Andrea Greenspan: "Sending jobs overseas can make a stronger company and more hiring at home"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

She's doin' a little "fact check" on Bain and the whole outsourcing thing.

[gordianot]

1. Convincing I am sure.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Her husband would agree.

Up is down. Blue is red. Night is day.

[FarCenter]

3. Apple is a good example; if they manufactured in the US, they'd have been priced too high to grow.

[Zalatix]

5. You're kidding me, right? That's the worst example EVER.

Aside from it being generally wrong, it is laughably wrong in the case of Apple.

Hiring in America raises wages which raises buying power. That offsets price increases.

Case in point: China is fighting huge inflation with their competitive devaluation. Nonetheless, their devalued Yuan and their tariffs against imports have resulted in an exploding middle class. This is a historical example of where your argument is proven wrong.

But then there's Apple.

The cost of Apple products is affected more by PROFIT MARGINS than labor costs. Apple tacks a huge premium onto the cost of their products, which is why they have cash reserves of $100 billion. They could easily hire in America AND cut their products' prices, and still operate well into the black.

[FarCenter]

7. iPhone 4S cost of parts, $187.90, manufacturing $8.00, gross margin $453.10

The gross margin covers the costs of transportation from the factory, warehousing, distribution, marketing, advertizing, R&D, management, HR, contracting, purchasing, etc. Yes, they do make a profit, but the $453 supports a lot of US jobs that wouldn't exist if they had to spend more than $8 on manufacturing. The parts are all from Asia anyway. Most can't be profitably manufactured in the US by parts suppliers, and some, like the display, aren't available from US manufactures because most of the patents on the displays and how to make them are held by Asian companies.

[Auggie]

8. Consider the amount of time in engineering and software development alone

[Zalatix]

31. On the other hand, their signature iPad...

http://www.pcworld.com/article/188196/apples_ipad_profit_breaking_it_down.html

The new iPad tablet priced at $499 actually runs Apple about $270 in materials and manufacturing costs, a Wall Street analyst said.

According to a bill of materials (BOM) analysis by Brian Marshall of BroadPoint AmTech, the cost of goods inside Apple 's 16GB WiFi-only iPad totals $270.50. That figure includes a $10 line item dedicated to manufacturing, but doesn't include another $20 set aside for under-warranty service costs. Adding the latter makes Marshall's bottom-line total $290.50.

By Marshall's estimate, the $629 16GB iPad with WiFi and 3G costs Apple $306.50, just $16 more than the WiFi-only model, giving the company a profit margin of 52%, a jump of nine percentage points.

[Mimosa]

28. Ka-Ching!

The next laptop I buy won't be Apple unless their prices come down and workers are better treated.

[Yavin4]

18. Maybe Some Things Should Be Priced Higher

Rampant consumerism is the prime reason why we're in this mess to begin with. We've tilted our entire economy towards buying things, and when the population does not get value from making things, the only resource for consuming Apple products is through borrowing from the banks.

We need to re-balance our economy back towards making things and selling them, not making products more affordable in order to feed our consumption habit.

[progressivebydesign]

34. Bingo!!!

THIS!!! People can't understand why being able to buy 100 pairs of shoes at Payless isn't a good thing. We used to have modest homes, with modest closets. I'm talking in the 80s here, not the 50s. We owned some nice stuff for work. A few pairs of jeans, maybe 10 pairs of shoes.

Now?? I watch HGTV and see these couples who are buying a home, and they each work in maybe a call center, or insurance office... and they HAVE to have a giant walk in closet for each of them, for all of their clothes, PLUS a "shoe closet" for her.

These are people who probably make 25k-30k a year. And they need 100 pairs of shoes? Consumerism has killed America in so many ways.. and sending the jobs overseas is another part of that.

[Yavin4]

44. When The Emphasis Is On Making Products "Affordable"....

that by definition invites outsourcing as labor costs are a huge component for any product or service. We're left with soul-crushing, low-wage service jobs which leave us with low self-esteem. Finally, all of the "affordable" products wind up in landfills and help to destroy our environment.

[moondust]

30. Here's an economics professor in Japan who disagrees.

His analysis suggests the iPhone could be manufactured in the U.S. rather than China and Apple's profit would drop from around 64% to around 50%.

http://voxeu.org/article/how-iphone-widens-us-trade-deficit-china

[FarCenter]

32. The labor cost differential is higher and there would be productivity and quality problems as well.

The labor costs comparison has to include not only the differential in wages paid to the worker, but also all the labor-related benefits and overheads.

The assemblers in China appear to all be young women. From data on productivity of workers in the US doing a job requiring a high degree of eye-hand coordination, accuracy and speed, Asian women consistently beat the average and doubled the rate of correct output of some other ethnic groups.

In the US you would not be able to select, train, discipline, and fire employees so as to maintain high productivity and quality.

