JWSC

jimh2 said:

While not the same type of person as Jobs, Elon Musk is someone who will not accept norms or limitations. He keeps pressing and perfecting until he gets what he envisioned. People like this make the world a better place whether or not we like or admire them. Settling is never something a great leader does.

He also put together and mentored an incredible team to carry on without him, which in itself is impossible for all but a few to do.

GeorgeBMac said:

StrangeDays said:

Alex_V said:

waveparticle said:

Decades of social movements in US has destroyed American's ability to operate manufacturing plant. The management are tied by human rights and spend way too much time on social issues of the workers. The people and the movement behind it are trying all they can to export this ideology to China and many other countries. But this is against capitalism which Taiwanese actually become better on execution. 

Meaningless tosh. Read the history of labour movements. Read also, what happened to US manufacturing since Reagan. The world is bigger than just the US and China; even if that is the full extent of your world. 

Agreed - I’m quite thankful for the 40-hour work week, weekends, child labor laws, etc etc…All introduced to the world as part of the labor movement, a check & balance against the extremely wealthy executive class that owned production and basically owned workers.

Yes, that's all good stuff.   But, as we have seen over the past half century, it only works where the U.S. operates as a closed system building and consuming all by itself, on its own, without global competition.

On a global scale, it's all free market capitalism where the weak get eaten and only the best survive.

In the case of Lordstown:  They tried competing against better, cheaper Japanese cars with the likes of the Chevy Vega.  They lost.

If you want shorter hours and higher pay scales you have to compensate for it with better technology and production practices or you won't be competitive and will become one of those that get eaten up in that survival of the fittest thing.

We have yet to see how Foxconn plans to approach that:  will they have dormitories of low paid workers?  Or, will they pay American style wages and benefits and make up for it with better technology and production techniques?    Or, maybe a combination of both?

One thing we know:   They will be competing amdst international competition where only the best survive.

Beats said:

GeorgeBMac said:

The concept of bank centric checking and savings accounts is not only looking increasingly dated -- but is actively being challenged by various crypto currencies.

Much of the world has been locked out of the banking infrastructure either out of poverty or where they live.

One result is:  El Salvador is backing away from using the U.S. dollar as their base currency and adding BitCoin -- not because they don't like or trust the dollar but the (mostly American) banking industry that controls it has been abusing their people with restrictions and excessive fees.  With BitCoin, anybody can save "cash" in their wallet and transfer it across borders instantaneously directly to another person or business without restrictions, delay or fees. 

On the other hand, AppleCash could become a viable alternative:  You can save money in your wallet and transfer it instantaneously to other people and businesses without any fees or restrictions (other than that they have access to AppleCash).  But, it is still tied to a bank as every penny in that system (which is housed in a bank) originally came from an electronic bank transfer.  And, there are other similar systems out there.

While there are serious concerns about BitCoin, could ApplePay (or its like) be the future?

My grandson and his friends are increasingly using instead of cash.   They are too young to have or support bank accounts with a steady stream of income but they can use AppleCash -- and they don't even need to carry a physical wallet -- their phones are never far from their hands.

And, at the same time, people used to use banks to safely store their cash while reaping income from the interest the bank paid.  But now that is pretty much gone:  You can safely store money in a BitCoin or AppleCash wallet -- and interest payments won't buy a cup of coffee:  $10,000 gets you a couple pennies.  So why use a bank?   Soon, people will be figuring that out and the banksters will be horrified.

I think it’s funny that everyone bashes Bitcoin on AI but since this is an anti-Google article maybe now Bitcoin is good?

I invest in Bitcoin but what I don’t like is that it’s too volatile. With U.S. currency your $100 is worth maybe 99.998 or 100.001 tomorrow but with Bitcoin your $100 might be worth $96 tomorrow then $101 later that night. 

hammeroftruth said:

lkrupp said:

Is stockpiling components anti-competitive? Is Apple a component monopolist? Is Apple a sick hoarder that needs therapy? Can the usual critics explain please?

Just watch an episode of Doomsday Preppers, thats exactly what Apple did. 

They just prepped for a supply issue rather than the end of days. There will be more shortages as we deplete the remaining rare earths and this is why they are investing to recycle and reuse them.