Apple cares so much about privacy that they set Google as default search option, sent Siri recordings to 3rd party company and wanted to scan our photos. 😂
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Only 50% of iPhone Casings Made in India Meet Apple's Quality Standards
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We're not in the age of empires now, don't conflate the argument.
I'm not an expert by any means, but I suspect that the manufacturing is indeed heavily automated but it is numerous stage process, and the machinery requires fine tuning and calibration in order to achieve the nanometer precision required. A few decades ago China was a symbol of cheap low-quality products but over the years they learned and accumulated tons of expertise particularly in manufacturing of sophisticated low-voltage electronics. This know-how is not something you can simply acquire after 6-months of intensive training at the plant. It will take them years.
That is only partly true. The pressure from their superiors will make the workers work long hours to produce parts at faster speeds, but not necessary have a higher percentage yield if they aren’t skilled. They will still damage parts if they don’t have the proper skills, and attitude to operate machinery and tools properly. A lot of iPhone components have to be assembled by the workers, not by robots. Chinese workers in general are quite known to work hard, mainly because of the money.
If you compare both countries as a whole, China is a technology powerhouse for sure as compared to India. China is way more developed than India as a country and definitely has way more skilled workers.
Certain provinces in China has not caught up yet, but their first tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai are way more advanced in terms of technology than even many of the first world western nations.
Thank you for the thoughtful follow-up.
China is a complicated topic and frankly I might be too close to have a truly objective view.
I think though I would point to counterfactuals--the US embraced China primarily as a counter to the USSR, and there was great power gamesmanship going on there that I doubt many really understand, myself included.
Russia's war in Ukraine is ugly and seemingly futile, but if this is how the vestiges of the Soviet Union ultimately putters out and Russia becomes something more like a modern state I'll live with it. Certainly the style of fighting so far supports generally the "war is irrational" point you made.
I think both China and Russia are likely to snap back to the global trend quickly as baby boomers die off in both countries and frankly the minds warped by communist, totalitarian regimes die off. I literally don't know a single Chinese person under 40 supportive of Xi's style and changes.
Finally, I'll say that an underrated aspect of China is the very different social structure going back to Confucius and how it's been smathed together with maoist ideals. It's a really different way of understanding intergenerational relationships and really hard for westerners to understand and project the implications of.
Or maybe it's just coincidental and Ford would have been more profitable and maintained its huge operations advantage for longer by paying low wages. So often we are looking for a logic when people so often act illogically.
It isn't surprising given that the likes of Tata and other chaebols in India have had a captured market for years due to massive amounts of protectionism in the name of making India self sufficient. The end result of that protectionism has been that these chaebols can put in a half baked effort and Indian consumers just have to put up with the inferior product or go without because imported products (after taxes and tariffs) are out of reach. It reminds me of NZ 40 years ago and the old saying, "never get a car assembled on a Monday or a Friday".
I know nothing about manufacturing but given that there has been plentiful of high quality production units (of everything) since at least the 60s , I must say the manufacturers made it look easy.
If high volume is the problem, I guess they could always split the work and add in more workers. So instead of 1 production line building 1 million phones now its 10 productions lines building 100,000 phones. I guess it would be more manageable that way, but more expensive?
Infinitely more complex to churn out the same high precision items in multiple factories. Every manufacturing line, of every product takes time to dial in.
Now when we’re talking about the bleeding edge of mass manufacturing tolerances at scale, things get super tricky.
Then comes QC. Figuring why component X is warped by backtracking to find that screw Y was actually only turned 2 7/8ths turns instead of 3 complete turns during assembly step 40 out of 277. Modern manufacturing is a crazy thing when you get to see the nitty gritty of how it’s done.
Every step of tighter precision and tolerances as we advance becomes harder in many ways.
India doesn't have much manufacturing experience why even try making it there? China has established norms of quality and decades of experience. Mr cook please, manufacture where there is no compromise in quality.
And the US has flooded Asian countries (and too many other countries) with cigarettes and horrific 'American' fast food.
If tariffs are used to increase domestic production, and increase domestic consumption, they can work, but they are totally possible to have the effect of hunting squirrels with a 12-guage. The blowback and obliteration of the target often does cause collateral damage. Some of it really quite dramatic. Some think that tariffs 'fix everything', and that is far too simplistic. Tariffs have to be applied surgically, and monitored for effect. To broadly apply tariffs to 'punish' a country, means, yes, YOUR citizens will be the ones actually paying them as they buy the products they need/want. For a country that has almost no manufacturing base, to tariff incoming goods is a rather bold and illogical move. Rebirthing a domestic manufacturing scheme to compete with the tariffed products would be ideal. IOW: Raising prices on imports only hurts the people buying them when the only source is the tariffed country. Seems almost too simple that appears to evade some 'geniuses'...
The tariff can become a not very well hidden 'consumption tax' on consumers but there are ways that some can avoid them.
We're not, it's true.
