Quote:So raising the cost of imports will help the poor and middle class?    And you don't think the rest of the world will retaliate and initiate a trade war.  We'll just slap a big old tariff on their products and they won't do anything?  

 

I don't think you understand why Ipads and Iphones are produced and assembled in China.   It would only take a few more dollars to do it?   I don't think you understand what you're talking about.   Read this:  http://www.tuaw.com/2012/01/22/why-apple...assembled/

 

"The New York Times asked that question, and after an extremely well-researched report involving interviews with both former and current executives at Apple, the answer the Times found is both simple and chilling: iPhones aren't made in America because they just can't be. The infrastructure and labor force doesn't exist at the levels necessary to support Apple's operations -- it's not even close."

 

"One could argue that Apple's success has come at the expense of the American manufacturing workforce, but if the New York Times' report is anything to go by, it seems the workforce Apple would have needed in America never existed to begin with."

 

And it's not just the workforce.  It's the fact that the Chinese build the factories that make the parts right next to the factories where the products are assembled.  We will never, ever, be able to match Chinese manufacturing processes in this country.  It is way beyond anything we have ever dreamed of.  

 

So, slap a $100 tariff on Ipads, and they will still be manufactured in China, and all you will accomplish is make all those poor and middle class people you are concerned about pay $100 more for an Ipad.  

 

And what of all the other tariffs you slap on all those other imports?  You think all those poor and middle class people will enjoy paying more for half the stuff they buy at Wal-Mart?   And you think the rest of the world won't retaliate?   You are living in a dream world. 

 

So we buy less of their stuff, and they buy less of our stuff because they're not making as much money selling us stuff as they used to!   Great!   We've made our worldwide customers a little poorer!   Great plan!    Let's just throw a bunch of sand into the gears of worldwide commerce.  

 

Don't make me laugh, I've read the piece and about how Apple simply needs foxconn because of their company barracks and essentially slave labor conditions. "TIME TO GET UP, PROLES! TO THE ASSEMBLY LINE!"

 

Apple does their assembly in China because they can get away with it.

 

As for people paying $100 more for an ipad, no, that's not the case. I'm not surprised that you'd think it is, as conservatives seem to have no clue about supply curve and demand curve and input costs having no bearing on how many ipads you can sell.

 

Apple sells ipads for $500 because that's where they make the most money. If they jack up the price $100 they'd lose even more money than they would just by eating that $100 tariff.

 

Still, your points essentially all come back to "We can't do this because something bad might happen" which is idiotic, the bad is already happening. Jobs have been funneled away and people are living in poverty conditions with government assistance needed just to get by. Your notion that the status quo must be maintained is misguided, it's time for some real change.

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