criticism, and spin it as though it agreed with you. I actually took a course on collaboration in a corporate environment that talks about this. Their idea was not to use it to spin things though, but to keep people open to ideas. Instead of saying "no, you are wrong because" you say "yes, and..." elaborate on how you will address the problem. Trump takes this to the next level.

    Trump: "I'm going to build a wall"
    The world: "That's ridiculous, that will cost 5 billions of dollars!"
    Trump: "My wall idea is soo ridiculous, it will cost 10 billion dollars!"
    The world: "We can't afford that."
    Trump: "So I'll have somebody else pay for it!"

    Trump: "I'm going to build iPhones in America."
    The world: "That will cost too much."
    Trump: "Yeah! They will cost so much that we will have to construct robots to build the phones!"
    The world: "But if robots build them, that won't employ workers."
    Trump: "My robots will be so awesome that they will cook breakfast for the workers!"

    Sometimes I want him to say "Because I'm Donald Trump, bitch" in the same voice that Dave Chapelle used when he said "'Cuz I'm Rick James, bitch!"

    Irony: One reason you can build iPhones cheaply in China is because Chinese workers don't get the kinds of protections and rights that US workers do. That was part of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP): to raise the worker protections in China to level the playing field. Trump is doing the opposite. He says regulations will be removed in the US. So instead of raising worker protections for Chinese workers, it sounds like he is going to remove protections from US workers. And ironically, the blue-collar workers voted for this.

    1. Re:Yes, and I'm Rick James, b*itch! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      One reason you can build iPhones cheaply in China is because Chinese workers don't get the kinds of protections and rights that US workers do. That was part of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP): to raise the worker protections in China to level the playing field.

      Sadly, I think that kind of agreement would has as much of an impact as the practical environmental protections that China passed into law... but refuses to enforce.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    2. Re:Yes, and I'm Rick James, b*itch! by ghoul · · Score: 3, Informative

      China was not part of the TPP

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    3. Re:Yes, and I'm Rick James, b*itch! by bongey · · Score: 1

      China wasn't part of the TPP, nor were there any real worker protections better than NAFTA that was also suppose help foreign workers. The only thing it would do is open free trade for rich countries to abuse poor countries just like NAFTA.
      Mexican Min wage was 1993 4.15 USD per DAY(not hour), 2016 4.25 USD per DAY. US had a similar boom from 1900-1920 wages went from 37c to 1.07 an hour nearly tripling wages. So how did it help workers in mexico again? http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12...

      Actual Mexican workers, yep living in shack is moving ahead. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      If Mexico fixed their abuse of workers, there wouldn't be an illegal immigrant problem.

    4. Re:Yes, and I'm Rick James, b*itch! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Irony: One reason you can build iPhones cheaply in China is because Chinese workers don't get the kinds of protections and rights that US workers do. That was part of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP): to raise the worker protections in China to level the playing field. Trump is doing the opposite.

      That is one of the ideas behind the TPP, but a China isn't a party to the treaty.

    5. Re:Yes, and I'm Rick James, b*itch! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was part of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP): to raise the worker protections in China to level the playing field

      No, it wasn't. China wasn't party to the TPPA.

    6. Re:Yes, and I'm Rick James, b*itch! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So instead of raising worker protections for Chinese workers, it sounds like he is going to remove protections from US workers. And ironically, the blue-collar workers voted for this.

      Nothing ironic about it. Trump has proven that roughly half of the population is of below average intelligence.

    7. Re:Yes, and I'm Rick James, b*itch! by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

      Thanks to everyone who pointed out that China isn't a part of the TPP. *wipes egg from face*

    8. Re:Yes, and I'm Rick James, b*itch! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One reason you can build iPhones cheaply in China is because Chinese workers don't get the kinds of protections and rights that US workers do. That was part of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP): to raise the worker protections in China to level the playing field. Trump is doing the opposite. He says regulations will be removed in the US. So instead of raising worker protections for Chinese workers, it sounds like he is going to remove protections from US workers. And ironically, the blue-collar workers voted for this.

      This is exactly what the Right has tried to do since 2000. The poor, white trash have given them a blank check, unfettered power to an utter sell-out. It's sad.

    9. Re: Yes, and I'm Rick James, b*itch! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      TPP did not include China.

  40. Or. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or they could simply make less profit. They've stashed almost a quarter trillion dollars away, not paying people well. They make 20 billion a quarter. A tiny sliver of that could bring the factories home.

    1. Re:Or. by toadlife · · Score: 1

      Or they could simply make less profit. They've stashed almost a quarter trillion dollars away, not paying people well.

      And that end would best be achieved by raising taxes, not lowering them.

      --
      I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
  41. Not only that, you can't read by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Not only that, but forcing companies to build domestically is itself a type of regulation.

    In the original article the way Trump was going to get Apple to build more here was via tax cuts and other incentives, NOT REGULATION.

    Because regulations may be able to stop people from doing things (sometimes) but they usually can't make them start...

    Or, Trump could give corporations huge tax decreases, they'll pocket the money

    Why would Apple need MORE money pocketed? Apple would far rather put lots of the money they have "pocketed" to work.

    What will happen is Trump will give Apple a huge break on taxes for re-patriating overseas money, Apple will bring a lot back and spend a lot of it here.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Not only that, you can't read by Lisandro · · Score: 1

      What will happen is Trump will give Apple a huge break on taxes for re-patriating overseas money, Apple will bring a lot back and spend a lot of it here.

      Um, why? They don't really have a problem doing that already. Have you been to Cupertino lately?

    2. Re:Not only that, you can't read by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Yes, he'll cut them a deal that nobody else can get.
      Crony capitalism.
      Hillary (yes she's old news) was accused of the same thing by Trump, and while he may have been correct this is far more extreme than others running the USA have done for a very long time (and far more than Hillary was likely to do).

      It may sound good initially but in hindsight you'll see that it's only good for the cronies. If you don't have what it takes to do a deal with Trump expect to be collatoral damage when his deals with others take things away from you.

