Acer Inc.
Amazon.com
ASRock
Asus
Barnes & Noble
Cisco
Dell
EVGA Corporation
Hewlett-Packard
Intel
IBM
Lenovo
Logitech
Microsoft
MSI
Motorola
Netgear
Nintendo
Nokia
Panasonic
Philips
Samsung
Sharp
Sony Ericsson
Toshiba
Vizio

All electronics, be it in your computer, your phone, your car, or even your refrigerator, are overwhelmingly made in China.

Wish it was otherwise.

Are not well suited to a US workforce that expects a middle class wage and benefits.

Essentially in the labor marketplace for electronic manufacturing, the US worker has no chance as the article clearly enumerates.

Support for offshoring is declining in all political demographic groups. Look at the numbers.
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The pro-offshoring lobby is getting louder and angrier because they're getting smaller.

Write to your congress critter and tell them to enact tariffs now.

Until we start turning the tables on the profiteers nothing will change.

The labor market in China is already becoming tight. The wages look bad, but are rising. We have to figure out how to compete in a globalized economy not hide from it. We can do it and we will continue to innovate and move forward.

As far as China, when one looks at where China was in '79 (year economic reforms really started) and understand how far they have came it is amazing. They have pulled more people out of it is absolutely amazing.

I would encourage you all to look at the UN Millennium Development Goals Report . http://www.beta.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/MDG/english/MDG_Report_2011_EN.pdf


"The fastest growth and sharpest reductions in poverty continue to be found in Eastern Asia, particularly in China, where the poverty rate is expected to fall to under 5 per cent by 2015. India has also contributed to the large reduction in global poverty. In that country, poverty rates are projected to fall from 51 per cent
in 1990 to about 22 per cent in 2015. "

Countries(Both China and India) living out of extreme property is not a bad thing and does not hurt us. We have to stop demonizing China and India because they "take our jobs".

The problem for the US economy is too much debt caused by TOO MANY IMPORTS.

Until imports are limited and the manufacture of a majority of the everyday goods that Americans buy are returned to the US, the US economy will NOT recover.

Rising wages in China will NOT help the US economy. As the Chinese middle class grows and the US middle class declines, the multinational corporations will just shift their sales to the then more profitable Asian markets, as they abandon the dwindling and less profitable American markets.

When GM was losing money in the US, they were making big profits selling Buicks in China. The money the US gave GM to manufacture cars here wasn't so much a bailout, as it was a bribe to continue manufacturing here.

Without restrictions on imports to make it profitable to manufacture goods in the US for American markets (by providing income for Americans so that they can purchase goods again), the US economy will not recover.

If the corporations don't need to sell in the US to make profits, they won't provide jobs here. The multinational corporations use NAFTA, the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank and the Federal Reserve to prevent American-based companies from manufacturing locally and be able to compete with cheap imports brought here by the multinationals.

I suppose it wouldn't if you have a phalanx of armed security guards patrolling your gated community. But then again, it's unlikely that corporate yes-men would be able to afford the same amenities as their bosses do. I'd review my French Revolution history, if I were you:

"I remind myself, didn't I say 8 years ago that the American paradigm is dead? It's still dead. Your efficiency and your capitalism begat it and killed it. Capitalism is not patriotic or loyal to anything or anybody, by its very nature, not even to America. It's a form of mental illness, if you think about it.

I said another thing 8 years ago. Namely, that capitalism is good when it's properly muzzled and on a short leash. It is still true.

A practical step would be to punish Apple for not producing in the US. If it's making $400,000 off of slave wages and working conditions in China - double its taxes!

Ultimately, it's not about Steve Jobs' glory, or alleged "generosity" of American capitalists and industrialists. All these tchotchkes, iPads, iSchmads -all that is one big DRECK. You've all lost your minds praying at the altar of the Golden Calf.

Ultimately, children, meaningful communities, good education, health, clean environment, freedom from poverty, freedom from fear - THESE hese are important things,not the iPads. And if your farschtunken capitalism can't provide these things for the country, either make it, or dump it. If communist China can beat you at your own capitalist game, it's time to build a capitalism with a human face, like in Germany or Scandinavian countries. Why don't you go and find out why Mercedes or Volvo don't build their cars in China, maybe you'll learn something."

eom

Replacing NAFTA, the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, and the Federal Reserve, and its ilk with more economically sensible institutions, and rewriting the tax codes to provide the appropriate incentives to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US would be a viable solution.

However, with the huge amounts of money available to the corporations, the hackable voting machines running our elections, a large number of corrupt politicians, and the large number of unbelievably stupid voters, don't look for improvements anytime soon.

Another solution would be a consumer "revolt" in which consumers in large numbers would buy only American-made goods and shun imports from low-wage countries. This is not foreseeable at this time in a country where shoppers trample each other in a rush to buy overpriced imported junk.

I don't foresee a solution anytime soon.

When a manufacturer outsources, It frees them from a lot of employee/employer relationship issues - many of which become vendor/purchaser issues.
A lot of managers prefer the relationship of purchaser to vendor, for a couple of reasons which aren't so nice. First is the fact that there is much less of a collegial relationship with a vendor than an employee. I can tell you, from 35 years as a machinist (outsourced, restructured, leased, temped, harassed, and generally screwed over) that the finance and marketing people HATE pushback from the technical side of things. They literally do not want to hear it - even if the pushback makes/saves significant $$$$$$.
The second issue is about who has power within the management structure - the purchasing function becomes much more important with outsourcing, as does finance. A lot of detailed engineering work ends up at the vendor as well, so there are fewer of those nerdy engineers around the office, and if the vendor's engineers have to deal with their customer, they have to be prepared to kiss a mile of ass! American engineers and skilled trades are not shy about telling the "suits"that their expectations are unrealistic, or, to be blunt about it "Hey, you guys fucked the dog again on this one!" A vendor will jump through hoops and bend over backward to keep the suits from finding out how badly they fucked up.

This article is far more balanced and doesn't take Apple's corporate line at face value.

My comments about the "real" reasons given for Apple's move to China are:

1. The supply chain of parts is in China because multinationals such as Apple moved them there. The parts used to be made in the US.

2. China's factories are bigger and more nimble than those in the US because, instead of building more up-to-date factories in the US, the multinationals chose to build them in China.

3. China has more "appropriately-qualified" engineers than the US because a college education in the US is extremely expensive and the jobs available for US engineers have been declining precipitously for the past 20 years. Why bother.

I worked for a company that brought Chinese engineers over here to teach them the business prior to building a factory in China. They may have had credentials, but I was not impressed with their capability.

4. The last reason given, that "China's workforce is much hungrier and more frugal", translates into "they are more desperate for work, will work long hours for low pay in environmentally bad working conditions, and won't ever question their situations or their bosses' orders." In other words, the Chinese workers will acquiesce to their condition of servitude.

They're both cults run to exploit their believers.

Central or South America.

Check the tags on your clothing. You will often see "Made in China/Taiwan" or "Made in Mexico/Honduras/Dominican Republic."


Shoes too. Nike. Converse. Vans. Reebok. Adidas. Even something considered 'American' like Timberland. Try to find some made in America.

I work for a line of clothing stores (nope, not a major one, a smaller family-run one) and about 95% of the product sold (T-shirts, shirts, jackets, sweatshirts, pants, jeans, shoes) is not made in the United States.


It seems that in the future, the only jobs in America that cannot be shipped overseas or replaced by automation/computer will be the ones we've always considered blue-collar trade skill jobs.

Plumbers, electricians, cable/satellite installers, home remodelers, etc.

Bank tellers are slowly being replaced by ATMs and online banking.

Supermarket checkout cashiers are slowly being replaced by the self-checkout lanes, or even with online shopping and then delivery services.

Earlier today I saw a TV commercial about a factory robot at a car manufacturing facility breaking down and several of the other robots repaired it and got it working again. No human involvement. Soon, even the humans that are kept around to fix these automatons will be no longer needed as they are made to fix each other without need of humans.

Try and buy Valentine candy, especially Brach. Much of it is made in Argentina. How did that happen?