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Apple's Top Assembler Foxconn Confirms Plans for US Investment, To Create 50,000 Jobs (bloomberg.com)
Foxconn, the biggest assembler of Apple devices, is in preliminary discussions to make an investment that would expand the company's U.S. operations. From a report on Bloomberg: The disclosure came hours after an announcement by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and SoftBank Group's Masayoshi Son to invest $50 billion in the U.S. and create 50,000 jobs. The money will come from SoftBank's $100 billion technology fund, which was announced in October, a person familiar with the matter said. A document that Son held up after the meeting in Trump Tower also included the words "Foxconn," "$7 billion" and "50,000 new jobs" in addition to SoftBank's numbers. "While the scope of the potential investment has not been determined, we will announce the details of any plans following the completion of direct discussions between our leadership and the relevant U.S. officials," Foxconn said in a statement. "Those plans would be made based on mutually-agreed terms."
Only fair.
Trump is going to take the world by the balls and basically start squeezing and say "stop fucking us over OR ELSE. Now would you like to talk?"
The problem is that while Trump may think he has his hands on the world's balls, he doesn't realize that the world also has it's hands on the US's balls. Trade doesn't exist in a vacuum and playing chicken with the economy is not something to look forward to.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
For the past 30 years we've been rolling over and playing dead. Maybe try something else for a bit?
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
“We were talking about it, and then I said I’d like to celebrate his presidential job” because Trump will advocate deregulation, Son told reporters according to Bloomberg News.
There was a lot of speculation about that since the day after the election.
1. Part of Trump's immigration plan is an overhaul of the H1-B system.
2. These are not really "tech" jobs but manufacturing jobs for our average, 100 IQ workers. We need jobs for these people, and the usual liberal canard of "education" has been a failure because you can't cram a 100 IQ auto worker through engineering school and have him come out as a 125 IQ engineer. We need simple jobs for simple folk.
3. Nothing will make you people happy anyway. I hope Trump comes out and says "people should breathe air" so all the lefties will suffocate themselves.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
Actually, it's not.
50,000 American jobs created by factory work? Okay. Now, those iPhones have to generate revenue to pay for those jobs. Apple has huge profit margins, so this isn't much fair (the US business average is under 10% profit margin); but let's say Apple isn't altruistic and is trying to keep those huge profit margins, or just pretend Apple is a normal US business with normal profit margins that fit its business growth and risk control needs (because the only violators of this are what, Apple, Google, and Microsoft?).
To keep the same margins at higher American worker costs, you charge more for the phone.
If you ship fewer phones, you'll have fewer jobs. That includes fewer exports, too, so less international revenue coming to the U.S.; but let's assume that doesn't happen. Everyone buys iPhones at $1,400 instead of $700.
Someone concluded 36 million iPhones sold in the US. If we're imagining a doubling in price above (for illustration; order of magnitude is controlled by depth of price difference, and the difference isn't at 0--we'll get to that), that's $25.2 billion. That's equivalent to 1.52 million minimum-wage incomes.
So for 50,000 jobs shipping 36 million iPhones to US customers (which I doubt actually happens) at $700 additional cost (doubling the price), you lose a maximum of 1.52 million jobs. It's only 50,000 jobs lost if the wages are on average $262/hr for those lost jobs ($524,000/year).
As I said: the price increase controls magnitude. If you increase it by $100 ($700 becomes $800), you're looking at $3.6 billion. That's 218,000 minimum-wage jobs, or 50,000 $72k jobs ($36/hr average wage). That's your exchange.
All of that is based on the sales of US phones to US people. That doesn't count international sales. The biggest take-aways here are that job creation or loss in practice depends on how much you pay the workers--pay them less and you create more jobs, as you noticed--and that everyone who isn't a factory worker and who buys the factory worker's product has less money to spend.
At best, this is a way to enrich factory workers at the expense of all other Americans, reducing the number of available products and services (e.g. we could have expensive iPhones and no Spotify) by drawing both domestic and international money to a subset of peoples's hands, with the international money being spendable back into the US economy. At worst, this is a way to create poor US factory workers, a poor US middle class, and less-competitive United States business, causing a rapid fall in sales as people in Europe roll their eyes at higher-priced iPhones and just go to buy the Chinese-made competitor's product--or maybe Apple will sell Chinese-made phones outside the US and stay competitive, but the US factory workers won't get that international money (14,000 employees at Apple HQ are still getting that cash and propping up Cupertino's economy with $2 billion of wages from across the world).
Again, as you observe: the net job change will be positive (an increase) if we pay the factory workers little and abuse them with minimal benefits and other cost-cutting measures, making them poor even as the products they produce become more-expensive than the import product. Even then, the US consumer still has less money to spend on everything else, and is thus poorer: he can buy fewer things with the same income.