    3. Re:Not only that, you can't read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why would Apple need MORE money pocketed? Apple would far rather put lots of the money they have "pocketed" to work.

      what the fuck have you been smoking? when has trickle down economics ever worked?

    4. Re:Not only that, you can't read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > tax cuts and other incentives, NOT REGULATION.

      In what way can a tax cut or other incentive _not_ be done by passing a regulation or some sort of law ?

      Do you think that Trump can just tell the IRD: "pay Apple a few billion dollars or you will be fired" ?

  42. Re:And he's going to get the Chinese to pay for it by bongey · · Score: 1

    Same thing I guess Tim Cook the CEO of Apple is smoking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  43. Ladies and Gentlemen, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...words from the polished turd you all voted for.

    Let me know how that works out for you.

  44. Re: And he's going to get the Chinese to pay for i by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    The Nazi vote didn't get him in.

    It was the White female sleeper cells.

    He doesn't control the military, either.

    Notice the hand-holding by Congress.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  45. Idea! (wink) by presidenteloco · · Score: 1

    Couldn't the US import a lot of patient, small handed, inexpensive workers from Mexico?

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
    1. Re:Idea! (wink) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And make Mexico pay for them?

  46. And ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... he's going to make Mexico pay for it

    1. Re:And ... by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      Make iPhone users pay for it, since manufacturing in the US is going to be so much more expensive.

      Republicans like to make our grandchildren pay for everything, by paying for corporate subsidies with huge deficit spending.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  47. hashtag alt-left by rectalfeeding · · Score: 1

    I am very liberal, and very much a Democrat. Yet, I completely agree. It makes no sense to tax a corporation. Tax personal income. Tax sales of goods and services. Allow a business to invest all its money in itself and it's employees.

    If only there were more of us who feel this way. I'm really so old I've forgotten all of my thinking process on this, but is corporate taxation in addition to the taxation of investment profits/dividends simply a kind of double dipping for no clearly valuable reason? Am I just so old I've forgotten the clearly valuable reason? Somebody from the non-alt-left want to try and remind me?

    1. Re:hashtag alt-left by ghoul · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Corporations are not natural entities. They are created by law and they let the shareholders hide behind the corporations and not have any personal liability for anything they do in the name of the corporation. This is expensive for society. Still society allows it in return for the money they get from corporations as corporate taxes. I would support 0 tax for corporations if directors of corporations become personally liable for all decisions made by a corporation including bankruptcy so if a corporation like Trump Hotels declares bankruptcy then Donald Trump loses his right to vote and right to stand for elections. Also any consumer lawsuits against a corporation gets paid out of the personal wealth of the corporation's directors. If you dont want this then pay up for the immunity you buy using corporate taxes. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

      --
      **Life is too short to be serious**
    2. Re:hashtag alt-left by rectalfeeding · · Score: 1

      I would support 0 tax for corporations if directors of corporations become personally liable for all decisions made by a corporation including bankruptcy so if a corporation like Trump Hotels declares bankruptcy then Donald Trump loses his right to vote and right to stand for elections.

      You kind of lost me here, as I would hope the terms in such a concise discussion would expand the scope beyond the rare corner-cases that involve whacky president elect billionaires. But thanks for the answer, I'll ponder it some.

    3. Re:hashtag alt-left by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      Still society allows it in return for the money they get from corporations as corporate taxes.

      No, society embraces incorporated entities because of all of the benefits such entities bring to the economy and to society. Millions of jobs. The products and services they provide. The enormous economic activity and tax revenue that comes indirectly from all of those employees, sales taxes, income taxes on the employees of the vendors who supply those companies, and so on.

      You're also (deliberately, of course) pretending that it isn't just profit-seeking companies that are incorporated. Everything from the Red Cross to the Audubon Society to the NAACP and the NRA are all incorporated. So are trade unions, and that family dry cleaning operation down the street.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    4. Re:hashtag alt-left by psmoot · · Score: 2

      They are created by law and they let the shareholders hide behind the corporations and not have any personal liability for anything they do in the name of the corporation. This is expensive for society. Still society allows it in return for the money they get from corporations as corporate taxes.

      I'm getting off topic but that's not the point of corporations.

      Corporations are formed because sometimes it's often easier to work as a group without the friction and transaction costs of trying to coordinate a group of independent actors. In theory, Apple could just hire 10,000 independent contract programmers working out of their houses to develop iOS. That would generate an enormous amount of overhead. At some point it's much cheaper and simpler to create a single legal entity with shared assets, cash flows, processes and the like. That's why people form corporations. Books have been written about this.

      We don't tolerate corporations because we can skim taxes off them. Yes, that's a way to finance government but it's not the main point. The real win for society is corporations product products and services we gleefully and willingly buy. That transaction is mutually beneficial (what party will participate if they think they're losing value in the process) so both the buyer and the seller are made better off. Corporations are the best way we've yet found to really scale this up and generate enormous amounts of wealth for everyone.

      There's a slew of ways to form a corporation: sole proprietorship, S-corp, C-corp, LLC, and probably others. IANAL so I can't tell you why you choose one over the other. But the whole idea was to make it safe for people to participate in a company and protect some of their personal assets. We as a society decided it was better to let people form corporations and take risks if they didn't have to worry about losing their house when their business idea flops. Most businesses do fail. The ones which succeed produce more value than all the failures lost. We want to make it safe to try crazy things on the off chance it is the next Apple, Google, Newman's Own, whatever.

      (I'm trying to remember when limited liability corporations were invented. I think it was in the Netherlands in the early 1600's--some of early Europeans explorers were financed by these funky new LLCs like the Dutch East India trading company. That's about the time you see Europe starting to become very wealthy compared to the rest of the world. The industrial revolution a century and a half later really took advantage of this.)

    5. Re:hashtag alt-left by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "No, society embraces incorporated entities because of all of the benefits such entities bring to the economy and to society. Millions of jobs. The products and services they provide."

