iPhones cost $8 to make in China, would cost $73 to make in US

[Dub guy]

A simple truth which drove the first and second industrial revolutions.

Then along came Gordon Gecko and his Wall Street fanclub which managed to wreck the world economy in a decade.

And all because they thought financial engineering could produce profits without any basis in reality.

It actually took them two decades to destroy the economy.

[Pat Gill]

I regularly use what you would describe as 3D printed parts and can assure you they will never be a replacement for most functional mass produced parts. The cost and material properties will always be a constraint. They will have some specialist and custom applications.

And those niche markets are expanding all the time.

Next time you get angry when your printer runs out of ink, spare a thought for the scientists in Belgium printing something altogether more interesting than a couple of document pages.

Specialist metal parts manufacturer LayerWise has used innovative 3D printing technology to create a lower jaw, which was then transplanted on an 83-year-old woman in what is believed to be the first operation of its kind.



It saw LayerWise work with Belgian university scholars and medical professionals to create the transplant piece to the exact specifications needed for the elderly patient.

Made from titanium powder, it took just a few hours for high precision lasers to heat and combine the powdered layers, which are then left to harden.

The complex implant features joints and cavities to encourage muscles and nerves to attach and grow around it.

Formula 1 teams are taking this further today and using it as a production method for parts and components. This hints at where this technology could go – it has the potential to mean that anyone with a 3D printer can design and make their own products – shoes, clothes, furniture, ideally created to suit their needs.

'What this enables is a potential change in society - we all become producers of our own good and services as well as consumers. This could redefine economic activity as people become part of the production process.'

World first as 3D printer creates JAW for woman, 83 - Yahoo!

[CptSternn]

How soon before this entire process eats itself and collapses?

(Henry Ford used to pay his employees far above the going rate for the time. People thought he was mad, but he said 'If I don't pay them well, how can the buy my cars? They are my best customers")

The same argument can be applied to America in general regarding Wal-Mart. It shuts down all other businesses, gets all its products from China, and is the cause many Americans are no longer employed and many industries can no longer compete, yet Americans flock there.

At some point in both cases they will hit critical mass.

[butterbox]

I have two suppliers. One has automated their production and require no low-skilled operators. The other assembles in China. Only one is "exploiting" workers. The situation in China is more complex than just employee exploitation. Much of the problem is cultural. Many of the workers in Shenzhen are young girls who come down to work for a couple of years to earn a dowry so they can return to their village to marry some old tosser and live a life of luxury away from so-called capitalist pigs.

[bm42]

And those niche markets are expanding all the time.

Still irrelevant with respect to mass produced items like iPhones outside of the product development cycle.

[former wesleyan]

I have two suppliers. One has automated their production and require no low-skilled operators. The other assembles in China. Only one is "exploiting" workers. The situation in China is more complex than just employee exploitation. Much of the problem is cultural. Many of the workers in Shenzhen are young girls who come down to work for a couple of years to earn a dowry so they can return to their village to marry some old tosser and live a life of luxury away from so-called capitalist pigs.

The situation with the Apple outfit in China is different and growing more so by the day. It now appears that "training " includes a military -style induction course which involves among other things standing out in the sun for hours. Other abuse involves young students being forced to do " internsships " where they work on assembly lines for nothing.

iSlaves: Forced Labor Key to Apple Profits | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

Rotten apple



More horrors out now from the Chinese serf-labor system involved in creating Apple products like iPads and iPhones. It turns out many of the workers churning out millions of the devices in unendurable conditions at Foxconn and other factories are also forced laborers as young as 16.

The Hong Kong-based Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) says, “Legions of vocational and university students, some as young as 16, are forced to take months-long “internships” in Foxconn’s mainland China factories assembling Apple products,” according to Alternet. One study found in some Foxconn factories, which employ 1.3 million people in China, up to 50 percent of the workforce were students.

[former wesleyan]

The Irish Times today :-

Apple says it will review assembly plants in China - The Irish Times - Wed, Feb 15, 2012

Apple says it will review assembly plants in China

Not before time.

Protesters last week, putting pressure on Apple to come up with a worker-protection strategy to stop abuse at its suppliers’ facilities, presented the company with petitions signed by more than 250,000 people at its Grand Central shop in New York City.