iChina
I like the sing-song Wobblies-style video of how the iEconomy works, and how the natural order of things shifts and obliterates the Middle Class in America. There are several layers of consequences to the cheap crap flowing from China that says "made in china" to the fancy iProducts.
The New York Times is doing an interesting series on the iChina syndrome:
Apple employs 43,000 people in the United States and 20,000 overseas, a small fraction of the more than 400,000 American workers at General Motors in the 1950s, or the hundreds of thousands at General Electric in the 1980s. Many more people work for Apple’s contractors: an additional 700,000 people engineer, build and assemble iPads, iPhones and Apple’s other products. But almost none of them work in the United States. Instead, they work for foreign companies in Asia, Europe and elsewhere, at factories that almost all electronics designers rely upon to build their wares.
Another excellent read is Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs , if you haven't already, you'll notice that he doesn't go into great detail about Apple blooming in China, but there is a brilliant focus on the mega-personalities in the computer, music and cinema & Wall Street world. It's a great read and demystifies the industry and the people surrounding our nation's love affair with iProducts.
With Walter's insights lack of insights into that world, it looks like we will wait and see how China fares if the American Middle Class is completely eliminated. Good luck getting the 1%ers to fill up their Gulfstreams with Walmart shopping bags.
The only thing I can be sure of at the moment is that the eggs in my refrigerator were not made in China. Or were they?
I'm off to Detroit -- be back in a jiffy.
I remember my first iPod -- it was so fascinating to me, that I wrote about the possibility of a WePod. Still think about it.
Anita Thompson