I was following on from the general point that it's naive to say that West vs China is a binary thing with one side wholly good and the other side wholly bad. There's a lot of nuance there.
I'd see it more in terms of elites vs other elites and competition within elites in each country rather than lumping entire countries as one 'thing' anyway.
Nuanced, yes.
Nevertheless, each of us is responsible for the development of our minds: elites will do what they want, but that doesn't mean that we go along with it.
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That's true as well. I went back to school decades later to get my associates. Couldn't get my foot in the door without the 4 year no matter what was on my resume. No HR department would even consider it.
I consider it a true "BS degree" compared to what I remember school being years back. Maybe it was my maturity? Experience? I went from being a B-/C+ to a solid A.
No, no, you aren't getting me to bite on that one! 😂
Economic Research Institute statistics say that 77% of Chinese factory workers have an education level of "below high school". However, even that education level of people in the US are not going to work for $3.30/hour... (Foxconn salary after the recent 14% increase)
And your argument sounds more anecdotal with a samples size of one, than statistical taking into account a large population with a broad distribution.
The problem is rising prices tend to decrease consumption.
Which can negate an positive impact as well.
Tarifffs to coubter dumping or countries subsidizing imports *may* make some economic sense, even if they hurt consumers since dumping would damage otherwise competitive industries.
Even when a country produces the goods tariffs result in rising prices since the only way to be profitable is if prices are higher. They also have the perverse effect of discouraging investments in new plants since teh old ones are competitive and require no capital investment; and there's always teh risk of tariffs going away and changing the price structure to a less viable one.
How? Tariffs raise prices so the are in effect a tax unless domestic manufacturers don't raise prices but they do to be profitable. The problem is they are often politically popular even if they make no economic sense.
Back in my college days, we were required to take 2 physical ed courses. I don't see how playing sports is in anyway relevant to my earning a BS in Biology. I took soccer as one of the required PE courses. Hail, the skill difference in the class makes any meaning play impossible. We had kids ranging from former high school standouts to kids who have never worn soccer cleats before. Playing a simple game impossible. The beginners tripped over themselves or collided with each other, going after the ball. The skilled players became ball hogs because their teammates couldn't keep pace.
College courses ain't cheap. The cost of the class could have paid for several years in a sports league where you played with others near your skill level. Total waste of $$$.
I took Karate as the other required PE course. It would have cost me 1/4 the $$$ to learn from the Mr. Miyagi's House of Waxing down the street.
When challenged to name one theory in all of the social sciences that is both true and nontrivial, Paul Samuelson responded with David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage: "That it is logically true need not be argued before a mathematician; that is not trivial is attested by the thousands of important and intelligent men who have never been able to grasp the doctrine for themselves or to believe it after it was explained to them."
Yep, it's that A betrays B betrays A corner of the Prisoner's Dilemma. Worse for everyone than cooperating, but better than being a chump.
I see. I was under the impression that once its figured how its done they you only have to follow the steps and you will get same result each time.
It does, but tariffs can be, and SHOULD be used to provide a motive to buy domestic rather than from a foreign source. Raising tariffs on imported items/goods that do not have a domestic source just punishes domestic purchasers, unless it's being driven for the public good because it does just artificially raise prices. Tariffs also can create an 'undertow' with the potential for domestic sources, in cases where there are alternatives, raise their prices because 'why not'. So tariffs are more of a blunt force object that requires a lot of thought and management to make sure they do not have a wide spread negative effect. The ham-handed application of tariffs in the past, and in other countries is a perfect example.
Saying the US applied tariffs are 'punishing' China, for example, do nothing TO China, and just jack up prices because there is no other option for that good or product. It ends up hurting yourself, doing nothing to the source. The illogic is stunning. Tariffs are not a cure all in all incidents. Like I said earlier, it's a blunt force object, a 12-gauge shotgun. The risk of collateral damage is very great.
EXAMPLE: China's application of tariffs on American cars DOES work because they have a domestic industry devoted to their production. Tariffs work in that example. I'm sure there are Chinese nationals that do buy American cars, but they can afford the 'tax' the tariffs add.
I get it when Ricardo uses the England/Portugal example in wine and cloth. But when you decimate the production of those goods in England, what do you do with the people that used to produce those goods in England? AND what do you do to make sure that Portugal doesn't exploit that advantage to gouge England by raising their prices because they are, in that simplistic example, the 'sole source' of those goods.
American manufacturing being moved to other countries has opened up this country to opportunity of being held for ransom by those producing countries, and also opened up an avenue for deliberate or accidentally tainted goods doing grave damage or death to American citizens.
In an idea world, we would all play fair. We seem to be racing farther and farther from any indications of an 'ideal world' than ever before. I guess America is in a poor position to be throwing around tariffs as we have no other option for so many of the good that we need and moving more production overseas is just making it that much worse. (Like meat processing in China. Why? There is ZERO need to do that, and it opens up the entire industry to possible manipulation and servitude to a/many foreign countries)