Politician Blames iPad for Killing American Jobs

[antilycus]

American people won't pay for American made products. Oh you want an iPad at the American price? its a 1000 dollars...nope...nobody will pay it. You don't like that small business is closing? Here's an idea, shop at them, not the big box stores. It's a simple fact that everyone cries about the obviously but they arent willing to spend a little extra to keep jobs in America. I would say, in my opion, this covers about 95% of America.

 

[figgus]

[citation][nom]NuclearShadow[/nom]Now I know some conservative reading this will think "Well if Americans didn't demand such high pay and workers rights this problem wouldn't exist to begin with" While this may be true how does vastly lowering the average American's income and therefor way of life solve anything? This would just make the situation worse. [/citation]

You are so right! Everyone should quit their jobs and hold out for high-paying management positions! Go ahead, you first...

Or perhaps it is indeed better to have a lesser paying job than to starve to death holding out for a posh high paying one?

 

[djsting]

Technology like the Ipad make things run cheaper and more efficient, something gov'ts the world over know nothing about. Here's an idea. We should ban automobiles because of all the horse and buggy makers who lost jobs. This is the perfect example of what's wrong with our gov't.

 

[brennon7]

Self service gas stations are killing off jobs of the people who pump gas! Sound familiar?

 

[nebun]

ok..if the government would stop raping the the businesses in the US, then and maybe then the big companies will start to manufacture goods in the US again...maybe not.....why pay someone 6.75 an hour when you can pay someone else 1.75 for doing the same thing? it's called economics people

 

[nebun]

i was about to say....time to break the cotton gin, lol.....wait, the gin in china is not broken, damn

 

[11796pcs]

Well it is a proven fact that politicians by nature know nothing... well actually I take that back they very easily cheat on their wives and lie to people

 

[11796pcs]

This is Jesse Jackson... but on a lighter note he has a point that a state universtiy should probably be trying harder to keep American buisnesses alive. But they are being more green this way and I'm sure it cuts down on costs. Also the reason Borders and Barnes & Noble aren't surviving is because they never really adapted to the changing market. This entire debate is actually overall pointless as it really doesn't say anything. Newspapers are going to be electronic now- well duh. The computer wiped out typewriter jobs too- it's called an ever changing world.

 

[maestintaolius]

Well, of course iPads and other e-readers hurt physical media. Just like digital download will probably hurt/kill the DVD/Blu-Ray in the future. It's a story old as time, new technology renders old technology irrelevant (VHS, audio tape, horse carriages, etc), people who don't adapt go out of business.

However, I will agree with the outsourcing of jobs ruining the country. There's no reason to pay 15-20k (25-40 after benefits) for someone in the US that you can get for 5-8k total overseas. Manufacturing widgets requires little to no education and is typically pretty easy to train so they have a large supply of readily available, conscript-able labor. Right now I'm personally not to concerned for my current job because my level and type of my education and experience, but it's only a matter of time before companies (like apple) start to realize the US doesn't have a monopoly on capable engineers/scientists and start sending those jobs overseas too. Why pay a US process/development engineer 80-150k when you can get a chinese/indian one for 20-40k?

 

[oparadoxical_]

Solution to jobs migrating over sea? Easy, lower the taxes on large corporations, (America has one of the highest corporate taxes in the world), and then raise the taxes on imports massively. (just like what China does, taxes its imports very harshly). It will then cost the companies a huge amount of $ to ship products over to the US. This would help greatly counter the increase cost of labor in the US and would stimulate American jobs, and therefor stimulate our economy.

Also, the iPad/ iPod DOES make some people loose their jobs, but what these idiots don't understand is that it GIVES other people new jobs. Some loose their jobs because they didn't stay up-to-date, and some gain new jobs.

 

[f-14]

guess he didn't get the memo from his liberal communist constituency, save the rain forrests save the trees move to a paperless society.
oh that's right, he was too busy worrying about healthcare and permenant trade relations with china as well as NAFTA with asia
written by the economic policy institue in april of 2000:
http/www.epi.org/publications/entry/briefingpapers_pntr_china/

 

[itchyisvegeta]

"Politician Blames iPad for Killing American Jobs"

Funny, I blame Politicians for killing American jobs.....

 

[maestintaolius]

[citation][nom]oparadoxical_[/nom]Solution to jobs migrating over sea? Easy, lower the taxes on large corporations, (America has one of the highest corporate taxes in the world), and then raise the taxes on imports massively. (just like what China does, taxes its imports very harshly). It will then cost the companies a huge amount of $ to ship products over to the US. This would help greatly counter the increase cost of labor in the US and would stimulate American jobs, and therefor stimulate our economy.Also, the iPad/ iPod DOES make some people loose their jobs, but what these idiots don't understand is that it GIVES other people new jobs. Some loose their jobs because they didn't stay up-to-date, and some gain new jobs.[/citation]
Oh please, big corporations do not pay the top tax rate, they have enough shelters, write-offs and sweetheart deals that they can get away with less than 25% on their profits regularly (the corp rate in china). The reason they go overseas is simple, it costs almost nothing to pay employees and they have zilch for benefits costs. Taxes are just a convenient scapegoat used to push agendas. The problem is the American worker costs too much to employ vs the Chinese pseudo-slave.