      I think you are misunderstanding the discussion. These 'entities' are legal conceptual constructs. The discussion is about the same millions of people doing the same millions of jobs producing the same services and products, just without the virtual legal construct/entities.

      Rather specifically, when you think of benefits to your life from [Insert Kudos Recipient's Corporate Name Here], remember that it was not that virtual grouping that made those products. It was a large number of individual homosapiens.

    6. Re:hashtag alt-left by rectalfeeding · · Score: 1

      Corporations are the best way we've yet found to really scale this up and generate enormous amounts of wealth for everyone.

      Somebody sure drank some good flavored sugar water.

    7. Re:hashtag alt-left by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is expensive for society. Still society allows it in return for the money they get from corporations as corporate taxes.

      No dude, it's allowed because corporations enable large-scale employment and creation of stuff that people like. Believe it or not, the "Jobs family" model of doing business doesn't scale as well as the AAPL model. Society rather enjoys little perks like tens of thousands of jobs created and being able to walk into an Apple store anywhere in the world.

      Apple doesn't pay billions in income tax because they don't have to, and it would be immoral to. Like, explain why Tim Cook et al should be paying for troops to get their legs blown off in Buttfuck, Afghanistan or kids in NV to drone-bomb the shit out of Yemeni weddings and primary schools.

    8. Re:hashtag alt-left by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      No, I get it. Those millions of jobs we're both talking about WOULD NOT EXIST without the legal constructs that allow people to form organizations that survive (for example) the death of the person who founds the business. And no ... just because individual humans are involved in making (as examples) a highly specialized cancer drug or an advanced modern electric car doesn't mean it could happen without the pooled resources and solid structure of the corporate entity that brings it together (and which makes it possible for investors to be more willing to risk billions of dollars on those ventures).

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    9. Re: hashtag alt-left by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not necessary to have incorporated entities to bring those benefits. In the UK one of the most successful retail chains is a cooperative.

    10. Re: hashtag alt-left by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you don't like what the club committee is spending your club fees on the appropriate responses are to vote to replace the committee or lobby for it to stop those activities, not stay in the club and lobby to not pay its fees.

    11. Re: hashtag alt-left by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He meant lose his seat on the board of directors of the company. Not the US presidency.

    12. Re: hashtag alt-left by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      In the UK one of the most successful retail chains is a cooperative.

      And if a court, in a civil suit, finds that chain liable for some hideous amount of money because of actions (or slander, whatever) ... the individual people who work in that chain of stores lose their personal houses, etc? When the chain's trademarks or other intellectual property is challenged, it's a court case involving every single employee of the chain? No. There is a legal entity that handles all such matters, and which shelters employees from financial wreckage because of disasters that occur in the course of doing business.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    13. Re:hashtag alt-left by psmoot · · Score: 1

      Corporations are the best way we've yet found to really scale this up and generate enormous amounts of wealth for everyone.

      Somebody sure drank some good flavored sugar water.

      I'm sorry, I don't understand. Maybe I wasn't clear.

      Let's go back to first principles. You and a few buddies have an idea for a new product. Why would you decide to incorporate? You don't need to. You could all work on your parts of the project, buy your own equipment, write your own code, etc. If you had some shared expense, each of you could chip in your share each time you needed something. When a widget sells, each of you gets a share of the proceeds. Easy peasy. Well, actually, it sounds like a pain in the rear. There's a lot of overhead to do anything. If you want to buy a fridge for your Red Bulls in the garage, each of you has to get out your wallet. There's no single bank account, if one of you leaves, you have to figure out how to sell his share of the fridge and the remaining drinks, and on and on and on.

      Now try scaling that up to an organization with 100 people. You'd never get anything done. Now scale to 100,000.

      So all I'm saying is that at its core, a corporation is about reducing the friction of having a bunch of people sharing assets so they can work together. If I remember my history correctly, limited liability came later and that's the second important feature.

      I'm not saying every corporation is perfect or that corporate law is optimal. All I'm pointing out is that we don't "tolerate" corporations because we want taxes from them. We tolerate (encourage, celebrate) them because they help us be productive.

      What I think the OP probably meant was there are some large, well known examples of corporations which s/he thinks are bad actors and the bad behavior of those corporations are tolerated because they pay a lot of taxes. Could be, I'm guessing, and we'd have to go into specifics. I disagree with the blanket implication that all corporations fall into this bucket. I believe that's an inaccurate and simplistic view.

      Does that make my position clearer?

    14. Re:hashtag alt-left by rectalfeeding · · Score: 1

      Does that make my position clearer?

      Sure, and it was pretty clear in the first place. Mainly I was giving you flak about the word 'everyone'. There are a lot of 'ones' that would probably take offense at being put into that category by you, in that context especially. I'm sure you grok.

      Otherwise, your clarification did reiterate your consideration of the tax<->llc issue being secondary- Though my entry into the discussion was really a result of pondering the idea of it being a primary thing. You presented a good counter-narrative to that. Thanks. However I'm still going to ponder it some more. I have this hunch that the tax/llc angle is a ripe ground for corruption, which you alluded to as well, though no, i'm not in the mood to debate specifics here and now. Though I will add that in the absence of the tax/llc angle, I have a differing vision of the intractability of scaling that you described. Computers can manage such things pretty well once you program in the rules.

  48. Corrections by SuperKendall · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Regulations are not created by some evil Liberul cabal in Berkeley that sits around smoking weed and drinking espressos

    Right, it's in DC, not Berkley. And it's coke, not weed.

    BUT, any tax cuts means revenues will have to be made up somewhere else

    If companies make more money and higher more people and Apple and other companies are bringing back a ton of overseas cash why Is overall intake of tax revenue not higher? *doe eyes*

    I bet Trump's imagined wealth that this will in fact happen.

    If Trump's weather is so imaginary, why are so many liberals concerned about the real estate he owns all over the world as a conflict of interest? How many overseas properties do you own again? *doe eyes*

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Corrections by vux984 · · Score: 1

      If Trump's weather is so imaginary, why are so many liberals concerned about the real estate he owns all over the world as a conflict of interest?

