05-15-2019, 08:13 AM
(05-14-2019, 05:56 PM)Benton Wrote: Nay, it's not that complex.
US companies make money selling products. Executives make up huge chunks of pay, and they justify their chunks by cutting cost, mostly by outsourcing work. Hell, even companies here outsource, with corps like Disney using federal tax loopholes to have employees train cheaper imported foreign labor.
Close that crap. And close loopholes to companies whose "production" is comprised of 70% outsourced labor.
Yes, the cost of your iPhone will increase, but it will bring back the bulk of those "production" jobs. And, yeah, many of those jobs will come back and be automated out. But at least they'll be automated here, requring skilled tech to operate and repair, along with transport.
Tariffs can work. Closing tax breaks to those taking advantage of cashing in on the economy while providing little real benefit to it can work. It's not that complex.
Your over simplification of this is a bit concerning. Those aren't Apple employees manufacturing those phones, those are Foxcon employees building those phones. Most companies don't actually produce their own sell-able goods, some assemble them however most still acquire a lot of the materials and assembly from contracted manufacturing. This isn't just a big company thing either, small private companies use contract manufacturing to get sell-able goods.
Either way, in your example the tax disadvantage is your deterrent not the tariff itself. As I continue to say, tariffs do not work. The only way they will work is when foreign market workers demand similar wages as those in America when you factor in the transportation of the finished goods and time. The reason this will never happen is because there will always be emerging countries looking to take over that manufacturing to try and improve their economy.
