Hacker News Reader

Comment by Cumpiler69 | Hacker News Reader

What are your realistic options?

Say TSMC pays supper competitive US salaries to attract US-only labor, higher labor cost which is causing the end product to be more expensive, which makes that fab uncompetitive globally causing Apple to go buying from someone else and TSMC either choosing leaving the US or going bust eating the losses.

You can't compete with lower-wage countries in a globalized world with no trade barriers and no tariffs, when Apple wants higher profits and consumers want lower prices. Something has to give.

You can put tariffs on imported chips to equalize the field, but then iPhones would be more expensive for the average American and Apple's stock would tank.

So, pick your poison.

View on HN

More automation. Given the chemicals involved in fab work in general I expect this fab is very automated just for safety reasons and so very few employees are needed. Thus the cost of labor isn't a significant factor.

>Thus the cost of labor isn't a significant factor.

It is. Semi fabs aren't fire-and-forget. You need highly skilled people to constantly check and tweak all the operations in a feedback loop 24/7 and every hour of downtime due to any issue means millions lost. You hire the right people to minimize that downtime while also keeping the costs in check. It's a delicate balance.

What % of the all fab costs over two decades are the people? Including the cost of building it and modernization

Touché

All money ultimately goes to labor. Rocks don't accept cash as payment.

but not fab's labor.

True, but compared to the amount of production I would guess these are only a few people.

The problem was never the cost of labor. US tech is already highly profitable and they can pay the full salary if they wish to. But their desire is basically to get a free card to pay lower salaries by any means, so they can send more of those profits to shareholders. The US is essentially a fighting arena between shareholders and workers. The profit is there, it is just a matter of how business want to keep always more of the spoils to themselves.

Do you also think that if a business loses money, the employees should give some of their pay back to the business? Or does this just go one way?

Workers ALWAYS give back some of their salaries when a company fails. They either get lower compensation or lose their jobs altogether.

What about the US providing actually good education that can produce workers able to compete with Chinese and other Asian countries?

Why would well educated US grads go work in a semi fab for 50k when they can make 5-10x in an office or at home, getting people to click on ads in the bay area, or move money around between tax heavens in new york?

Your answer explains why the US is creating a failed society. It either implodes or needs to control other countries to maintain its profit and consumption levels.

Rather, sounds like paying the real costs rather than playing games to avoid that.

> You can't compete with lower-wage countries in a globalized world with no trade barriers

I think you’ve correctly identified the solutions.

> when Apple wants higher profits and consumers lower prices

Trump wants chips that say "Made in 'Merica". I dont think cost comes into it that much.

That's the catch, he said "Made in America", not "Made by American workers" :)

The DoD is the driver. They're freaked out about the supply chain vulnerabilities.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com