Now, if you wanna argue the small-business that makes like 100 million a year getting screwed by the govt (because 100 mil is enough to get significantly nailed by the top tax rate, but not enough to buy a senator), I'd agree with you.

 

[oparadoxical_]

[citation][nom]maestintaolius[/nom]Oh please, big corporations do not pay the top tax rate, they have enough shelters, write-offs and sweetheart deals that they can get away with less than 25% on their profits regularly (the corp rate in china). The reason they go overseas is simple, it costs almost nothing to pay employees and they have zilch for benefits costs. Taxes are just a convenient scapegoat used to push agendas. The problem is the American worker costs too much to employ vs the Chinese pseudo-slave.Now, if you wanna argue the small-business that makes like 100 million a year getting screwed by the govt (because 100 mil is enough to get significantly nailed by the top tax rate, but not enough to buy a senator), I'd agree with you.[/citation]
Sure there are many huge companies that get out of taxes (GE is the biggest example that I can think of). Mostly because its CEO is Obama's little buddy. Yeah there are plenty of other companies that also escape taxes and such, but there still are some that are affected by high corporate taxes that don't get out of as much. And, that doesn't affect the second part of what I said: Higher importation taxes. Right now, we import much more than we export, and anyone with any basic economic sense would know that that is a very bad thing. Drop a huge tax on everything we import would make companies much less eager to work over seas.

Also, there are other things. Like you said, the larger small business get screwed over, and that adversely affects our economy. It isn't easy to go from a small business to a large corporation any more, which is something that at one time made America great. Because of the rules, copyrights, patents, and being stuck in the upper tax bracket (without quiet enough to bribe your way out), it is exceedingly hard for a small business to become the next Apple, Microsoft, GE, Lowes, Walmart, ect. America has a lot to change if were going to stay a world super power in the upcoming years. Getting more tech related jobs and more American based jobs are an absolute must if we are ever going to get our economy back to where it used to be and even better. I say fire all the politicians of both parties and start over with all new people that aren't just power hungry, self-centered people.

 

[JD13]

Tariffs..... Has to be done to stop the bleeding of jobs!

 

[eddieroolz]

I agree with this sentiment that outsourcing all kinds of jobs are killing the West and profiting the developing nations, who sometimes are openly hostile to the Western ideals. It really is upsetting, but honestly people would rather choose lower prices than quality or ethics - and given that so many people in the West live on menial wages themselves, I can see why.

 

[eyeklops]

A big part of this problem was caused by the US government allowing China to suck up large portions of US debt. China has been artificially inflating the US dollar for awhile, making foreign goods and services cheaper. China has also been accused of "dumping" across many manufacturing sectors.

 

[SteelCity1981]

This has got to be one of the funniest things i have read in a long time. Yeah lets not blame it on the politians for not doing their job to get people back to work lets just blame it on a device instead.

 

[psycho sykes]

I can agree on one part... Why aren't they figuring out a way to manufacture it in US? That's thousands of jobs made real.

 

[demonhorde665]

geezus , this to most you posters here , how can you be so dumb , one person says "jobs become obselete" other talk about how stupid this guys , is , granted jackson jr. likely is stupid but he makes a valid point regardless of how dumb he may or may not sound.

if you can't see where jobs in general are being lost , then you are a total f---ing idiot period. look at all the electronic stores that have gone down , movie rental places that have shut down , because download services can reach milions of consummers using a minimal of paid staff to maintain, and you want to think tehcnology hasn't hurt jobs ? granted this isn't all ipads doing (and this is where jackson jr. is an idiot) but all tech devices are playing a part in this simply due to consumer convienance. in my area alone i know of some odd 20-25 companies that have shut down and closed thier doors thanks to technologies replacing consumer demand on these buisnesses , each one employed any where from 30-250 employees. thats in the ball park of 600 to 6250 jobs in my area alone that don't exsist no more because of technology, This is not jsut about those jobs becomign obselete , jobs arnt software , and our population doesn't stay at afixed rate. those technologies certianly dont make up the difference or create even more availbie jobs for taht matter , yet peoepl do create more availbe people all the time. People want to act like the recession is over , well i call BS this is just the calm before the storm because right now we are on the brink of major finacial disaster and at the same time our technology IS kiling availible jobs across the country. i think the US will see another great depression with in the next 100 years maybe even soon, before we adapt to this new void of jobs created by our various technologies.

again i state i don't agree that this is all ipad's doing , but any one that thinks all our tech toys have been completely harmless to jobs , is naive and doesn't want to hear the truth. and that beign that it is very well likely that your kids wil have 10X the difficulty finding work when they are in their 20's , than you did at that age , and thier kids will have 10x more difficulty than they did.

now i'm not tryign to say taht we should throw out our technology , but in teh elast we can try to support what jobs exsist buy making those jobs a biger part of our consumer lives , other wise our future wil be a jobless bleak one.