      If I have 3 billion but imagine I have 10 billion that's still a lot of imagined wealth.

    2. Re:Corrections by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Could you please rephrase that in English for those of us who are not on coke and don't get the "doe eyes" wierdness and other bits that may as well be Kiss lyrics.

    3. Re:Corrections by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where is a car when you need one to run over a deer?

      Lower taxes -> higher tax revenue, are you serious?

      Try asking Kansas how their tax cut experiment worked.

      Idiot

  49. Tax cuts? But no cheap labor by HalAtWork · · Score: 1

    Apple already gets tax cuts, giving them more won't make them bring factories here especially if they don't have the cheap labor and cheap local resources/refineries/expertise they enjoy elsewhere

  50. Re: And he's going to get the Chinese to pay for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The president can send the military out o. Limited campaigns without declarations of war. This has happened constantly over the past couple of US administration s. Also correct me if im wrong but isn't Trump's party the ones that control house and Senate?

  51. Logic 101 by sootman · · Score: 1

    FRIEDMAN: Are you worried, though, that those companies will keep their factories here, but the jobs will be replaced by robots?
    TRUMP: They will, and we'll make the robots, too. [laughter]

    Because if there's one thing robots can't build, it's other robots. Those jobs are totally safe. Go Trump!

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
  52. Cook will have Trump for breakfast by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Cook will have Trump for breakfast. Expect a "deal" to be hammered out where Apple pays even less tax than it does now in exchange for providing a tiny handfull of jobs - just like they did in Ireland except probably even more of a screwover.

  53. Apple is the world's largest taxpayer. by Brannon · · Score: 1

    I'm having trouble reconciling this fact with your assertion that they pay zero taxes now. Perhaps it's because you made up your facts to fit some compelling narrative:

    http://thetechnalyzer.com/apple-is-the-largest-taxpayer-in-the-world/

  54. Re: And he's going to get the Chinese to pay for i by vel-ex-tech · · Score: 1

    Yup, and those selfsame damned women have already started going nuts because OMG Trump hates women!!eleven! THEN WHY DID YOU SHITS VOTE FOR HIM?! WHEN ARE WE GOING TO FUCKING HOLD WOMEN ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR SHIT THE WAY THEY'RE HOLDING ALL ASSIGNED MALES ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE END OF ABORTION?!

    Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING. I am yelling, god damn it. Bacon ipsum dolor amet ball tip pork ham hock, fatback doner venison beef turkey shoulder tri-tip. Shankle leberkas spare ribs, sausage cow meatloaf pastrami venison chicken.

  55. No reason for Apple to build by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Apple could continue to outsource manufacturing as they do now, but in the US. Electronic contract manufactures such as, Jabil, Flex (formerly Flextronics), and Celestica have sites across the US. http://www.jabil.com/locations/ https://www.flextronics.com/who-we-are/locations/americas?field_region_country_tid=31&field_focus_tid=All https://www.celestica.com/about-us/locations#americas

  56. Re:And he's going to get the Chinese to pay for it by ghoul · · Score: 2

    Actually its very easy to get the Chinese to pay for stuff in the US. They hold a huge amount of dollars. Just start the printing presses and devalue the dollar and the Chinese holding just went down in value and you used the printed dollars for what you wanted to do. In effect the Chinese paid for it.

    --
    **Life is too short to be serious**
  57. Re:Breaking: Assad to impose US-wide "No Apple Zon by dbIII · · Score: 1

    How would he do that? Does he have the authority?

    The real question to ask is why he is saying such a thing when it lies so far outside of the bounds of reality.
    It's going to be interesting, but not in a good way.

  58. Re: And he's going to get the Chinese to pay for i by dbIII · · Score: 1

    To hijack a the old ipod meme:
    Less votes than Romney. Lame.


    So few people did their duty as citizens and bothered to vote.
    Democracy - use it or lose it. If everyone who could vote voted there would be room for a third party instead of the loudest clown versus the one best at playing political insider games.

  59. Limited campaigns? by PatientZero · · Score: 1

    Like that tiny kerfuffle known as the Vietnam War^H^H^H Police Action?

    --
    Freedom to fear. Freedom from thought. Freedom to kill.
    I guess the War on Terror really is about freedom!
  60. What about the walls? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will Trump Build the Walls for the Plant?

  61. That German spy Trump is a funny guy by fubarrr · · Score: 1

    That German spy Trump is a funny guy

  62. I hope he keeps banging this drum hard by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    because when it doesn't happen (or it does and our free speech policies make it pretty obvious they're dumping chemicals into drinking water and air like they do in China) it'll blow up.

    The only thing that scares me is this: without a war Trump is a one term president. And he's already lining up Syria and Iran...

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  63. Higher Unemployment by Smiddi · · Score: 1

    Robots do the work? - then this technology will be deployed to more companies. Therefore even higher unemployment.

  64. American Work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The partially assembled components will be shipped to the USA, where the US workers will place it into a made in USA box, and tape the box with made in USA tape, and possibly supply printed in USA instructions, printed on made in USA paper.

    Maybe for more advanced workers, they can plug in some tiny cables, or put the protective tape on the screen, as long as it's made in USA.

    Maybe they can even build chargers and dongles in the USA, and place them in USA made boxes, with USA made plugs.

    The workers will be paid minimum wage of 6.25/hr, because anything more will stifle innovation.

    The workers will all be part time, casual workers, because full time stifles innovation.

    The workers will have their own funded healthcare, because the expensive ObamaCare will be repealed.

    The workers will have no union, because unions stifle innovation.

    The workers will have to undergo drug screening, lie detector tests, and have no vacation days, sick days, or family days, because those hurt productivity.

  65. With automation... by KenHansen · · Score: 1
    With automation (robots) Apple could just as easily make their iPhones in America as China or anywhere else. Is there some reason the robots employed around-the-clock, seven days a week grinding out iPhones in a Japan can't be brought to America? The actual hands-on manual labor involved in iPhone production is quite low, and could/would likely be reduced once labor costs go up to US worker levels.

