[Midnight Marauder]

Originally Posted by moomin

Oh, production costs - be it salaries or any sort of regulatory tariffs - being much, much lower is what drew the fast guys first and everybody who wanted to stay in business later, after the fast guys had made sure the regulatory environment was such that moving was safe and painless.

The thing that irks me now isn't that companies are exploiting any legal benefit they can. It is that these same companies sing the praises of overbearing environmental regulations, worker protection measures, every sort of PC employment boondoggle and all the rest, while making sure that they are out from under the axe themselves.

There's never been a regulatory burden or taxation burden that wasn't minor and absorb-able. Labor and legacy costs though, completely different story. Otherwise you wouldn't have any factories here at all and you sure as hell wouldn't have major automakers for example, opening non-union plants and have those plants thriving, like we see today.

To paraphrase one of Billy Clinton's campaign managers, "It's the labor, stupid."

Everything else is not only secondary, it's not even in the top ten list.

[moomin]

Originally Posted by Midnight Marauder

There's never been a regulatory burden or taxation burden that wasn't minor and absorb-able.

I predict that now that you got the softest-powered Euro socialist at the helm, you are going to get acquainted with a whole new realm of possibilities in that direction.

Labor and legacy costs though, completely different story. Otherwise you wouldn't have any factories here at all and you sure as hell wouldn't have major automakers for example, opening non-union plants and have those plants thriving, like we see today.

To paraphrase one of Billy Clinton's campaign managers, "It's the labor, stupid."

Everything else is not only secondary, it's not even in the top ten list.

Labour and pensions are huge, yes. But consider for a moment why some foreign cars manufacturers take their assemblies to the states, while no one builds a mobile phone factory in America. What is the operative difference here?

[Midnight Marauder]

Originally Posted by moomin

I predict that now that you got the softest-powered Euro socialist at the helm, you are going to get acquainted with a whole new realm of possibilities in that direction.

Labour and pensions are huge, yes. But consider for a moment why some foreign cars manufacturers take their assemblies to the states, while no one builds a mobile phone factory in America. What is the operative difference here?

Non union shops Pal.

no one builds a mobile phone factory in America

Other than

• Apple
• BLU
• Firefly
• Garmin
• InfoSonics
• Motorola Mobility
• Palm
• Sonim

And many others????

[moomin]

I didn't bother with the rest of the list, but the first and only that matters, Apple:

Where Are Apple iPods Manufactured?

"Apple iPods, iPhones, and other products are manufactured for Apple by Foxconn, a Taiwan-based company (technically, Foxconn is the company’s trade name; the firm’s official name is Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd).

The iPod and iPhone are manufactured in Shenzen, China, though Foxconn maintains factories in countries across the world, including Thailand, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Singapore, and the Philippines."

The difference, of course, is that the car industry had enough pull to successfully lobby for import tariffs back before industry at large got the Better Idea - outsourcing.

[Midnight Marauder]

Originally Posted by moomin

I didn't bother with the rest of the list, but the first and only that matters, Apple:

Where Are Apple iPods Manufactured?

"Apple iPods, iPhones, and other products are manufactured for Apple by Foxconn, a Taiwan-based company (technically, Foxconn is the company’s trade name; the firm’s official name is Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd).

The iPod and iPhone are manufactured in Shenzen, China, though Foxconn maintains factories in countries across the world, including Thailand, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Singapore, and the Philippines."

The difference, of course, is that the car industry had enough pull to successfully lobby for import tariffs back before industry at large got the Better Idea - outsourcing.

Apple does have manufacturing plants here in the US, as well as internationally.

Mobile phone makers by country

[moomin]

Ah yes. The molds where they stamp out the "designed in California" plastic details.

Meanwhile, everything that they actually charge for - from electronics to screen - is MIC. (Although, being Apple, that designed in California is about half of what they actually charge for, so you do have a point.)

The reason cars are still made in the West is that there are tariffs against social and environmental dumping applied, which makes car manufacturers have assembly plants here as a pay-off against the cost of doing business. In most other industries, where our globalist betters have sold the notion of "free trade", such pay-offs are not necessary and thus do not happen. Apparently lots of conservatives are under the impression that this is a good thing, because dead-weight losses.

[Midnight Marauder]

Originally Posted by moomin

Ah yes. The molds where they stamp out the "designed in California" plastic details.

Meanwhile, everything that they actually charge for - from electronics to screen - is MIC. (Although, being Apple, that designed in California is about half of what they actually charge for, so you do have a point.)

Hey Man, please research better.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-1...ake-parts.html

The reason cars are still made in the West is that there are tariffs against social and environmental dumping applied, which makes car manufacturers have assembly plants here as a pay-off against the cost of doing business. In most other industries, where our globalist betters have sold the notion of "free trade", such pay-offs are not necessary and thus do not happen. Apparently lots of conservatives are under the impression that this is a good thing, because dead-weight losses.

If that is a given, then it is also a given that if they couldn't have non-union shops here, they wouldn't be manufacturing here. Because LABOR and LEGACY COSTS far trump any tariffs or penalties.