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Comment by WheelsAtLarge | Hacker News Reader

I find it hard to believe that they won't automate it to the max. They've started to do it in china, why wouldn't they do it here where labor is more expensive and the factory is brand new. Foxconn has been manufacturing for a long time and they are looking to reduce costs not increase them by building in the US. Automation is the best way. I bet the jobs are not long term.

Some jobs are better than none but don't pat your back with congratulations.

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I watched a doc on the Foxconn factory that made iPhones (and other phones) and I was surprised at the amount of manual labour that went into manufacturing them.

I think it's a case of creating something like a phone requires a lot of intricate internal wiring that robots simply can't do right now. Robots struggle with variable pressure, to pick up delicate objects, and a phone would be much trickier to do. There seem to be advances in the latter, and I think Amazon is really trying to get it to work for their warehouses, and I do hope that there are advances on this front due to the terrible chemicals used in electronics manufacturing that cause cancer, infertility, and other ailments, but it will likely be a while until the technology advances enough.

They don't want to have problems with current US administration and Trump wants factories, so they give him factories.

Meaning the automation starts as soon as Trump leaves.

No, it means it starts on day one. As with Carrier, Trump wants things he can announce, but once he's gotten an announcement out of it his interest is done.

Automated new factories here in the homeland is still better for us than empty factories.

Maybe, they get very large tax breaks plus the take up resources. It's probably a breakeven situation.

>>as soon as Trump leaves

the room. The automation starts as soon as Trump leaves the room after giving himself his little back pat.

Maybe if we all pitched in a couple bucks, we could buy Mr. Trump a copy of Factorio.

like when carrier said they wouldnt outsource jobs and then almost immediately outsourced the jobs?

promises to the president are meaningless. He cant take away their factories or force them to hire people.

And promises like foxconn's frequently turn out to be the most optimistic number they can think up, to drum up good press and subsidies from politicians looking to show results to their voters.

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