    The point of moving iPhone production to the US isn't to bring back jobs, it's to make America more self-reliant, send less US dollars to China.

  66. Interesting idea, but flawed by TiggertheMad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First of, Kudos to parent post for making a well thought out argument for policy that doesn't involve mindlessly demonizing the left or right in some simplistic idiotic fashion.

    Your proposal seems very sound, encourage business and lower the barrier to create and compete. Tax the people who profit, not the company. However, I see two problems with your argument.

    1) Corporations don't really pass on taxes to the consumers. Most taxes are on profits, not units sold, so unless you are thinking that sales tax is lion's share of tax that is paid out (it isn't), this isn't really an accurate view. A better way to describe taxes for corporations is being paid out of profits that could be returned to investors as profit or used for recapitalization. This would probably just result in the really wealth owners of corporations becoming even more wealth unless you also really cranked up the personal income tax for the wealthy and removed tax dodges. Businesses get to write off business expenses and deduct them from profits already, so removing taxes on profits isn't going to suddenly cause companies to radically change their expenditure on labor or infrastructure.

    2) Corporations are used as personal piggy-banks by the very wealthy. By removing any taxes on corporate profits, you allow me as a majority interest holder in a large or wealthy corporation to keep my profits in the corp and then use the profits to acquire more companies and aggregate holdings completely tax free. And only divesting as I needed cash. It would be like being able to put your entire income into a tax free ROTH account, and only deducting money (and therefor paying taxes) when you bought groceries, but accruing wealth and interest in the interim.

    If you want to do something like this, you would need to put some rules in place to keep corporations either reinvesting or divesting profits to shareholders and employees.

    --

    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
    1. Re:Interesting idea, but flawed by jandersen · · Score: 2

      If I may add my bit, encouraging huge businesses isn't really the best strategy; small to medium sized companies more create employment more efficiently (as in more employees per $ in revenue) because they tend to have less management overhead etc, and a small business is less prone to find ways to transport their profits to tax-havens (possibly because the overhead cost of financial trickery is too high for a small company).

    2. Re:Interesting idea, but flawed by limaxray · · Score: 1

      1) You clearly don't understand how the economy works, but most people with your point of view don't. Thise taxes are paid by someone, either the customer through higher prices (which includes improving production efficiency and not passing the lower costs to the consumer), or through lower profits. Profits, even the ones that make people wealthier, are almost entirely invested. This investment is what fuels capital accumulation, economic growth, and job creation. We should be encouraging this since this is what makes EVERYONE weathier. Almost a century of keynesian idiocy and people forget that this capital investment is just as important (if not more so) as consumption. Look, if you didn't have the rich folk buying the equipment you use to make a living, you'd be stuck digging holes in the dirt with your bare hands trying to survive. See 100+ years ago or every Socialist utopia that ever existed.

      2) So what? Again, using corporate funds for capital investment is a GOOD thing. Just because you're greedy and think you should be able to squander it on useless crap doesn't give you the moral superiority to take from someone else.

      I know most people know shockingly little about economics. There's no such thing as Scrooge McDuck, the wealthy aren't just keeping massive vats of cash - they reinvest the gross majority of their capital gains which is what actually grows our economy. By pulling taxes from anywhere you are leaching away from this investment and making us all poorer in the long run.

      While I have a lot of issues with Trump, especially on his apparent economic ignorance (which might just be a farce to appeal to the ignorant populist 'they're taking er jerbs' types), this is exactly what needs to happen - lowering or eliminating corporate taxes and reducing corporate regulations. This is how Sweden and co are able to afford their lavish social programs, by returning to free market capitalism and enticing evil corporations to come and grow. Fuck, I would be happy if we could drop all of this crazy govt manipulation of our economy in exchange for a flat consumption tax and universal basic income (as fucking stupid as that is, it would be way way better than the protectionist and corporatist madness we have now)

    3. Re:Interesting idea, but flawed by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      Corporations don't really pass on taxes to the consumers.

      Don't kid yourself. The biggest corporate taxes are on people—the Medicare tax and the Social Security tax. Those come out of the bottom line, and you bet they pass every penny of that on to the people who buy their products. Same goes for property tax, etc. And even with corporate income taxes, if you assume that the goal of a corporation is to make money, then it stands to reason that any increase in those taxes will result in the leadership raising prices so that their after-taxes profit remains the same. That's why corporate taxes are fundamentally regressive.

      The problem with taxing corporations is that the people who are getting taxed are effectively the same people who set the prices. By taxing individual income, you avoid that problem. Cranking up the capital gains tax rate to be the same as ordinary income means that the people who are getting taxed largely lack the power to raise prices to compensate for those taxes, and the cost doesn't get passed on. That's really the only way to keep the people at the bottom from ultimately paying the entire cost of those taxes.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    4. Re:Interesting idea, but flawed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At some point, your wealthy Mr Example is going to want to get money out of his piggy bank. That's when you tax it. It'll be paid out as salary (employing himself and/or others he wants to patronize, such as his children) or dividends, but either way it should be taxable as income.

    5. Re:Interesting idea, but flawed by psmoot · · Score: 1

      Thise taxes are paid by someone, either the customer through higher prices (which includes improving production efficiency and not passing the lower costs to the consumer), or through lower profits.

      You make an important point. Who pays the tax (that is, who writes the check to the government) and who bears the burden (that is, who ultimately bears the cost) are not the same. Generally the burden will be borne by some combination of the investors (lower profits), customers (higher prices) or employees (lower wages and benefits). There may be other parties but those are the biggies. How exactly it works out depends on other factors, mostly how competitive the investment, product, and job markets are.

  67. The false metric problem by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Don't just look at the graph - learn what it represents.
    I once did some contract work at a steelworks with fantastic productivity numbers yet a year later they went broke. What mattered was not selling at a loss instead of a rubbery figure that neglected most inputs and outputs.