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Trump is cracking down on that
Obligatory... [citation needed]
Yes but it's still better to have the construction and the factory here. There will be some jobs and maintenance as the factory runs. What's being pointed out here is what is already known by those who want to know. Automation is taking away more jobs than outsourcing. And that's not going away. The good thing about automation is that it's making US manufacturing competitive again. The downside is that manufacturing is just going to be a much smaller employer going forward.
So much crying and so little understanding of systems theory.
Sure, americans want more money than chinese children. However, what does it cost to support all the unemployed people and to fight the higher crime and other problems that come with unemployment?
Also, money goes in circles. The american worker paid well will spend a large part of his salary on some other american business (say, the fast food store near work, the gas station on his way to work, etc.) while the chinese child spends his money somewhere in China.
Ford was the first to understand that paying his workers well would actually give him an advantage - if they can afford to buy one of his cars, they will. The same is true of this. Maybe the price of iPhones will rise - or maybe more people will buy them and the price stay the same. Or something inbetween.
It's too easy to just cry that prices will rise. In fact, that's usually a strawman.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Just imagine if bad things happen! Your overactive imagination is not an argument.
Also, am I allowed to be pissed off at China for taking our jobs, our factories, our IP, constantly fucking with their currency and failing to abide by our trade agreements? What does anyone being "pissed off" have to do with anything? Are you the kind of guy who pays sticker price for a car because you don't want to "piss off" the car dealer? Who gives a shit.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
Because in return you get cheap consumer products and the consequences of Chinese manufacturing are far away. Manufacturing jobs aren't coming back to what they were a few decades ago. Automation means factories need to employ far fewer people. Do you really care if a factory is physically located in the US or in China if there are (relatively) no people employed at it? Let's assume the factory extorted the government to avoid paying taxes.
"OPEC suddenly ramps up oil production " The Saudis already tried this strategy and all it did was make the US shell oil production companies become more efficient and lower the profit breakeven point.
"scorched earth policy that somehow pisses off the middle east"
The ME has already been "scorched" for quite some time. It's time the US backed out of the region and let the murder and mayhem currently sweeping the region burn itself out. You would be hard pressed to find any US citizen who would object to this type of policy.
"Trump's attempt to boost the US oil industry"
The US oil industry is doing just fine without any heavy handed government interference. They have just located another shale oil field in Texas that dwarfs the ND fields. For the first time in a long time the US is not dependent on foreign energy sources.
"pissing off other countries "
Who gives a shit. The incessant whining from foreign countries has already pissed off the US public which lead to Trump getting elected. It's past time for a US President to remind the world that actions have consequences they might not like. Right now America's "allies" around the world are scared the US might not have their back unless the start contributing more to the relationship. Countries have been dumping on the US and blaming the US for all the world ills while standing around with their hands out expecting the US to finance their national defense and solve all their other self made problems they won't own up to.
"BTW starting various wars and invading various countries hardly sounds like playing dead"
Well these other countries should stop inviting the US to their countries with their stupid actions. They are free to kill one another and blow up anything they want within their own country but exporting that madness will always end with someone getting a boot up their ass.
Why the fuck would I want a $300 smartphone if I can't get a job for more than burger-flipper wages? My grandfather could afford to raise a family, buy a house, go on vacations, and send his kids to college on his blue collar salary alone. A shiny iphone is a piss-poor substitute for that. I would cheerfully pay 10 times for these stupid electronic gizmos if it means I get back the standard of living that once made America the envy of the world.
Have you been to the rust belt? The financial elite are doing great, yes. The middle and working class? Not so much.
I grew up in the rust belt on my dad's farm (which he rented). And then I did what the majority of people leaving the middle class have done, I moved to the upper middle class. A combination of public school funding, supportive parents, publically funded colleges, and federally backed student loans made it possible for someone who even screwed up enough to drop out of college his first time (very immature) to move up in stature in society. And far from this being a rare success story, it is what has happened to two thirds of the people who are moving out of the middle class.
What is true is that the gap between the upper classes of society and the lower classes is widening. This is a product of many factors, but mostly because the economy is doing so well and those with more resources and/or more capability are better able to take advantage of that opportunity. The widening gap at its root can be summed up with the old saying "it takes money to make money". While obviously not entirely true, overall it explains most of our country's problem with the left-behind working class.
The only thing we know nearly for certain is that the working class success stories of the last century are a thing of the past. When manufacturing and other low skill industries come back to the US, it will be because automation has reached a level where few unskilled labor is required. The working class will not be able to provide their children the same opportunity I can provide mine. That is why I made the switch to a more progressive view in my late 20's. We can still have a similar level of opportunity, but it will come from income redistribution.
Taxes and public aid, like my federally backed student loans, are how we can fix this imbalance. It won't come from bringing high paying rust belt jobs back to this country. That part of human history is over. We just need to find a way to fight against demagogues who prey on struggling citizens' broken pride and tell them what they want to hear. Especially when those leaders fight against the same progressive policies which could help them most.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke