Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
While production cost is a factor, Apple's success requires being able to bring new features and designs to market quickly. If you have read your James Fallows, you know that this, rather than wages -- which are quickly rising -- is China's real competitive advantage in making these gadgets.
So, factually, I doubt your claims. No serious student of the Chinese business cycle blames Apple. The democratic alternative to globalization is the old Indian socialism. Import controls meant that only a few of the rich could afford the lousy local automobiles, while the peasants starved. But in as much as pressure from your side of the fence reduces labor exploitation, people saying what you say, however mistaken, may do some good.
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Yes I know. We all know why Apple set up in China. Because its the place where the infrastructure allows for assembly of devices with a variety of differing parts that each need specialized factories or manufacturing techniques. So yes involved designs can be assembled faster there.
However, the alternative to globalization is not 'old Indian socialism'. Its non globalization or lets say ethically controlled global trade. Gosh kind of reminds me of the Opium wars a little bit. So in that case the British were exporting from China but this upset their balance of trade, so they came up with the perfect solution. Why not sell Opium back to the Chinese, and as they get addicted to it, the balance will be assured. Britain gets the materials and goods it wants, and the Chinese... well let them eat cake, (or opium in this case) as far as the British were concerned. Eventually an invasion was needed to maintain this order of affairs, and this was accomplished with brute force. (Can you blame the Chinese for disagreeing with western policy these days after what happened?)
But wait, what if they'd thought of something even better! How about getting the Chinese to grow the poppies themselves and then sell it back to them as opium for huge profit. Control of the economy, and no invasion needed! Of course Opium is a narcotic, but in a way Apple has managed through intense advertising and clever software to make their products something of a narcotic as well. China's the largest market and the holy grail for them so they use aggressive lawsuits to destroy any imitators and create a myth around their product. Now the Chinese have been organized by such supply masterminds as Tim Cook , to mine the materials, assemble the dirty batteries, and create the device. And then the devices can be sold back to those workers for massive profit. And soon the Chinese are locked into a binding relationship by international laws dictated from the World bank and so forth, from which they cannot escape.
This my friend is why globalization fails, because it will naturally favor the strongest party in the world. The law maker, the ones with the army to back up and maintain 'stability'.
There should be an alternative to this. In the Opium wars, the British should not have been allowed to invade, when the government complained. And of course if they hadn't their business would have failed because it would be revealed as faulty and unethical.
Gosh even when China trys to claim its rightful territory and stewardship over the surrounding waters, the cabal of western mafia nations won't let them and encircle them with military threats. So backed up by an unfair system, American companies like Apple are pirates, plunderers, the new opium traders ....for the new century!!