    A good way to boost such false metrics is to sack all product development, testing and maintainance staff while not training replacements for production staff. The numbers look utterly fantastic until reality sets in and other companies who did not cut eat your lunch.

    I suggest looking at inputs and outputs instead of deliberately distracting highly massaged numbers. Compare sales over years adjusted for inflation and go back to before 2008 to see the reality of a slow climb out of a deep hole instead of the wonderful thing people wish to trick you into believing.

  68. Re: And he's going to get the Chinese to pay for i by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    Experiment:

    Let's start a ballot initiative to either allow or ban Candy Crush Saga.

    Voter registration sites go down in 3... 2... 1 ...

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  69. Re: And he's going to get the Chinese to pay for i by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Let's start a ballot initiative to either allow or ban Candy Crush Saga.

    In my state there are normally a lot of "informal" votes - blank or messed up in some way. I'm not sure of the percentage but it's usually a few percent.
    We had a vote on daylight saving time. There was 51% against, 49% for and less than half a percent of "informal" votes. People actually had something they wanted to vote on that time. Sometimes compulsory voting actually works (compelled by the risk of a trivial fine where I live).

  70. Trumps a liar by erexx23 · · Score: 1

    Trumps a liar and nothing but some good Slashdot fun will come of this.

  71. Eh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Classic Series and up from Mexico blow away any Asian Strat or any American Standard. You have to step up to the American Deluxe series to finally start seeing more quality, and even then it's not worth the premium.

    Just find a used Classic Player, and call it a day.

    1. Re:Eh by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      That's exactly right. Pick up a Classic Player and bring it to a guitar tech or luthier to dress the frets and set it up for you and you'll really have something. Plus, you'll have enough left over to buy a half-pound of weed and a couple of cases of Jack Daniels.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re: Eh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When Hillary wins there'll be out-of-work coal miners playing Mexican guitars on every corner! The horror.

  72. Re :Re:Dear Apple fans by King_TJ · · Score: 1

    Long time Apple user here.

    A couple things here:

    1. Apple has large profit margins on all of its products. If they have other incentives for bringing production of products like the iPhone back to America, they can certainly accept a smaller margin on each unit to help offset higher production costs. It's all a matter of what makes economic sense in the grand scheme of things. (Don't forget - there's some potential marketing value in saying it's "Made in the USA" too.)

    2. A lot of manufacturing of electronics in general is done in countries like China because they don't care about the environmental damage the production does. (They've got entire cities full of pollution and at least one river that's basically poison flowing through it.) That's an economic decision in and of itself though. China is essentially trading some of its natural resources and national health for ability to stay competitive (if not the ONLY one) making these goods. IMO, this is the "dirty little secret" of why America let a lot of those jobs go overseas in the first place. We didn't want to incur the environmental impact ourselves. For better or for worse, nobody really has figured out a method of roll the true environmental costs of production into things. (This is why you hear about "carbon credit" schemes and the like.... All additional economic mechanisms to attempt to factor in those costs in the price of things like electric power generation and direct them to mitigating the damage. But IMO, all still greatly flawed because we can't trust the entities collecting the money to use it solely for that purpose.)

  73. Immigrant labor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So what's to stop Apple from employing immigrants at those plants like all the farms and food processing plants around the country

  74. Um, Pence is Anti-GLBTQ by BrendaEM · · Score: 1

    Um does Chump even know that his VP doesn't care for queer folk, like the Apple president?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
  75. In other news... by Patent+Lover · · Score: 1

    Trump will release his tax returns and give money to the poor. Details at 11.

  76. New Hooverville by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trumpville (N) An abandoned industrial complex created by taxpayer money. The companies closed the factories and took their tax breaks back to China.

  77. +4 insightful mods? Parent makes zero sense. by scatbomb · · Score: 1

    Your idea doesn't really make any sense at all. You claim that society allows corporations to misbehave because they gain taxes from the corporation. But all the corporation does is shift profit offshore, reduce the pay offered to their labor, and raise consumer costs to offset the tax cost. It won't affect the golden parachutes, executive bonuses, etc. The bottom line is that PEOPLE pay the taxes -- and the leaders of the companies decide who gets to pay what part of those taxes.

    If you want the people who earn the most to pay the most, then tax income at the personal level and make it a progressive tax. Corporate tax is generally going to end up being regressive because the people who are most effected by it will INEVITABLY be the people who have the least power and therefore the poorest.

  78. Re:Breaking: Assad to impose US-wide "No Apple Zon by bongey · · Score: 1

    Dipshits abound on slashdot and being modded up. Congress recognized Jerusalem as the capitol since 1995, just gave the president power to defer moving the embassy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  79. wrong by scatbomb · · Score: 1

    Totally myopic comment. The assembly component of the cost of an iphone is already tiny. The total unit cost including components is only around $200, I'd guess the labor contributes around $20 of that. Even if assembling it in the U.S. was twice as expensive that would only add $40 to the price. Anyway, the higher wages in the U.S. will be irrelevant as human labor is increased with machine labor. Trained humans working with machines are waaaaay more productive than sweatshop labor. The increased productivity will offset the more expensive labor. No big deal, no $3000 iPhone.

  80. Only LLCs disclaim all liability... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And only with LLCs run with a sufficient quantity of owners/board members (I believe the number I read was either 3 or 5 MINIMUM, and any number of actions by those members could result in liability protection being lost.)

    Class S and a few of the others DO include liability albeit with certain limitations (like a homesteaded house not counting as a confiscatable asset.)

    For the full details google for the US legal code around the formation and classification of corporations. There is lots of information in there, and plenty of professional synopsis' of what it all means.

  81. Apple Factories by BoogieChile · · Score: 1

    Yeah, that's great and all, Don, but you'd be better off having that phone call with whoever runs Foxconn. Given that Apple doesn't actually, you know, build anything.

