On: Jimmy Wales: $50 Android smartphones are disruptin...

[dagw]

They make them in china for $50

Anybody who stops to think about it for a little while probably marvels far more at the technology and innovation that actually makes it possible to build such a device for a mere $50.

[dfxm12 → dagw]

And wouldn't they have to make them for much less than $50 if they are selling them for that much?

[dagw → dfxm12]

Yup, I should have written make them for a price where they can sell them for $50.

[debacle → dagw]

It's not the technology and innovation. It's the lax environmental regulations and labor arbitrage.

[Symmetry → debacle]

"labor arbitrage"? You're saying it isn't fair because the middle income country selling phones to the low income country isn't paying money for high income workers instead? I can sort of understand why someone could think that it's good that phones sold in a country are made in that same country, but insisting that all phones sold everywhere be manufactured in the first world just exhibits a breathtaking sense of entitlement.

[debacle → Symmetry]

I'm saying that the real cost of the phone, in human and ecological factors, is much greater than $50.