Comment by supernova87a | Hacker News Reader

Comment by supernova87a | Hacker News Reader

Maybe the Brazilian government should look into helping its citizens by reducing tariffs, protectionist policies, and other regulations that make it one of the worst and costly places to do business and be a consumer. Rather than trumpeting a symbol of a $10 charging cable on a phone that's out of reach for 99.99% of Brazilians, using regulations that sound rather dubiously defined and enforced, I have to say.

-- From Brazil Cost to Brazil Profit: Why are electronics so expensive in Brazil? https://thenextweb.com/la/2012/09/30/from-brazil-cost-brazil...

-- Brazil is among the world's most expensive countries to buy an iPhone https://www.zdnet.com/article/brazil-is-among-the-worlds-mos...

-- Brazil - Country Commercial Guide ("... Brazil ranked 141 out of 141 economies for burden of regulation...") https://www.trade.gov/knowledge-product/brazil-trade-barrier...

-- Trade Restrictions in Brazil: Who Pays the Price? https://www.e-jei.org/upload/JEI_32_2_283_323_2013600128.pdf

I don't know if any others here have Brazilian friends, but every time I talk to mine, they offer to pay me to send them consumer goods at normal prices, or bring them when I visit. That is not a good sign. Well, that and the desperate poverty and financial situation that much of the country lives in. Unless you managed to marry someone on a military pension before he/she died (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/21/world/americas/brazil-pen...). But I digress.

How is this relevant to the conversation?

To begin with, every company is more than welcome to produce their goods in the country and lower their costs, happens to the xbox for example. If Apple would produce their phones there and still not include the charger they would be fined the same way.

Trade restrictions are there both ways. Or do you think we can sell our planes cheaper in America? How about the billions the US gov dumps on Boeing propping up a company that is a safety risk for not only those who fly but those who are in the ground as well, or all the pork that goes to the soy farmers, the restrictions on dishwashers and so on and so forth. To name a few.

And, please, Brazil is on the G20 your mud slinging against "people marrying into a military pension" is just blowing things way out of proportion. Or do you want me to talk about the terrible state most of Alabama, Arkansas and Mississipi are? How about the opioid epidemic in many states? Is that solved?

Imagine if my country would have an armed mob storming congress to stop an election what would you say right? But fret not, thanks to a president aligned to your previous president we will most likely face the same situation.

But I digress, I think the fine is fair and any company that does not comply to local laws should be fined accordingly.

They voted for Bolsonaro. Go figure.

Anyway, $2M is peanuts to Apple and the fine is well deserved. They cheap out on a $19 charger on a $799 purchase, the consumers getting what is essentially a non functioning product, all in the name of reducing waste. Then sell the iPones with minimal packaging like a paper wrap and make them repairable instead of pushing updates that break older devices in order to force users to buy new ones.

I don't know how it's relevant. If you see there are links from 2012, talking about the issue, and AFAIK the IT world in Brazil has strong taxation since 80s. Look this issue from 2007, involving CISCO: https://www.reuters.com/article/brazil-fraud-idUSN1621022620...

Absolutely. Regardless of one’s sentiment on Apple removing the charger this should be a focus of the discussion.

i disagree. One can certainly add one related link to HN and we can discuss about it there. This thread however is to talk about the OP linked article. I'm not in Brazil, but i can imagine that as anywhere in the world, there is no such thing as "The" government, but different agencies, ministries each one with their own duties/responsibilities.

Why should can’t we discuss not focus if the regulator is suspect? This seems like an overreach to me and other mobile phone sellers have much much worse practices that hurt consumer.

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