"The assumption in your example is that chip design, manufacturing, and assembly is core to Apple's business model, which it isn't, so Apple isn't a relevant example."
Say what? My assumption is that paying employees $6.00 per week for 12 hours of labor per day with no overtime, no benefits, no taxes, and no fines, is a hell of a lot cheaper than employing workers in the US. I don't care if it's assembling chips, designing chips, stuffing iphones into little plastic cases, putting twist ties on earphones, or shining Steve Jobs' shoes. "That contention gets into very complicated territory. Example: BMW. They 'outsource' manufacturing labor to the US, however in that case it's a currency arbitrage play too." They surely do and the communities that have these plants are very lucky. As you say, there are many factors, but the main one is profit. "And all of this ignores the fact that there are people in the US willing to do many of the jobs that are 'outsourced'." Sure. I won't disagree with this. Many of them are undocumented immigrants. "Outsourcing is over. It probably ended 3-5 years ago." I think it is just starting to ramp up. Last August, China made 21 cities temporary tax free havens for foreign outsourcing. They are willing to undercut India and the Philippines to get even more customers. Hard to compete with that, especially when the current administration wants higher taxes. J - Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation. - Henry Kissinger Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel. - John Quinton ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:337957 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
