Quote: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.

 

First of all, I'm not a conservative.  

 

Secondly, you did say, "Still, a $100/unit tariff on ipads and iPhones would have production facilities in the US in months."   And I simply pointed out that that is not true.   The manufacturing advantages in China go way beyond the cost of each worker.   The Chinese have huge advantages in logistics and flexibility that the US will never be able to match, to the point that slapping a $100 import tariff on Ipads and Iphones will have no effect on where they are produced.  

 

And if, as you say, Apple will simply eat that $100 tariff, how can you say the tariff has worked to put more jobs in the US?  I thought that's what you were after.   All you will have accomplished is to levy a giant tax on Apple Corporation, whose stock is held in the 401k plans of all those middle class people you say you want to help. 

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