Over the last two weeks I’ve read some great stories on Apple and its production situation in China. The writers of the stories, both appearing in the New York Times, are certainly not Apple haters, but their point of view appears set. The loss of American jobs is not a good thing but is justified by the low cost of production in China. Factory workers there make about $17 a day.
Anyone who reads the story, including references to 4 deaths and 77 injuries, might come away pondering avarice, patriotism, the quality of the American education system, population growth. This is wonderful reporting and might, were Charles Dickens alive, make for a fascinating novel. Do I smell a Pulitzer? Mabes.
But here’s the real deal. People want iPhones and iPazzles. The way to make them available is to offer them at a low price. Apple wouldn’t have sold 200 million iPhones if they had cost $1,000 a piece. So this was just good business. It is a flat world. Chinese production is our new reality. African production will be our next reality. Then Antarctica.
We have pocketbooks and brains. We can boycott Apple or buy Apple. Americans love an underdog and we tire easily of the Overdog. Apple, for decades, was the underdog – not anymore. Tom Cook’s job is going to be a hell of a lot harder than Steve Jobs. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t what? Peace!
