Labour prices of technology

[Thorin]

iPhone 4S: $8 labour + $188 parts = $196 item sold for $649 - labour is 1.23% of the price
iPad 3: $4 labour + $325 parts = $329 item sold for $519 (Futureshop price) - labour is 0.77% of the price
Xbox 360: $10 labour + $210 parts = $220 item sold for $300 - labour is 3.33% of the price
Kindle Fire: $14 labour + $173 parts = $187 item sold for $199 - labour is 7.04% of the price

source: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20120331/china-ipads-apple-factory-20120331/

WOW, labour's a paltry component of these products!  Even if Chinese labourers received double their wages, most of these items wouldn't even have to change in price for the companies to still make a bundle off them!

Higher costs in China already have prompted some companies in labor-intensive industries such as shoes and textiles to migrate to Vietnam and other lower-wage economies.

Nice, I wonder when we're going to find the last country on Earth where people will work for dirt-cheap.  I predict there'll be some factories set up in Africa in ten years or so, after Vietnam's wages go up.  The problem with Africa, though, is that the parts that will work for almost nothing are also inhabited by armed gangs that will simply kill you and take your stuff.

[Mr. Analog]

Globalization in theory should bring up the world average of wages. When labour appears cheaper in another country and manufacturing moves there standard of living increases with the GDP, we've seen this with Mexico, China, Thailand...

The troubling thing though is that essentially multinationals "outsource" misery, so 19th Century working conditions are actually a step up for some people, sadly they have to go through all the same growing pains (pollution, bad treatment, etc). I suspect that when some countries like China start developing a larger middle class with disposable income things will begin to get ugly there, particularly when the bottom falls out of manufacturing (which it will, eventually).