Labor is cheaper in India.
Manufacturing wages in China are now 20% of manufacturing wages in the US, and manufacturing wages in India are 3% of US wages, see chart below.
So, why would Apple, or anyone else, not move production from China to India?
Steve
A better question would be, why would anyone take credit for what Biden did?
** One of the biggest shifts in manufacturing has been reducing dependence on China. The magnitude of that move was reinforced today with news that India-made iPhone exports were said to have jumped by a third to nearly $6 billion in value in the six months to September.**
Chinese labor has been more expensive than Indian, or Mexican, for a number of years now.
Another bit from my pump seal company laff file:
âSix Phases Of A Projectâ.
1: Enthusiasm
2: Disillusionment
3: Panic
4: Search for the guilty.
5: Punishment of the innocent
6: Praise and honors for the non-participants
We are clearly in phase six.
Steve
It wasnât so long ago that wages in China were 3% of US wages too. A funny thing happens; the peasants start to go to big industrial factories instead of rickety huts making baskets, they look around, they get restless, and the overlords say âMaybe we need to increase wages.â And so the JCâs start to look for greener pastures.
Happened when the textiles industry (and more recently automotive) in the US north moved South, then to Eastern Europe, then to China, now to India. There are still starving urchins and barely breathing workers elsewhere; trust the JCâs to find the next batch.
Over the past two decades, China has seen significant wage increases , driven by factors like economic growth, government initiatives, and a tightening labor market. Average wages have risen substantially, with nominal minimum wages almost tripling between 2004 and 2014. Real wage growth in urban areas has also been significant, exceeding the growth in minimum wages.
I have already answered this question⌠technology manufacturing is not about cheap labor. There is one significant difference between India and China is India is a democracy, that is still trying to get away from its socialist past, so there are lot of laws that are not as flexible as China. Separately, the skilled labor costs in India are no cheaper than China. I have personal experience with IT engineering costs, China is actually cheaper than India.
Dear Kingran,
Youâve noticed he never keeps his word?
That is with The Donald.
Dear Al,
The dye is cast. The rabbit died.
The only thing that matters more is the tax cut which will implode the financial system.
Meanwhile the layoffs in China have gotten well underway. The layoffs here are just beginning.
You canât sell from an empty wagon.
More importantly all the way up and down the ladder people wont be able to afford as much.
I thought the goal was to eliminate trade deficits, not just move them from one country to another. How is this a âwinâ?
Oh, thereâs a lot more dying to do. From the National Hog Report:
China recently canceled 12,000 tons of US pork orders, significantly reducing its purchase commitments. This cancellation brings the weekly sales down to 5,800 tons, the lowest reported volume in 2025.
As for where China might be getting its pork from, it appears they're diversifying their suppliers. China has signed trade protocols with Spain, allowing for increased access to Spanish pork products, including pork stomach exports. This move is seen as a strategic step amid escalating trade tensions between China and the US .
Dear Farmers:
âGood and Hardâ is the operative phrase, I believe.
I love it.
Give them what they voted for â good and hard.
intercst
Trump has slapped a national sales tax, so that he can fund the tax cut for the rich. Sales tax is the most regressive tax. There is nothing to feel proud about it.
I think the pressure is on Trump to do the deal, not on the other nations. Already Trump has chickened out twice. And the world has realized it. My worst fear is, this whole tariff drama ends up costing a lot in the long-term and in the short-term.
12,000 tons doesnât seem that significant. Maybe a typo?
We produced 12.61 million tons.
| Market | % of Global Production | Total Production (2024/2025, Metric Tons) |
|---|---|---|
| China | 49% | 57.06 Million |
| European Union | 18% | 21.25 Million |
| United States | 11% | 12.61 Million |
| Brazil | 4% | 4.5 Million |
| Russia | 4% | 4.32 Million |
| Vietnam | 3% | 3.79 Million |
| Canada | 2% | 2.09 Million |
| Mexico | 1% | 1.59 Million |
| South Korea | 1% | 1.46 Million |
| Japan | 1% | 1.29 Million |
| [Pork | USDA Foreign Agricultural Service](https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/production/commodity/0113000) |
Dear Goofy,
I would not say otherwise.
So you are saying bacon is going to get cheaper? Now that is something that could get me to vote for Trump.
$1 Trillion in interest payments is not sustainable. $1.1T trade deficit is not sustainable. $36 Trillion is not a good place to be. This is not even the main problem.
The main problem is that China is ALREADY ahead of US in most things meaningful and US is providing the CAPITAL.
I understand the urge to be status quo and be afraid of change but change is MUST. You guys are myopic and lurching from day to day worrying about empty stores.
Then quit adding to the Deficit. Saying something is a problem and then compounding it is insane.
2 MW is small, but the signal is huge: China is edging ahead in next-gen nuclear, using declassified U.S. tech, while the West dithers.
Keep kicking people out of the country that are in Colleges and going after the colleges. Itâs only helping China and Russia. But maybe that is the plan.
Poll on Trump and this is only 100 days.
Talk about being in Disarray. Maybe it will get better if you arrest judges.
Probably not. What we produce isnât the relevant metric, I donât think, because we consume most of it ourselves. What we export to them would be more meaningful, but I didnât bother looking it up. Itâs the first salvo, probably not the eventual total. More to the point, the Council, presumably an industry group, called it âsignificantly reducingâ, which I took to mean more than just a warning shot. Maybe not, dunno.
In any event, itâs a taste of whatâs to come - and not just from China, although theyâre feeling it most acutely. But we can see that theyâre diversifying supply lines away from the US and we should not be surprised to find many other countries doing the same, perhaps more subtly (perhaps not) which will aggregate over time to a changed economic picture for US producers (of perhaps everything, not just agricultural products.)
I offer âBoeingâ, as one executive suite which must be tearing its hair out about now. There are going to be others.
China is ahead TODAY in most consequential fields. From PVs, to EVs to Drones to Energy to Ships, to Battery to manufacturing to mining.
SpaceX and Tesla are probably the only large scale manufacturing that are ahead and growing. However, Democrats are organizing to protest and in some cases burn Tesla EVs and charging stations.
I donât believe they are ahead. China has much better ev cars, SpaceX is ahead now but China will catch up with that also. Musk has given them a lot of his technology.
As far as protesting. People have a right to protest. I had no problem with the far right protesting Budweiser, Disney, NFL, Nike, Target, etc. People have a right to bring their concerns to bear.
Musk should have never gotten involved in Politics, I canât feel sorry for a man who has billions of dollars and throws that money around, across the world, to try to influence things in his image. He is getting what he deserves. The mask has come off and Germany is mad at him for trying to influence their election. I donât know if he will ever come back to where he was.
I asked my wife why donât we buy a tesla, they are cheap. She said she would never buy a tesla ever. I said what if we could get it for 5 dollars. She said No. She never wants anything that is Elon Musk in our house.That is a powerful boycott. We will never have a Tesla. Musk has ruined a lot of peopleâs lives, regular people, hard working people, unfortunately when you do that you have to pay the price. Musk is just starting to see what that price is.
The majority of people do not condone violence and do not support the burning of charging stations but some of those people are just peaceful protestors, they even wave at the cameras and at the cops. They were let into the charging stations by Tesla so they canât be guilty. 
People like you, That revel in people losing their jobs are the anti-christ in this society. You are not an American.
Read this and weep.
Website For MAGAT-Friendly Businesses Backfires As People Use It For Boycotts
