Watch the YT video linked in the article. China is in the position of strength now. They're on an upward trajectory. We're on a steep downward one. And that won't change until we at least acknowledge the realities of our present predicament, and begin the serious, careful work to rectify it. I see no signs of that even being possible the way things are right now, let alone likely.

I'd like to pose a better question: why do you voluntarily carry water for Apple? If you are in the US (or in one of its allied countries), on-shoring advanced semiconductors, and other types of advanced manufacturing is 100% beneficial to you no matter from which perspective you consider it.

That's if it were a failure. If it were a success, we'd end global warming, attach a ginormous rocket booster to the world's economy without dooming the planet, kick the stool from underneath several authoritarian/theocratic regimes, and who knows what else.

If you think they have your interests in mind, I suggest you reconsider. At best, your interests might sometimes align with those of their true masters. But if they don't, who gives a shit - Pfizer has legal immunity now.

Prediction: Taiwan will be retaken by China by 2030 and the US will do bupkis about it other than saber rattling. It can't even do sanctions, since that'd be sort of like US imposing sanctions on its own manufacturing base. Xi knows this. He will use our weakness to his advantage. It would seem that business establishments are already acknowledging this, hence this massive investment in the US. On the other hand, this is also forcing China's hand - they can't afford to wait until it becomes feasible for the US to impose effective sanctions. Their colossus too has legs of clay. Except the legs are not as weak.

[1] https://www.globalfirepower.com/navy-submarines.php

And I'd like to understand how it is that an M1 Pro die, which is manufactured _solely_ by robots, and can't even use human labor would cost $100 per unit more here than anywhere else in the world. Heck the chip itself likely costs less than that to manufacture (do remember that we're excluding the design cost, which is the same).

This is quite literally the case of big businesses selling their (for some tenuous definition of "their" - they don't much care where they are situated as long as they have access to US market) country out for a buck.

He can be "exceptionally clear" and still biased in favor of TMSC.

> It is impossible with respect to current cost structure

Well, we'll have to pay a few cents (or dollars) more per chip then. It is infeasible for us to continue to depend on TMSC in the long term - it will be taken over by our largest geopolitical adversary by 2030 at the latest. We do not have a choice but to either on-shore, or shift production to countries with far less geopolitical risk.

So do large grocery stores, for obvious reasons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...

I think a cool and "googly" thing for Google to try would be to do what one of the companies in the article did: reduce the work week to 4 days while keeping the same pay. All tech companies should do that. Working the same hours as factory workers did 100 years ago is absurd given the productivity improvements in the interim.

Wisely, the Chinese government appointed the same guy as last time to deal with the pandemic, but the dude is now 85 years old, so my friend is not sure what they're going to do next time.

Ironically, we also appointed "the same guy", but our guy is so inept he let swine flu run completely unchecked and kill tens of thousands of people (a performance he tried but failed to repeat when he, in the beginning of the pandemic told the US public "there's no need to wear masks"). He's also famous for telling people that AIDS can spread through "household contact" [1], and for suggesting that people take a fast tracked drug (AZT) as an AIDS prophylactic which was later found to have severe side effects [2]. Does this remind anyone of anything? How he managed to last 30+ years in the government given this "track record" is a mystery to me.

And if you believe stats coming out of China, you might also be interested in some Louisiana swamp land I have available for sale.

[1] https://news.yahoo.com/video-resurfaces-fauci-warning-househ...

[2] https://aep.lib.rochester.edu/node/49111

And I can guarantee you Daszak and a bunch of other hangers on make a lot more than "20K". In fact 20K might not be enough to get him out of bed in the morning.

[1] https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/news/pr1006/nypd-citywide-cri...