Excellent insight--and sad. I'm going to dig deeper into why Jobs' plan with Next to build everything in the US didn't work out. Just how expensive were those costs that "ate it (the company) up"? How much was the profit on Apple phones made in China compared to the costs of building them in US--could Apple have built the Iphone in the US and taken less in profits?
This would have kept one of our greatest technologies in America instead of handing everything over to China, and building their country into one of our greatest adversaries. I have the book "Apple in China" and I'm going to order Cain's book, "The Perfect Police State." The use of forced labor (slavery) alone would keep me from investing in China.
Thanks Geoffrey. This is an honor coming from you. I saw "Steve Jobs in Exile" listed as being released this coming May 19 when I bought "The Perfect Police State." It's definitely on my list,
Apple is almost wholly responsible for the US losing most of the tech industry to China. Corporate profit and shareholder return maximization - aka corporate greed - done at the expense of the economy of the country that Apple was blessed to call home.
Corporations will pollute the environment if not constrained by rules. Corporations will pollute the economic circumstances of the domestic population if not constrained by rules. We screwed up big time allowing China into the WTO and failing to enforce the rules of the WTO. We allowed the CCP to leverage their mass of starving peasants to entice corporations like Apple to get access to that near slave labor. We voted for the politicians that allowed this to happen. Some of us keep voting for the politicians that keep defending the same.
We will look back on this and recognize that the brilliant products created by the masterminds at Apple led to the downfall and destruction of the once the most powerful industrialized country on the planet by far. Note that without their looting from the US, China would still be a 3rd world country and the US would not be heading toward 3rd world status.
Hard to disagree about China but you are much too kind about the US government which for many years was complicit. Other than the forced labor, you could make the same criticism of Europe.
Apple and Cook may be an obvious example, but its hard to find any significant Western corporations that aren't complicit. Who enabled the Chinese juggernaut in autos and EVs - Ford, VW, Tesla, ... Who moved all the legacy chip making to China, what about pharmaceuticals, ...
We need to be honest that post-nationalism is an ideological suicide pact of the West. It's not about Apple, it's about an ideology that permeates our society.
You might be interested in reading the ranking by Strategy Risks. They place Ford first, Apple second, and ranked many more big companies on their China exposure.
In the mid to late 90s I lived outside Xiaguan in Yunnan province China. Factory wages were $10 per month. Xiaguan was fairly isolated with no train or hard surface connections to Kunming or Chengdu. So I can understand wages would have been low.
Today Apple in China has decreased wages a little and they are hiring at generally $300 a month. That's roughly 30X the level in 95. I doubt there are restrictions on who can work at Apple as far as residency in the province etc.
In 95 factory or that type of work here in the USA was paying somewhere in the mid to upper teens per hour. Lower for clothing, higher for auto. Multiply it by 40 hrs and 4 weeks though and then by 30X and you come up with $80,000,,,, a month. Imagine if you were a blue collar worker who had experienced that kind of wage increase.
I don't think the communist party of China is in much danger of discontent from citizens. Corruption can be a pain, but generally speaking the government is not too heavy handed on most citizens. Cross them and you are in trouble. I wouldn't want to be an Uyghur in Xinjiang, but most people aren't.
All in due time. It took about 60 years for the Soviet Union to fall apart, so depending on when you'd start the clock on China, say Nixon's "opening" in 1972, things are still on schedule. May take longer than the USSR but historically, any group of people throw off their oppressors.
China ruled Vietnam for 1,000 years. I don't think many people want to wait that long. I learned this when I went to Vietnam for five years (2017 - 2022), to teach English. The Vietnamese still don't trust the Chinese that much.
Makes me think that doing business with Apple is a mistake...I appreciate the insight this article provides but what can the consumer do to affect change other than move to another device that is not Apple?
Excellent insight--and sad. I'm going to dig deeper into why Jobs' plan with Next to build everything in the US didn't work out. Just how expensive were those costs that "ate it (the company) up"? How much was the profit on Apple phones made in China compared to the costs of building them in US--could Apple have built the Iphone in the US and taken less in profits?
