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posted by on Tuesday January 24 2017, @08:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the 30,000-50,000-robots-rejoice dept.

The New York Times (may be pay-walled) reports that Terry Gou, the CEO of Foxconn has confirmed rumours aired in December to the effect that the company is considering building an additional factory in the United States. Yahoo Finance UK says that the factory, if built, "could create about 30,000-50,000 jobs." The South China Morning Post reports that the facility, expected to cost more than $7 billion, would make dot-matrix displays (such as used in television sets and mobile phones) under the Sharp name. Mr. Gou remarked that:

While it is difficult to have a clear analysis of the economic outlook for this year, due to looming uncertainties, three factors can be seen as clues. First, the rise of protectionism is inevitable. Secondly, the trend of politics serving the economy is clearly defined, and thirdly, the proportion of real economy is getting increasingly bigger.

Speaking in November, Gou had called on the incoming U.S. leaders to refrain from protectionist policies, The China Post had reported.

Additional coverage:

Related:
Foxconn Plans to Replace Nearly All Human Workers With Robots in Some Factories
Foxconn Acquires Sharp at a Lower Price Than Previously Agreed
Sharp Accepts $6.25 Billion Takeover Bid from Foxconn, but Foxconn is Wary of Debt
Softbank to Invest $50 Billion in the US


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  • (Score: 2) by shipofgold on Tuesday January 24 2017, @10:15PM

    by shipofgold (4696) on Tuesday January 24 2017, @10:15PM (#458295)

    What nobody talks about is what will happen to prices of the goods we buy.

    As far as I can tell there is only one direction the prices of those items "made in the USA" will go.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 24 2017, @10:38PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday January 24 2017, @10:38PM (#458305) Journal

    I would rather scrimp a bit more to buy 'Canadian' than to supply more Chinese people with jobs.

    The only good thing I heard from Hillary was that employees should get profit sharing ( and I believe should get the same percentage as the Executives).

    It's time to bring jobs back.

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2017, @11:29PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 24 2017, @11:29PM (#458323)

      And where are you going to "scrimp" from?

      Cost of everything will go up. All the stuff that has become cheaper due to free trade is going to go up. Food, clothes, furniture, electronics. Even stuff that is still imported will go up because without tarrifs there is no way to stop 100% foreign companies from exporting cheap local-industry-undercutting products to the US.

      Hey, maybe you make an engineers salary and have plenty of extra scrimpin' money.
      But regular joes with blue collar jobs, they are on the edge already. They don't have scrimpin' money. And hiring robots ain't going to put any extra money in their wallets.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Wednesday January 25 2017, @12:32AM

        by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday January 25 2017, @12:32AM (#458351) Journal

        Whoa, slow down cowboy.
        I do not make an engineer's salary: I am blue collar.
        I do not have a cell phone: cannot afford it.
        The last decent computer I had was pieced together from new case and motherboard with old parts.
        I am planning on building myself, hopefully, finally, a new computer with more than 4GB of ram... I'd love 16GB and the guts to go with it, but for my scrimping, it will probably be refurbished and more like 12GB with lower scale guts.

        I've been scrimping this for over a year, and still not there.
        Bills get in the way; my son is autistic and on the expensive gluten free diet BECAUSE he is so much more SANE without gluten.

        I scrimp, then the money gets used for paying bills, so I scrimp some more. At the rate I'm going, it will be another year, probably, maybe two.

        I do not need instant gratification of 'oooh, new Apple shite!!!!!! Gasm!'
        I scrimp, eventually I get where I'm going.
        And yes, I'd scrimp longer for Canadian if I felt it wasn't a rip off price just because. I believe in community.
        Just think... the Chinese shit you pay low prices for: what does it add to your life?, And how much cheaper would it be if the CEO and high executives didn't take such big salary's and bonuses.
        And how much better would life be if the profits made were shared by ALL the company employees who LIVE and WORK and SPEND their money in YOUR community.

        Think looong term, not short term "oooh, shiny!"

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 25 2017, @12:34AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 25 2017, @12:34AM (#458352)

          > Just think... the Chinese shit you pay low prices for: what does it add to your life?

          Food, clothing, furniture. Pretty much all the daily stuff.

          > And how much cheaper would it be if the CEO and high executives didn't take such big salary's and bonuses.

          I don't see anyone trying to fix that.

          • (Score: 2) by Sulla on Wednesday January 25 2017, @01:59AM

            by Sulla (5173) on Wednesday January 25 2017, @01:59AM (#458365) Journal

            The prices for food would not change all that much with a greater level of protectionism, especially when in competition with China. It was only in the past few years when the FDA okayed the processing of chicken in China, but they still had to be American chickens.

            I do not have a lot of money. Two infants and a wife, life with a family member with dementia to take care of her. Wherever I can I buy American, even if it costs more money. I buy local and shop at family owned shops when they are within reason. Depending on the product you are better paying vastly more for American over cheap imports. I saved up 400 and bought a pair of Whites Smokejumpers, a boot which is completely rebuildable and made in the USA. With moderate use I have gone three years without any issues or repairs except for applying oil, I imagine it will be another three before I need to get them resouled at a cost of 70 bucks. This is a much better deal than a new pair of tennis shoes for 15-20 bucks once a month.

            We can compete, people just need to think about it harder.

            --
            Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 25 2017, @08:02AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 25 2017, @08:02AM (#458413)

              I guess I have to be explicit - "china" is a proxy for "all other foreign countries" take a look at the labels of your food, not just chickens. Lots of frozen vegetables come from outside the US. And if there is not a "made/grown in usa" label then it is definitely of foreign origin.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 25 2017, @03:46AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 25 2017, @03:46AM (#458381)

            You're not saving if you're buying clothes and furniture daily.

            As for food you really don't want to eat the Chinese shit (in some case this might literally involve shit). In 2011 the Chinese Gov claimed that 10% of farmland was contaminated, more recently they said it was 20%. What is the real figure by USA standards?

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Wednesday January 25 2017, @12:56AM

    by sjames (2882) on Wednesday January 25 2017, @12:56AM (#458359) Journal

    It probably won't be as much as you think. Do you really think that iPhone is lovingly soldered by hand over an 8 hour period? I suspect the plant will be highly automated. Nevertheless, it will provide jobs and also improve things for other businesses that provide parts, support, and supplies for the factory.