  82. Oh dear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ok, Don. A Tax incentive will only work if it offers a better deal than they have already.
    Given that they funnel all of their profits through Ireland to avoid paying taxes where they sell their goods. Then you would have to offer a better deal than they get in Ireland
    Since they are getting a 0.005% corporate tax rate in Ireland. I don't think your are going to offer them a much better deal
    Unless you changes your tax rules to tax revenue and not profit then you are always going to be whistling dixie.
    However it would probably be better if you actually paid your own taxes as an example to all the other corporate to pay their taxes.

  83. Manufacture where? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Which state is going to pay Apple/OSx tax incentives to build a manufacturing plant is it going to be Michigan to Pennsylvania where he wants to build the plant? How much more tax monies does Mr. Trump need to collect from Michigan to Pennsylvania to pay Apple/OSx to build a plant in their state?

  84. Re: your disclaimer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Disclaimer: I voted for neither candidate so save your wind.

    This is no excuse. If you live in the US and you were over 18 on Nov 8th, then it's your fault that Trump won if you didn't vote for Hillary.

  85. Prediction: by silentcoder · · Score: 1

    Just like every other time a republican has made the promise of creating jobs by deregulation:
    - Lots of good regulations that citizens actually BENEFIT from, the ones that make it harder for companies to kill their workers, cheat their customers, steal from you, poison you, defraud you, kill their customers or simply lie about what you are paying for will be removed
    - No jobs will appear
    - None of the annoying, bad, ridiculous, silly regulations will go away (big corporations love those too much because they keep competition expensive)
    - As companies take advantage of the lack of good regulations - this will cause a whole slew of new crisises just like it always does, which will then be used to justify removing even MORE useful regulations.

    Notice how Trump has been targetting the consumer financial protection bureau ? It's one of the few things he and Ryan agrees on - because you can't have law enforcement actually PUNISHING bankers who defraud people. Next time some bank wants to open an account for you without your consent and knowledge and then wait a year or two to send you a massive bill for overdue banking fees on an account that you never opened it really shouldn't end up with the CEO fired without a golden handshake and facing jailtime like the last one. The CFPB must be scrapped - we can't have a government agency actually being efficient and doing it's job - especially when that job benefits Americans and makes it harder for wall street to steal from them.

    --
    Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
  86. robots are the answer by johnjones · · Score: 1

    either you tell machines what to do or the machines tell you what to do

    you choose

    apple are ahead of the game they will allow them to " repatriate " funds to do this in reverse...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYshVbcEmUc

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYshVbcEmUc

    have fun

    John Jones

  87. Depends on what you mean by "make" by DaveHowe · · Score: 1

    Seen a similar need from non-european manufacturers who want to sell into the European market. By doing some final assembly in a European country (but only a token, like putting already prebuilt appliance electronics into a case and sealing it) they can label the final product as "assembled in ". Similarly, I can see Apple shipping phones missing only the backs and (say) the battery into the US to a "final assembly center", claiming a government tax credit for the expense, but only creating a handful of relatively low-skilled and low-paid jobs.

    --
    -=DaveHowe=-
  88. Trumptection vs 1980s chip offshoring - No Apple by An+dochasac · · Score: 1

    Imagine if Trump's protectionism had been used against chip offshoring in the 1970s-1980s. Upwards of 100,000 U.S. jobs would have been saved from low-skill to highly specialized electronic and microprocessor engineering jobs. IChip manufacturing would have never been set up in places such as Mexico and El Salvador. These countries would have to figure out another path to economic survival. With the Soviets having a regional interest, maybe the cold war wouldn't have ended, saving another half a million U.S. technology jobs. With Mexico aligned with Soviet interests, there very well might be a wall built by Mexico to keep its own citizens in.

    Single core CPUs would remain upwards $1000 and the costs of FPGAs and ASICs certainly wouldn't have spiraled down to where microelectronics do not add significantly to the cost of anything from toys to toaster ovens to cars. An iPhone might cost $10,000 (as 1980s Apple Macintosh computers did.) People like Donald Trump would still be able to afford $10,000 iPhones, $15,000 iPads, $20,000 laptops. Of course, the microcomputer, gaming, smartphone and tablet App software industry would be a shadow of what it is today. There are only so many apps required by billionaires and millionaires. With such a limited market I'm underestimating the cost of Apple products and overestimating how viable Apple would be as a company serving a market of only a few thousand millionaires and billionaires.

    Look at how well Trump-style protectionism has worked elsewhere. To save a handful of low-tech legacy U.S. jobs in the steel industry, we've sacrificed hundreds of thousands of jobs in our domestic auto industry. To save competitive domestic oil, coal and solar industry jobs, we've made thousands of U.S. companies uncompetitive with the rest of the world who are rapidly taking advantage of China's

  89. Re:Trumptection vs 1980s chip offshoring - No Appl by An+dochasac · · Score: 1

    of Chinas less than $1 photovoltaics in the same way the U.S. software and computer industry once took advantage of less than $1 microchips.

  90. The only "regulation" whose elimination could... by EricTDuckman1414 · · Score: 1

    The only "regulation" whose elimination could possibly incentivize companies to build manufacturing plants in the U.S. is the 13th amendment.

  91. Why? by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

    "Incentivize" means giving Apple subsidies by tax breaks, direct payment, or other perks. Seriously? Apple has so much cash that they need entire departments to figure out where to stuff it. So even if Apple builds a plant somewhere in the US, where will it be? Somewhere in a place where talent is located and that typically is in short supply of skilled workers? Or in those places where we have economic wasteland and people need to be trained for a long time before they can work in such a plant? And what does he consider 'big' other than his ego? In order to make a reasonable impact that plant needs to employ 10,000+ long term. And even then the question is why? Why go through all this effort to get what would be low paying jobs? I rather see engineering and R&D centers crop up and keep the Chinese gluing the iPhones together. What we need is not factories that operate like it is the 50s. We need future proof options, such as turning old coal mines into hydro power plants, steel factories switching away from making beams towards specialized materials that are stronger and lighter. A throwback to the 80s with trickle down Reagonomics won't work, because it never did.

