
Apple Opening Arizona Plant With 2,000 Workers to Make Parts - dcg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-04/apple-to-build-plant-in-arizona-with-2-000-workers-to-make-parts.html
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logn
I wonder what the tax incentives to Apple were. A local story [1] reported:
"Apple could qualify for several different state tax credits. An offer from
the Arizona Commerce Authority is currently on the table but hasn't been
finalized, senior vice president Nicole McTheny said."

I don't like tax incentives for big businesses to locate to a particular
state. I see why they happen, as each state is put in a position to outbid the
others and businesses are compelled to take free money. We should outlaw this
practice with federal law and stop taking money from the middle-class to
benefit the rich, under threats of having no jobs.

[1]
[http://www.petaluma360.com/article/20131104/WIRE/131109835/1...](http://www.petaluma360.com/article/20131104/WIRE/131109835/1033/news?Title=Apple-
to-expand-to-Phoenix-employ-700)

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hkmurakami
Wouldn't something like this be taking money from the rich and the middle
class and redistributing it to the lower-middle class who are out of work in
AZ?

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hobs
It could be, but don't the lower-middle classes get the most benefit from
government dollars? (which are being redistributed to the business, which is
owned by the upper classes)

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jorgem
>> Don't the lower-middle classes get most of the benefit from government
dollars?

I wonder how that could be determined. I'm curious to see graph of benefit-
per-capita grouped by income brackets.

EDIT: This link is "kindof" it, but there is no way that I can see to break it
down by income.

[http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/US_per_capita_spending.html](http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/US_per_capita_spending.html)

~~~
yummyfajitas
Another bit of data which is suggestive, but again not exactly the right
thing, is consumption data by income bracket:

ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/ce/standard/2009/income.txt

The actual right data would be consumption+savings by income bracket, but I
don't know where to get the savings data.

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pmorici
So do the economics actually favor moving some manufacturing back to the US
now or is this a token measure just attractive enough because of the right
amount of tax incentives mixed with the intangible benefits like good PR?

Whenever I read these "Apple is bring manufacturing back to the US" stories
all I can think of is the famous exchange between Steve Jobs and the President
where Jobs supposedly said flat out, "those jobs aren't coming back" [0]
Granted Apply has been known to make definitive statements like that only to
do a 180 not long after.

[0] [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-
and...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-
squeezed-middle-class.html)?

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objclxt
> _So do the economics actually favor moving some manufacturing back to the US
> now or is this a token measure_

Haven't Apple always sourced their glass from the US? I thought Corning made
most of their stuff in Kentucky, but perhaps I'm wrong.

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zuppy
As far as I understand from this article (page 5), it's not always made in US:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-
and...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-
squeezed-middle-class.html?pagewanted=5&_r=0)

“Our customers are in Taiwan, Korea, Japan and China,” said James B. Flaws,
Corning’s vice chairman and chief financial officer. “We could make the glass
here, and then ship it by boat, but that takes 35 days. Or, we could ship it
by air, but that’s 10 times as expensive. So we build our glass factories next
door to assembly factories, and those are overseas.”

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vidarh
The article contents and headline disagree with each other. The article
contents says that the facility will _create_ 2000 jobs in various fields in
Arizona. But towards the end,Arizona's governor is quoted as saying the
facility will create at least 700 jobs, as well as "1,300 construction and
associated positions in the state", with no word on how many of those
positions are temporary jobs related to the construction of the facility
itself.

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lstamour
So what do we think they're manufacturing with sapphire? Watch faces or 4K
touch screens? Perhaps gearing up for an extra-secret (no manufacturing leaks)
iPhone 6?

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cmelbye
The home button on the new iPhone 5s and the lens that was introduced with the
iPhone 5.

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lstamour
Really, to then assemble them in China? Well, maybe. But don't ruin my fun! :)

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timhargis
I grew up in Mesa and it's nice to see this happen here. Phoenix isn't a large
tech hub and by Apple putting this plant in Mesa, this will help put it on the
map (on a smaller scale)

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plainOldText
I'm imagining that just because Apple puts a plant there won't change things
much. Yeah, people will talk about it for a few days, but that's about it. I
remember Google had an office in Arizona but then they closed it.

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timhargis
Well it's never going to be SV but when some other companies such as Ebay,
Paypal, etc. went to Chandler and opened up offices, this helped other tech
companies take notice and it's grown considerably over the past few years. I'm
not implying it's going to attract other major tech companies to come to Mesa,
but to get Apple to come is a big step in the right direction. If you would
have said that a few years ago, people would have laughed. (including me)

