The CEO of apple said that making the iphone in the USA will add $60 to the price of the phone. He would know the numbers.
US has $400B trade deficit with China and this includes US companies having production facilities in China. Instead of threatening 35% tarriffs the US should implement 10% rates and leave the arrangements as they are. $40B earned should be invested into various futurist industries inside the US that better utilize the higher skilled US work force. $200 more for iphones will result in extreme loss of competitiveness for Apple. Instead of picking global fights with China, Mexico and others, Trump administration should focus on reducing the healthcare costs in the US. Average per capital for US is $11k/year vrs $5k/year for rest of the Western world. US neighbour Canada's costs are merely $5-6K. Bringing healthcare costs in line with other western nations, US stands to save whopping $1 Trillion right off the bat. US citizens would be much more happy not paying $5 for a glass of water written in the bill as "dehydration therapy" by the hospitals. Btw, since 1960s, US healthcare costs having grown by more than 800%. In 1960s, HC costs were merely 5% of the GDP and now they are around 18-20%.
Agree on bringing healthcare costs down, but that is almost impossible at this point, reason being is that they let it get soo out of control to the point that any chance of bringing down costs would most likely destroy the health care industry....just like the education system and cost to go to college.... I know of people in their mid 50s to mid 60s who lost their jobs who are working just to receive free healthcare insurance, that's how insane and ludacris prices have gone, yet the federal reserve and friends are all saying inflation is under control. It's not under control when healthcare and education costs have skyrocketed the last 20-30 years!!!!
Top quality antibiotic from a ISO9000 certified company in India costs 15-25 cents and in the US it costs $1 or more. Open heart surgery in US costs $60K while it costs merely $10K in top notch hospitals in several other nations in the world. HC costs are not beyond control but the only area which offers immense potentials to "cure" the health of the US economy. US can save another $100B in defense costs and another $20B in prison system budget. Matters are not hopeless but leaders need to look beyond the lobby group interests.
hmmm, What do healthcare and education costs have in common? I don't know, I'm glad I'm not paying for it.
If you live in the USA and pay into Social Security and pay property taxes, then yes, you're paying for them.
Its not exactly "all" free. Its mundane slow...sometimes dangerously slow in parts of Canada that some use "private" because its much faster. I remember the birth of my first kid...spouse in a room with 4 other mothers with her bed near the door. She couldn't sleep at all because of the other mother's getting visitors and care from the nurses. In contrast, we got a single room for the birth of my 2nd kid and it cost me $250. Thus, not free. I myself recently went thru a life/death situation with my health and the total hospital bill was $225k had I needed to pay for such. Yet, all free (1/2 the care in another country because I became ill while on vacation) because I'm under the Canadian health care system. I spent most of my time in a coma with 3 other patients in a coma...all sharing the same room although we each weren't aware of the other. Then when I came out of the coma, I was in that room for another 2 weeks before they moved me to a single room (they quarantine me) but only because I caught a highly contagious dangerous bacteria infection from one of the breathing machines with a tube down my throat that had given me an infection. Had it not been for that infection and had I requested a single room...it would have been $250 per night, $125 for TV (per month), $10 per special meal request with approval from the doctor and many other costs. Some patients at the hospital had such. Thus, you have a choice...public or private care (includes special requests). In contrast, at a U.S. hospital...the cost would have been about 10k per day plus other expenses that would have easily double the cost for an insured person that was in a coma. Yeah, both a lot cheaper than the U.S. and one of the main reasons why I relocated to Canada many years because I didn't want to raise a new family in the U.S. with the crazy health care and education costs. As stated, the cost really is in the private sector here in Canada and many Canadians use it. For example, after my release from rehab...I hired a private nurse and a private fitness instructor for one month on a daily basis...costing me about 1k per week but it shorten my stay at the rehab facility. Not sure what the costs in the U.S. would have been for such but I imagine it would have been higher. Now that I have first hand experience of Canada's healthcare and education system...still much better than the U.S. base on what I remember my parents went thru, other family members working in the healthcare system and my own education at a U.S. university.... A side note, I spent most of my youth raised in France. Education system and costs much better although I have a few friends that disagree.
Next time a lady is under birth labor expectancy, the hospital can easily provide/rent the Bose noise cancellation headphones. These are not too expensive coming at $100 to $250 range. Same for TV, for extra $10/day, provide laptop with headphones and patient can have more than a decent media experience including internet, pre taped shows and music of choice. All without disturbing anyone.