Meanwhile in cubicle land:
Posted on 05/25/2016 11:05:03 AM PDT by RightGeek
Apple and Samsung supplier Foxconn has reportedly replaced 60,000 factory workers with robots.
One factory has "reduced employee strength from 110,000 to 50,000 thanks to the introduction of robots", a government official told the South China Morning Post.
Xu Yulian, head of publicity for the Kunshan region, added: "More companies are likely to follow suit."
China is investing heavily in a robot workforce.
In a statement to the BBC, Foxconn Technology Group confirmed that it was automating "many of the manufacturing tasks associated with our operations" but denied that it meant long-term job losses.
[snip]
Since September 2014, 505 factories across Dongguan, in the Guangdong province, have invested 4.2bn yuan (£430m) in robots, aiming to replace thousands of workers.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Meanwhile in cubicle land:
So if China is already resorting to robotic assembly, why not just do it here and save the transportation costs?
Real good question
Yes - might as well do it here except for the tax advantages of doing it outside the USA.
A lot of this kind of work cannot be automated. Well I guess that it depends on the kind of work — has to be fairly high volume, repetitive type of work.
I read that they pay only 2% in corp taxes in China vs whatever it would cost here.
“I read that they pay only 2% in corp taxes in China vs whatever it would cost here.”
Yes, that’s where we need to have Trump “equalze” our corporate taxes with the rest of the world.
BTW, Hope Trump pays you a visit when he’s in Fresno. For all you’ve done for him this election season, he owes you big time!
The social dislocation in china is potentially explosive. There are lots of riots in the country and I suspect that those will increase dramatically.
Several years ago they officially had 131,000 riots.
Hilarious, sent it to four cat-owners I know. (I’m highly allergic)
Foxconn has a reputation for literally working its employees to death; very high suicide rate. They figured that robots won’t commit suicide.
Now ask yourself why Apples are STILL manufactured in China. It’s not the cheap labor. It’s the environmental restrictions. Instead of having products produced in the US under reasonable environmental laws, they are being produced in China in environmental hellholes.
Maybe Apple management are getting kickbacks?
China’s labor force is now actually shrinking - it peaked about 5 years ago.
The western clothing brands, sneaker-makers, etc... started moving 10+ years ago to Vietnam, Bangladesh, etc... These industries will be gone from China very soon.
The Chinese government and their central planning apparatchiks are all on-board for moving up the capital investment and technology ladder.
If you think the US faces economic competition from them now, just wait....
Lazy, In-bred, illiterate workers are barely useful for digging ditches. A place like Pakistan in its present state will never be able to assemble Apple-anything. There best hope is to go to the USA or Europe and live off the taxpayers.
Whats the Chinese govt going to do what thousands of unemployed factory workers?
“Whats the Chinese govt going to do what thousands of unemployed factory workers?”
Put them in the military and make mischief throughout SE Asia and on the Russian border.
+SwordMaker
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