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Comment by joering1 | Hacker News Reader

I dont buy it.

in the good ole days even before Standard Oil, fierce competition and W-2 (and IRS/SS in that matter), the reason behind owning any business was not to get rich or satisfy the board with higher dividend, but to give people job and ability to keep their families respected.

to me its a simple math: Apple produce stuff in China saving 40% of production costs, then sells its goods in America putting 40% profit margin on it. I smell greed, regardless if people accept to be ripped of or not.

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"in the good ole days even before Standard Oil, fierce competition and W-2 (and IRS/SS in that matter), the reason behind owning any business was not to get rich or satisfy the board with higher dividend, but to give people job and ability to keep their families respected."

I don't know of any such time. Which good ole days are you talking about? I think you're dreaming of a romantic past that never existed.

There are many (successful) idealistic business leaders during the industrial revolution who might have fit the description you've quoted.

Don't blindly buy in to the cult of human selfishness.

Half the people who came to America did it for money. It was the place where you didn't owe anybody anything, and nobody owed you anything either. That was the beauty of it.

> to me its a simple math: Apple produce stuff in China saving 40% of production costs, then sells its goods in America putting 40% profit margin on it. I smell greed, regardless if people accept to be ripped of or not.

So, you expect Apple to manufacture in the States, and then sell it to you without a margin (over production costs)... And how exactly are those poor Apple engineers and Apple Store Employees are supposed to make money?

If some day Apple manufactures iDevices in America, then an iPad would cost $799, or Apple would go out of business.

This is not to say I'd like Apple's partner (Foxconn) to enslave chinese workers so I could buy an iPad cheaper... I'd be happy if my iPad would be $549 (instead of $499) AND those workers were receiving more money for their hard work.

One of the reasons manufacturing costs are so high in the united states is due to labor costs. Put simply, America cannot beat the cost efficiency of Chinese production. Samsung however decided to put a plant into Austin for production of the A5 chip. (A Korean company building in Texas for a product assembled in China)

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/12/16/samsungs-new-texas-facto...

On a more cynical note, Apple's shareholders would not be happy if they could be making more profit by making it in China and selling it for $549. Another downsides to having shareholders run your company.

Maybe something like 'iPad RED'?

"I'd be happy if my iPad would be $549 (instead of $499) AND those workers were receiving more money for their hard work."

I have thought that for years.

> So, you expect Apple to manufacture in the States, and then sell it to you without a margin (over production costs)... And how exactly are those poor Apple engineers and Apple Store Employees are supposed to make money?

Apple has over $80 billion in cash. That's all left over after their employees have been paid. They could afford to manufacture their goods in a first-world country, sell their products at the same price, and still pay their employees the same rate.

Ok, change the world, buy some Apple shares, enter shareholders meeting, put up your proposal to vote. Wath your shares value drop to one third and be happy.

Bullshit is not even a big enough word for that drivel. Elephant shit, Mammuth shit...

Entrepreneurs were always in it for the money. Even if you want to help humanity, you still have to be in it for the money, because otherwise you go broke and can't help humanity anymore, either.

From what I understand of what I read of Jobs, what you posted isn't the issue. He wanted to bring the manufacturing of Apple products back to the US but there were other issues at play such as labor laws and extraneous fees that came with building and supporting manufacturing plants in the US.

I don't know the details but this is supposedly one of the issues he spoke about to Obama.

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