John Kay’s timely piece is worth reading – The
economics and politics of manufacturing fetishism
“The rear cover of
the iPhone tells you it is designed in California and assembled in China. The phone sells, in the absence of carrier
subsidy, for around $700. Purchased
components – clever pieces of design such as the tiny flash drive and the small
but high performing camera – may account for as much as $200 of this. The largest
supplier of parts is Apple’s principal rival in the smartphone market, Samsung.
‘Assembled in China’ costs around $20. The balance represents the return to
‘designed in California’, which is why Apple is such a profitable company.
When you buy a
drug, or an aircraft engine, or an iPhone, you are not paying for the
materials. Nor for the manual labour that put it together. You are paying for
the research and the design. When you buy the suit, or the aircraft engine, you
are paying for some labour – but the highly skilled labour which (at Rolls
Royce) controls the machine or (on Saville Row) cannot yet be matched by
machine.”
Related:
http://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-misguided-obsession-with.html