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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.
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.
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.
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.
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! --
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.
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.
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.
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.
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China was not part of the TPP
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