[progressivebydesign]

35. you wouldn't be able to work them like dogs, and pay them a pittance. you mean. n/t

[FarCenter]

39. Yes, and even if you could, the scrappage rate and warranty costs would be too high.

In China they are selecting the best young workers out of a rural population of around 700,000,000. Cream of the crop; not bottom of the barrel.

[The Magistrate]

4. Like A Snake Eating Its Tail, Sir

"If you're going to lie to me, show some respect while you do it."

[Spazito]

6. She was shilling for the repubs even more than usual...

it was pretty disgusting.

[Ship of Fools]

9. Like her MSNBC soliloquy ...

..."there IS a better way..." followed by a real quick smirk
before camera going black. She's a stammering shill, always. I'm tired
of her.

Please retire, Ms. Greenspan, and travel the world or something.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

10. So this is the new spin they've come up with?

Well, why aren't all those companies whom have been outsourcing for years becoming stronger and hiring more at home?

[MattBaggins]

13. If we outsource a 100 quality jobs,

we can create 10 new minimum wage ones. How can you not be excited?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

21. Oh I'm very excited

feeling that "thrill up my leg" right now!

[whathehell]

26. LOL...n/t

[HughBeaumont]

11. REALLY?

HOW has that Repub Chestnut worked for America's middle/working/poor thus far? HOW has that worked out?

Like a neutered dog, she just does not get it. Are we the only ones seeing the closed factories, boarded streets, weeded parking lots where businesses and workers used to be? Are we the only ones seeing the bankrupted cities that cannot pay their workers BECAUSE of the boarded up streets, closed factories and weeded parking lots where businesses used to be???

This is Trickle On. This is the product of offshore outsourcing, this is the product of unmitigated and uncontrolled GREED. Anyone who defends this shit needs booted dead in the ass.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

12. Economic traitor.

[L0oniX]

14. Andrea Greenspan is running a outsourced free coolaid stand.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Well I got the Chamber's material on this

I even used it in a story or two on TTP... so what OTHER talking points do you want? I have the top ten with me.

[LynneSin]

16. How's that working the last 5 years

Just saying!

[Autumn]

17. If she and her husband were to be sent overseas

we would be on the road to a stronger country.

[BOG PERSON]

19. that may have been true a decade ago

anybody who says its true today is stuck in the past or is just uninterested in the reality of things.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

20. Not too hard to tell who she'll be voting for in November

[JHB]

22. Funny how the people who say these things...

...are in positions where it will never affect them.

[4th law of robotics]

23. In some ways yes

as long as they can be replaced with better jobs here.

We've managed to do alright despite losing the textile industry to other countries.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

25. It's a long shot, and it is not the "norm."

In theory, it "could" work...send a low-end function to India or China, save money, make money, hire more people at the home office.

But it's still a long shot, one of those things that looks a lot better in theory than it does in practice. Companies usually get to the "save money, make money" stage and then pocket the profits.

[4th law of robotics]

46. It *has* worked

there are a great many menial tasks that were once done here that have been replaced by more advanced and higher paying jobs.

We lost the sweatshops but we gained office buildings.

The problem is when it's coupled with economic downturn and increased productivity (leading to fewer jobs being needed).

Companies have always sought to make more money at the expense of everything else. That's not a new thing.

[progressivebydesign]

36. No, we really haven't done alright.

Look at the unemployment for years since they shipped it overseas. And as for someone that uses fabric in her business, that shit made overseas is complete garbage. There is no way to spin that..

[RedRocco]

38. I can tell you aren't froim the south

when I was a kid, Greenville, SC was the textile capital of the world, and the little unincorporated mill village I live in had 5000 jobs within walking distance.

[4th law of robotics]

45. Sigh, yes there are some textile mills in the US

the point is that it is far from the industry here it once was.

Those were low paying jobs that others could do better.

People that might otherwise be working in a textile factory are now working in office buildings.

We aren't going to win out by fighting tooth and nail for the least valuable industries.

We lost textiles, we gained bio-tech. A fair trade I think.

/just one example.

[Brigid]

24. Riiiight.

And trickle-down economics has worked so well too.

[Skittles]

27. Andrea Greenspan is an Offshore Whore

[patrice]

29. BBbbwwwaaaa, Ha! ha! ha, aaaaaaaARGH!!!! That's more hiring because all of the jobs here are

TEMPORARY, you dumb shit!!

[sfpcjock]

33. Tee-hee...

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[progressivebydesign]

37. She's so full of shit.

The companies are NOT hiring in America because they got to outsource. What rubbish. The PROFIT goes into the salary of the CEO, who now makes 15 million a year, instead of 300k, like they used to. The money goes into the pockets of the biggest investors and the Board.

This is totally wrong...

[Marrah_G]

40. Idiot

[Canuckistanian]

41. Ah, Mrs. Greenspan

Defending her husband's policies yet again. Even after he himself apologized for them.

[Motown_Johnny]

42. She knows 'cause her husband told her so

and we all know how well he understands how an economy works.

[Trailrider1951]

43. What the hell are these people smoking??

Talk about being in lala land. Either she's outright lying, or she is too stupid for words.