Author Topic: Silicon Valley Billionaires Are the New Robber Barons  (Read 713 times)

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Offline endicom

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Silicon Valley Billionaires Are the New Robber Barons
« on: August 18, 2017, 02:23:23 am »
Townhall
Victor Davis Hanson
Aug. 17, 2017

Progressives used to pressure U.S. corporations to cut back on outsourcing and on the tactic of building their products abroad to take advantage of inexpensive foreign workers.

During the 2012 election, President Obama attacked Mitt Romney as a potential illiberal "outsourcer in chief" for investing in companies that went overseas in search of cheap labor.

Yet most of the computers and smartphones sold by Silicon Valley companies are still being built abroad -- to mostly silence from progressive watchdogs.

More... https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2017/08/17/silicon-valley-billionaires-are-the-new-robber-barons-n2369394

Offline ABX

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Re: Silicon Valley Billionaires Are the New Robber Barons
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2017, 02:34:30 am »
Quote
Yet most of the computers and smartphones sold by Silicon Valley companies are still being built abroad.....

This has been true of consumer electronics for decades. I can't think of a single piece of consumer electronics that was manufactured in the US, in most part, in decades.

This isn't necessarily bad. Much of this mass production manufacturing is menial labor which has a low cost ratio factor. The US has grown itself out of many menial jobs for good reason.

Offline endicom

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Re: Silicon Valley Billionaires Are the New Robber Barons
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2017, 02:45:14 am »
This has been true of consumer electronics for decades. I can't think of a single piece of consumer electronics that was manufactured in the US, in most part, in decades.

This isn't necessarily bad. Much of this mass production manufacturing is menial labor which has a low cost ratio factor. The US has grown itself out of many menial jobs for good reason.


Magnetic core memory, for instance.

But Hanson is speaking of hypocrisy.

Offline Hondo69

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Re: Silicon Valley Billionaires Are the New Robber Barons
« Reply #3 on: August 18, 2017, 07:59:00 am »
You can buy a Windows computer that is not only fast but also comes with lots of bells and whistles for around $ 1200.  An Apple computer with similar specs will run you well over $ 2500, and liberals think that is double super awesome.  (Now you know why Apple is sitting on billions of dollars in cash.)

Liberals give Apple a pass on being an evil, greedy, capitalist corporation because they are Apple and they are cool.  Call it Selective Outrage Example #1411.

But wait, there's more.  Apple is a bit of an outlier in that they don't like to play the typical Washington games (See The Sopranos).  "Kicking It Upstairs" is a traditional mafia tradition where the bosses receive tribute payments from their underlings.  The Washington version is conducted via lobbyists and a dozen other legal forms of tribute payments to the bosses.  GE and other giant multinationals are expert at such machinations but so far Apple has kept itself mostly outside "the system".  The Washington bosses would surely drop the hammer on Apple were it not for the fact that Liberals would go apesh*t for poking a stick at their beloved Apple.  So Apple more or less gets a pass from the bosses upstairs in Washington.

Now to Milton Friedman:  His famous example of the pencil illustrated how suppliers from all over the world are carefully orchestrated to create such a common ordinary commodity as the pencil.  The rubber for the eraser comes from one country, the lead from another, the wood casing from another, etc.  All these far flung components must come together at the same place and at the same time to created the final product, which at the time was produced in America.  Friedman was illustrating the magic of capitalism.

Like the ordinary pencil, Apple products rely upon carefully orchestrated components arriving "just in time" at an assembly plant to piece together the final product.  That assembly plant is not in the United States but the principles are the same.  The screws may come from China, the mother board from S. Korea, etc.  It's another prime example of Friedman's magic of capitalism.  But don't tell Liberals, they would spontaneously self-combust if they knew the truth about the magic at work behind the scenes.

Without a doubt some Liberals do understand how Apple products are created, but here again they give Apple a pass because they are Apple and they are cool.  Call it Selective Outrage Example #1411.

Offline endicom

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Re: Silicon Valley Billionaires Are the New Robber Barons
« Reply #4 on: August 18, 2017, 02:11:37 pm »

Now to Milton Friedman:  His famous example of the pencil illustrated how suppliers from all over the world are carefully orchestrated to create such a common ordinary commodity as the pencil.  The rubber for the eraser comes from one country, the lead from another, the wood casing from another, etc.  All these far flung components must come together at the same place and at the same time to created the final product, which at the time was produced in America.  Friedman was illustrating the magic of capitalism.




"I, Pencil" is an essay by Leonard Read. The full title is "I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read" and it was first published in the December 1958 issue of The Freeman. It was reprinted in The Freeman in May 1996 and as a pamphlet entitled "I... Pencil" in May 1998. In the reprint, Milton Friedman wrote the introduction and Donald J. Boudreaux wrote the afterword. Friedman (the 1976 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics) used the essay in his 1980 PBS television show Free to Choose and the accompanying book of the same name. In the 2008 50th Anniversary Edition, the introduction is written by Lawrence W. Reed and Friedman wrote the afterword.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Pencil

Offline Fishrrman

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Re: Silicon Valley Billionaires Are the New Robber Barons
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2017, 01:19:23 am »
Hondo wrote (on a PC, obviously):
"Without a doubt some Liberals do understand how Apple products are created, but here again they give Apple a pass because they are Apple and they are cool.  Call it Selective Outrage Example #1411."

Just because one prefers Macs and the Mac OS doesn't mean that one is liberal.

I've been a Mac user for 30 years now. Never was interested in anything else.
But I'm no fan of Apple's policies (nor some of their attitudes towards their customers).

Just had my blood pressure rise a bit when I read yesterday that -- presumably as a result of Charlottesville -- Apple is going to donate heavily to the SPLC (one of the most loathsome organizations out there).

One can really like and enjoy Macs, and at the same time dislike the company that produces them.