[justapassenger]

> One of the reasons Jobs cited as being an important factor for locating in China is the availability of skilled labor

Highly skilled forced labor?

Let's not kid ourselves - it's all about cost cutting. They're trying to diversify and move to another low wage country, India.

Not - I'm not saying that China or India lacks skilled labor, or highly paid experts. But that's not why companies like Apple are there. They're there for cheap labor, and close to non-existent labor protections. But China is starting to change, so Apple is looking for new places.

> Yes, Apple should do something about this issue, and yes it's horrible to imagine them profiting off this with their "nice guy" image, but keep in mind that if they did this and increased the cost of the iPhone, other companies wouldn't, and it would put Apple at a huge disadvantage.

It's like saying that Google and Facebook should continue to disregard privacy, because their huge margins relay on that?

[nicoburns]

> Not - I'm not saying that China or India lacks skilled labor, or highly paid experts. But that's not why companies like Apple are there.

I think it is partly. China in particular seems to have a depth, quality and volume of hardware engineering skills that isn't available anywhere else in the world. Maybe the US had this once, but as far as I can see: not anymore.