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>> China has scale and stability. ??? Vietnam has nearly twice South Korea's population (and less than Japan's) and of course, it also has scale, as South Kor
by tooltalk 5y ago
>> China has scale and stability.
??? Vietnam has nearly twice South Korea's population (and less than Japan's) and of course, it also has scale, as South Korean businesses in Vietnam have shown repeatedly.
To boot, Vietnam has no immediate internal political threats (eg, compared against China's separatist movements by ethnic minorities in Tibet, Uigher, Inner Mongolia) or no potential regional geopolitical/territorial conflicts with neighbors (eg, Phillippines, Japan, India, etc), other than China. And, most importantly, despite having fought a war half-century ago, America's diplomatic and trade relationship with Vietnam is far less hostile -- it's in fact quite amicable -- than with China.
>> ... but the supply chains will remain plumbed through China for a while.
That's inevitable only b/c of Apple's political clout and relentless lobbying here in the US. I was hoping, while I was no fan of Trump, Trump's trade policy would at least partly address this, but oh boy, how quickly he caved in before Apple and dished out tariff exemptions.
- seanmcdirmid 5y agoVietnam has 90 million people. South Korea doesn’t have much scale, Japan has a bit, the numbers only start making sense if we could develop a supply chain throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, maybe using talent and capital from Singapore. Or India and South Asia, of course, if things were more stable. But alas, stability is important. And none of those regions are very stable. > That's only inevitable b/c of Apple's political clout and relentless lobbying in here. Apple is like .1% of the political clout and lobbying being brought to bear. Their only notability in this is that they are the only FAANG that has significant business in China.
- tooltalk 5y ago>> Apple is like .1% of the political clout and lobbying being brought to bear Sure, as Tim Apple testified before Congress, Apple pays the most tax in the US and is also the most valuable company in the world. I'm pretty sure there is nothing going on between Apple and American/Chinese gov't. /s
- pbhjpbhj 5y ago>Apple pays the most tax in the US // Interesting, how much, what percentage is that of Apple revenue and what percentage of total federal tax income?
- seanmcdirmid 5y agoCompanies pay taxes on profit, not revenue. Otherwise capital intensive industries like banks and oil companies would be screwed.