2018-08-15 at 7:51 AM UTC
Cootehill
African Astronaut
[my unsymmetrically blurry oregano]
Computers in general cost next to nothing to make, you're just paying for R+D. But if Americans made smartphones without constant competition from China they'd cost around $30,000.
And I don't mean that in neo-liberal way, like "OMG American workers are so expensive! Better import infinity Aztec peasants!".
I mean by the time you deal with the bureaucracy America companies always have around them, then the EPA (rare earth metals are polluting as hell), then regulation, then the pensions of infinity burned out engineers, then the corporate diversity programs, then the network of dealerships, plus the network of experts, plus the marketing and advertising spend, and add on something for corporate social responsibility, then add in something for executive remuneration, and inefficiencies created by America companies constantly doing scammy "mergers and acquisitions" with each other
...
oh and don't forget you need a team of ADL approved content flaggers to monitor all SMS messages.
