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WASHINGTON — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decried Apple’s recent $200 price hikes on computers and tablets, which the tech giant blamed on a memory chip crunch — and called for breaking up Big Tech.
“We need to break up a lot of these companies that are far, far too big, and we need to be instituting consumer protections for people,”
“We need to break up a lot of these companies that are far, far too big, and we need to be instituting consumer protections for people,” the New York Democrat said.
I guess she's never contemplated the option of just not buying products from companies you think are abusing their market power. AOC must have an iPhone, a Watch, an iPad, and a Mac, and wants a discount.
I think the rest of us need protections from AOC and her merry band of 12 million social media followers, who are more interested in her skincare recommendations than actually understanding her economic policy proposals.
And she (supposedly) has a BA in Economics, yet clearly she has no idea how a market economy works, or any understanding of what supply and demand concepts are and how they relate to pricing. Of course, some products are more important than other products. Apparently, her go-to lipstick costs $24, and that's reasonable.
Oh, and BTW, AOC, in case you're wondering about high memory prices and your state's role in that market, how about explaining what you're doing to help expedite the construction of Micron's memory chip plant in Upstate New York, which is several years late? Rather than support bringing new domestic memory chip fabrication capacity online, you'd rather complain about Apple's pricing due to a shortage of the very DRAM chips that the delayed plant would produce. Your fellow New Yorkers have held up an environmental review of the fab for years, and they are fighting an exemption from property taxes for the plant. (Local property tax structures were not designed for factories needing many billions of dollars of capital equipment, and if applied would make any fab unviable. Oregon and Arizona grant similar exemptions for the same reason.)
One of the sayings my father occasionally said when I was a child was: "You can fix ignorant, but you can't fix stupid." I didn't appreciate its deep meaning until later in life.
And she (supposedly) has a BA in Economics, yet clearly she has no idea how a market economy works, or any understanding of what supply and demand concepts are and how they relate to pricing
I am of the opinion that any politiican with a financial degree that doesn't support fiscal responsibility in government - either didn't pay attention at all, or prioritizes their own popularity over the good of the country, by buying votes via taxpayer money ("free stuff").
A better thing would be is investigation on Apple why they were charging absurdly high prices when RAM so cheap they were charging +$200 RAM upgrade when RAM was cheap.
A better thing would be is investigation on Apple why they were charging absurdly high prices when RAM so cheap they were charging +$200 RAM upgrade when RAM was cheap.
That is so easy to answer: because they could! Apple hasn't been (and probably will never be) a low-price leader. And their DRAM-in-SoC package strategy, which does wonders for lower power consumption, board-area reduction, and performance improvement due to lower latency and higher throughput, also makes reasonably-priced DRAM capacity increases impossible. If you want the cheapest hardware the answers are Android phones and PCs. (He says as he types this on a 24GB M4 Mac Mini.)
The actual conversation is more detailed and disturbing than the headline.
I especially liked the reference to "jacking up prices" during Covid due to "so called supply chain issues..." - as if that is an unproven conspiracy.
Kind of like the supply chain issues from the Iran War are imaginary and not leading to increased costs, limited availability, and ultimately higher prices.
But basically you can cherry pick any statement you want and make whatever point you want. Sans context it is hard to tell what was actually meant.
And it seems pretty clear that she was ambushed and not ready for this type of question, yet she continued to talk and kick into talking points mode.
The world goes round and round, and Micron commits to spending more on construction in Boise while Korea triples down on new capacity. None of which will benefit NY or the plans Micron has there. Those fab costs are only going up with each passing month....
The only thing that I agree with Trump is legacy media are full of fake news. Legacy media cherry pick an statement and amplified it in order to get click.
I am of the opinion that any politiican with a financial degree that doesn't support fiscal responsibility in government - either didn't pay attention at all, or prioritizes their own popularity over the good of the country, by buying votes via taxpayer money ("free stuff").
Ding, ding, ding, ding! We have a winner. America's favorite former bartender is not much different from another well known politician that likes to interfere in the private sector. The only "economy" that matters to AOC is vote buying market, and she has latched on to the wave of animosity towards "big and rich". Strangely, this doesn't apply to big government or big and overbearing government regulations that cost time and money to comply with. Unlike most of her detractors, I don't think she is dumb, but she is very knowledgeable about what issues matter the most to the voters in her district.
Does anyone know a ballpark figure for what Apple paid for memory then versus now? The memory spot price or consumer market price is in a very different league from what Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, or Acer actually pay.
nypost.com