This would have kept one of our greatest technologies in America instead of handing everything over to China, and building their country into one of our greatest adversaries. I have the book "Apple in China" and I'm going to order Cain's book, "The Perfect Police State." The use of forced labor (slavery) alone would keep me from investing in China.
Great comment David. The part about Steve Jobs and NeXT Computer is actually from my upcoming book Steve Jobs in Exile.
Thanks Geoffrey. This is an honor coming from you. I saw "Steve Jobs in Exile" listed as being released this coming May 19 when I bought "The Perfect Police State." It's definitely on my list,
Apple is almost wholly responsible for the US losing most of the tech industry to China. Corporate profit and shareholder return maximization - aka corporate greed - done at the expense of the economy of the country that Apple was blessed to call home.
Corporations will pollute the environment if not constrained by rules. Corporations will pollute the economic circumstances of the domestic population if not constrained by rules. We screwed up big time allowing China into the WTO and failing to enforce the rules of the WTO. We allowed the CCP to leverage their mass of starving peasants to entice corporations like Apple to get access to that near slave labor. We voted for the politicians that allowed this to happen. Some of us keep voting for the politicians that keep defending the same.
We will look back on this and recognize that the brilliant products created by the masterminds at Apple led to the downfall and destruction of the once the most powerful industrialized country on the planet by far. Note that without their looting from the US, China would still be a 3rd world country and the US would not be heading toward 3rd world status.
Thank you Tim Cook… you crook.
worse than a crook, possibly a traitor
Possibly?
Hard to disagree about China but you are much too kind about the US government which for many years was complicit. Other than the forced labor, you could make the same criticism of Europe.
Apple and Cook may be an obvious example, but its hard to find any significant Western corporations that aren't complicit. Who enabled the Chinese juggernaut in autos and EVs - Ford, VW, Tesla, ... Who moved all the legacy chip making to China, what about pharmaceuticals, ...
We need to be honest that post-nationalism is an ideological suicide pact of the West. It's not about Apple, it's about an ideology that permeates our society.
You might be interested in reading the ranking by Strategy Risks. They place Ford first, Apple second, and ranked many more big companies on their China exposure.
In the mid to late 90s I lived outside Xiaguan in Yunnan province China. Factory wages were $10 per month. Xiaguan was fairly isolated with no train or hard surface connections to Kunming or Chengdu. So I can understand wages would have been low.
Today Apple in China has decreased wages a little and they are hiring at generally $300 a month. That's roughly 30X the level in 95. I doubt there are restrictions on who can work at Apple as far as residency in the province etc.
In 95 factory or that type of work here in the USA was paying somewhere in the mid to upper teens per hour. Lower for clothing, higher for auto. Multiply it by 40 hrs and 4 weeks though and then by 30X and you come up with $80,000,,,, a month. Imagine if you were a blue collar worker who had experienced that kind of wage increase.
I don't think the communist party of China is in much danger of discontent from citizens. Corruption can be a pain, but generally speaking the government is not too heavy handed on most citizens. Cross them and you are in trouble. I wouldn't want to be an Uyghur in Xinjiang, but most people aren't.
20 yuan has been deposited into your account.
fyi that's not what their money is called in China. It's rmb or simply qui.
Meh. Like all authoritarian regimes China will fall someday under its own weight. The world will continue to spin.
This seems like the logical end, but the experts have been saying this since 1950 when China invaded Korea to fight back U.S. and U.N. troops.
All in due time. It took about 60 years for the Soviet Union to fall apart, so depending on when you'd start the clock on China, say Nixon's "opening" in 1972, things are still on schedule. May take longer than the USSR but historically, any group of people throw off their oppressors.
China ruled Vietnam for 1,000 years. I don't think many people want to wait that long. I learned this when I went to Vietnam for five years (2017 - 2022), to teach English. The Vietnamese still don't trust the Chinese that much.
That was then. This is now.
Wow. Bravo!
A craven coward and a traitor.
Makes me think that doing business with Apple is a mistake...I appreciate the insight this article provides but what can the consumer do to affect change other than move to another device that is not Apple?
I'm recalling a famous early Apple commercial that claimed that Apple was integral to avoiding the "1984" dystopian future. Oh boy.