Apple's profit margins? do you agree with the process?

[samintx]

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-tic...00495.html

This is a video on the subject so I didn't get a printout.

[macphanatic]

Just another single out Apple article. Anything that is made in China, Mexico, Latin America or third world country is made under similar circumstances.

Edit: The very same facilities in China that manufacture Apple products, produce products for many other cellphone and computer companies. Note that they are specifically mentioned.

[samintx]

I believe if you watched the video, the video stated Apple was not alone in this problem. It came to the news (again) because of a statement made by one of their suppliers referring to the factory workers as "animals".

[macphanatic]

Didn't watch the video. Read the article. They put Apple in the title to get hits.

[samintx]

macphanatic wrote:
Didn't watch the video. Read the article. They put Apple in the title to get hits.

True. Apple would draw more eyes than Intel.

Speaking of Apple, I was looking for a notebook and picked up one off a garage shelf and there was the manual for JAM SESSION. Gee, that goes way back!

[deckeda]

the author wrote:
The bottom line is that iPhones and iPads cost what they do because they are built using labor practices that would be illegal in this country — because people in this country consider those practices grossly unfair.

That's not a value judgment. It's a fact.

Actually it's an oversimplification, and one made for yet another sensationalist article. How do you feel about that? Like being manipulated, Suzanne?

1) Labor and parts costs are similar within a local job market.
2) Retail prices are largely determined by the consumer market.
3) Despite the relationship between #1 and #2, it's never been a locked one.

What this means is, if Apple kept its high margins and assembled elsewhere, or somehow got Chinese workers a raise, none of them, not even if they were unionized American workers, would ever "make enough" to satisfy the author's wish of equity for them, because in the end Apple would still be more profitable than other companies.

His logic is so flawed that what he's really arguing isn't for fair wages for labor, but lower profits for Apple; accomplishing those wouldn't fix the labor problem. Witness: according to iSupply, Kindles are sold at or below Amazon's cost. I don't see that practice helping labor workers in China.