  92. If coerporations paid 0% tax by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hen they should hold no patents, copyrights or trademarks, since these are enforced and protected by the central government via tax revenue, which the corporation isn't paying. If the employees paying tax are supposed to be equivalent, then only the employees should be allowed to hold these rights and benefit from them (and pursue their protection as we have to for our own possession.

    They should have to pay for fire protection too.

    And how about the armed forces? They protect homes and factories, and only homes are being paid for protection. Corporations should pay for the armed forces that protect their assets too.

    Not to mention MP salaries: no voice for corporations because the salary is paid from taxes, which the corporation doesn't pay.

  93. How exactly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do you incentivize a company that is already hiding its profits offshore to avoid U.S. taxes?

    Trump: Will give you a HUGE tax break.

    Apple: "Ummmm, no thanks. We're good."

  94. Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Neither should have ever been nominated. There are a lot more competent men and women out there to run the country than these two lying idiots. Your statement shows your ignorance.

  95. Carry a big stick by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    Two birds with one stone.

    1) Fix corporate tax loop holes. This would make Apple need to pay Billions in Tax.
    2) Create new tax loop holes, this could save Apple Billions in Tax.

    Two wins.

    Vinnie: "I'd really be a shame if something were to happen to those nice tax loopholes. Perhaps it would be in your best interest to pay for a bit of protection, you know just in case something might happen if you know what I'm sayin'?"

  96. Corporate Tax and Outsourcing by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    Government revenue is largely based on income tax. Income tax is when your population is employed and makes money. When your population is unemployed, or if their salary is not increasing, the relative amount of government revenue also falls.

    So when I corporation basically has all their employees in another country that money is not being collected as income tax. The only way to recover anything is through a corporate tax.

    Eventually this all falls apart otherwise. Ideally you would tie your corporate tax rate to the percentage of employees wages you are not paying income tax on. However this is also known as more less a trade tariff which seems to be a no-no in globalization.

  97. Apple Plant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...and Mexico is going to pay for it!!

  98. Already Established - Not Gonna Happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No company in their right mind would move or build a new plant when they are already established.
    Moving alone would cost much more than whatever penalties they would have to pay.

  99. End Consumer WIll Pay Either Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It doesn't matter if Apple moves to the US or not. Either way, the costs will be shifted to the end consumer. So Trump is fucking over YOU, not Apple.

  100. Does he not understand... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...we only need to make a few robots, then they will make the rest.

  101. US factories already done! Mac Pro is made in TX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Mac Pro is already made in TX, USA. Some issues with this:

    - The Mac Pro is the simplest, most easy to build in the US because it's closest to a traditional modular Wintel PC
    - Because of the previously point - it's also the lowest tech Mac sold and isn't really pushing the envelope so much
    - It's also just about the further product, complexity, tech and design-wise from iPhones
    - The Mac Pro isn't all that popular because it's expensive for what you get - you still need external monitors, keyboard, etc.
    - Imagine the price point for a US-made iPhone - easily 2x-5x higher than the current $800-$1500 price
    - If you did want to try, the factory would be 99% robotic to have any hope of being cost-competitive with China - total jobs added: maybe 100 or so. It would be a reduction from the Foxconn factories in China with are also automating with robotics

  102. Double What? by gordguide · · Score: 1

    I read the article carefully, and I didn't see an answer to my question.
    It says that the "cost will double". But it doesn't say the cost of what.

    If it's the assembly cost, that is only about 3% of the cost of an iPhone. The majority of the parts that go into making an iPhone are not China sourced (although a certain amount is from China, but the largest % of parts comes from Germany, and no, China isn't no2 on the list either).

    What is missing is the infrastructure that surrounds the China assembly plants. The cost of Labor isn't the issue. (China and Mexico have almost identical labor costs, for example).

    That's something that every Mining Engineer could tell you. There are plenty of places in the world with rich mineral or oil deposits, but the infrastructure to exploit those deposits doesn't exist, or more properly exists in the places they are actively mining and pumping today.

    That's the kind of thing that takes years to develop ... it took China a decade to do it, and they were highly motivated and had state sponsorship. The US once had it, but it has withered away and would have to be re-established.

    Apple has built computers in the US, in Ireland, and other "first world" nations in the past, and they assemble iMacs in Texas today.

  103. Re:Breaking: Assad to impose US-wide "No Apple Zon by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Dipshits abound on slashdot and being modded up.

    What does that have to do with me?

    Congress recognized Jerusalem as the capitol since 1995, just gave the president power to defer moving the embassy.

    A law that was passed but never implemented because Clinton, Bush and Obama asserted that Congress infringed on the president's ability to conduct foreign policy. If Trump has any brains, he will continue that policy until the status of Jerusalem is resolved in the Middle East.

  104. pulling taxes by TiggertheMad · · Score: 1

    1) You clearly don't understand how the economy works, but most people with your point of view don't.

    I commend you on your insight into 'my point of view', by the way, what is 'my point of view'? I advocated for no particular POV or change, I just pointed out a few possible pitfalls of the suggested strategy. You sound like the one coming to the discussion with an axe to grind....

    By pulling taxes from anywhere you are leaching away from this investment and making us all poorer in the long run.

    Arrr, taxes are theft! Ayn Was right, the looters are upon us! Taxes are Socialism and slavery! Lol, I keep waiting for you anti-tax types to go set up in failed third world state that has no government. I'm sure that you will become billionaires in short order with your 100% fiscal efficiency.

    --

    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
  105. Ireland by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, Ireland is an EU member state, so the Commission's ruling is likely to be upheld, given that Ireland specified either a low tax rate specific to a single company, or other substantial incentives specific to a single company compared to other companies in Ireland, which could be classed as state aid.

    Ireland's corporate tax rate is already very low, and the country is very likely to gain from Brexit, when companies with seats in the UK will move to Ireland, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Estonia and elsewhere in the EU.

    The labor and talent that had moved to the UK from the rest of the EU per free movement of labor and services, is likely to move to Ireland and other EU member states, if and when opportunities in the UK will wither.

    Many UK citizens will also rediscover their roots in EU countries, especially when a hard Brexit happens.