Want Jobs: Slap High Tariffs On Electronic Imports.
According to iSuppli it costs Apple $316.05 to manufacture the Apple 16GB Ipad Wif-Fi. Which sales for $499.99 in the US. Apple makes around 50% profit for each one of the 16GB I pads. Another study said if the Ipads were made in the US it would cost a extra $80.00 to make. Adding eighty dollars to the retail price. With the wholesale cost of the Ipad then $396.05. The tariff would even out the low labor costs in other countries.
Some people like to say America should lower it’s labor costs, why not other countries raise their labor costs? Their is a big advantage to lower labor costs for premium products in demand.
Apple and Foxconn set up a factory in Brazil to make I-pads and I-phones. Brazil threatened high tariffs on Apple products if the products were not built in Brazil. The factory has over a thousand jobs.
Brazil also forces Asian companies to set up factories in Brazil even if the product costs 30% cheaper from Asia. For example, cables used in the oil and gas industry. Brazil can buy the cables from South Korea for 30% less but Brazil said if you want the contracts build an factory in Brazil.
Brazilian politicians used subsidies and the threat of continued high tariffs on imports. American politicians should be doing the same. People need to wake up to the fact free trade does not mean better trade, or cheaper products in many cases, or bring global peace. America is still accused of being protectionists while the whole US economy is being wiped out. In 15 more years the US will no longer be able to afford these products because people wont have jobs to buy anything. These other countries will trade amongst themselves because they will no longer need to sale products to the US because these countries are growing rich because of bad American politicians.
Any American company who sets up new factories in Mexico or any other country we have a free trade agreement with must be forced to pay high tariffs if the product is already made in the USA. Or pay those workers in that country the same hourly wage an American would be paid.
If ElectroLux wants to sale appliances in the US they should be required to build either washers or dryers in the US or one of the other, or face high tariffs. Building washers in Mexico and shipping them into the US is fine as long as the dryers are built in the US.
America can and should be doing the same thing as these other countries. In the 1980′s under Reagan, Japanese car factories were enticed to build factories in the USA or face quotas.
With a 25% tariff added onto the 16GB Ipad at a cost of $316.05 when made over seas, it would even up the cost and make it sustainable to be made in the US. The 25% tariff would make the imported Ipad cost $395.00.
Same goes with the 64GB Ipad. Cost to make is $408.70 which retails for $829.00. These are the prices on the Ipad 2, the Ipad 3 costs a bit more to make but Apple has decided not to add these costs onto the retail cost.
Apple also makes more profits on tablets with more NAND memory. The cost between the 16GB flash memory chip and the 32GB one is $16.80. Apple will increase the price by $100.00.
If the US Government was serious about making jobs for the American people they would seriously be evening out the labor costs with tariffs. Free trade is a lie. The only reason many high end electronics are made over seas is because labor costs are much lower.
Governments like President Obama’s likes to talk about social justice and a even playing field.
Americans would still buy the Ipads made in the US, people would have jobs and cities and Government would increase tax revenue. The US government could easily add these tariffs to any and all electronics that cost over $175.00 retail. After all, most other countries have higher tariffs, taxes, and other little other schemes they use on American goods to make American products cost more in their market. The US has lower tariffs as it is on foreign made products. With the exception a few key industries.
China increased the tariffs on American automobiles made in the US that were popular in China, now GM is building new plants in China. America lost more middle class jobs because those tariffs made the American automobiles to expensive to export.
Face it, we have politicians who lack a back bone and a vision or plan. China will soon be exporting Cadillac around the world from China, just like Apple Ipads.
So much for Obama’s hope and change, and forget about the old saying Democrats are for the working middle class, their actions speak much more loudly then their words.
Obama wasted billions of tax dollars on solar factories that closed, after they closed down Obama decides to put tariffs on Chinese made solar panels. Now Americans pay more for Chinese solar panels and Americans are stuck paying the billions in wasted tax dollars on American solar factories.
It was a little to late Mr Obama. We need new leadership, after all, you didn’t build that, as the President likes to say, and he is correct, he is shipping your jobs overseas and they are building that.
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