You left out 'automation,' which probably would lower the actual 'labor content' of a smartphone a bit more. The 'labor' in a smartphone should include the worker driving the forklift of smartphone pallets around the loading dock...

yeah, I know... that's not strictly "manufacturing cost," but it does tie in a bit of overhead. :)

That's the point. The intellectual property is the only reason phones cost more than $20.00.

Government of the Stupid, for the stupid, by the Stupid.

Nothing will stop this continuing governance by the inmates of the asylum except Constitutional Amendment Repeal and Repair.
So get on the CARR, we need you to educate the public.

Here are your tools
http://www.TheSocietyProject.org

O.A., I have pieced together a copy-and-pasted
Word document of the overmanwarrior article +
Rand's guide which I can share ... by email, I
guess, if anyone wants it ... I recorded the
videos with my baby nikon, but the files are too
large for email ... by recent experience! send a
private message for the word doc ? -- j

This is what happens when theoreticians write business articles. If you watch TV at all, you can plainly see that a large chunk of the price of smart phones, tablets and even the no cost software is in marketing. So if you thought the industry was unsustainable with the ip costs, throw in the money that Verizon, et al spend on marketing and I guess they're all bankrupt.

There was a perfectly rational comment on this tread that noted that if it weren't viable they wouldn't keep doing it. What drives the ip value is the demand. If the demand drops so will the ip value and the prices. Apparently they're not worried about that issue.

I hear you. :) I've never read Rand's "Screen guide for Americans." Pretty good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwUm8RhI...

If I see warning flags, I will generally leave the site without exploring further. LarryHeart posted it with a comment that I can only assume is negative about intellectual property rights. That there is a link to overman means the site admin has some sense. Overmanwarrior is a staunch supporter of property rights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIEVqFB4W...

Hello khalling,

Noam Chomsky is some piece of work. Some years ago I picked up a copy of The Essential Chomsky. After years of hearing snippets and reading a few articles and opinions, I figured one should know the enemy... He gets some things right, but where he goes astray it is sickening. I gave a cursory examination of several sections, but could not stomach reading the entire book. His philosophic base and anarchistic tendencies are not for me… One day when I have nothing better to read I plan to revisit it in tolerable bites.

Did you go beyond the cover page LarryHeart linked to?
I read the first two chapters sub-linked from the cover page LarryHeart provided. I think, here again, though I may not be completely simpatico, there is some value.
In the lower right hand corner there is also a link to an Overmanwarrior article, under BLOGROLL, Ayn Rand - Communist propaganda in film. The piece includes Rand’s “Screen Guide For Americans.” http://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2012...
Nice.

I may explore a little more…
Regards,
O.A.

I thought that one of the most basic principles of economics is that price of anything is whatever the market will bear. If you cannot cover all your costs at that price, you go out of business. Alternatives are politically guided economy, i.e. socialist tyranny or the government corruption of crony capitalism. We are getting gradually more and more a composite of the two latter - to our ever increasing detriment.
A smart business will buy very expensive equipment if it will enable them to increase sales volume and decrease their unit price. It happens every day.
Complaining about "too high" prices is purely ideological. Just don't buy it and live without it.

Excellent

Hi Neal,

Yes the patent process has become too expensive and too time consuming. But even more important for someone like you is that anti-trust laws and crony capitalist legislation have killed off the market for patents (being an independent inventor). In the late 1800s, the success rate for inventors who obtained a patent in selling their invention was around 85%. This meant you didn't have to also be an expert in marketing, production, distribution, etc.you could just invent.

Best of luck

I'll pass on the info. Thanks!
(Incidentally, you are correct about the "skilled tradesman" thing. I practice a dying art and demand for my skills is increasing in my old age ...!)

Many inventors don't get their inventions out to market mainly because of the costs involved in the patent process and the promotion expenses. I invented a woodworking jig, patented it, and now am letting the patent expire. After paying a patent lawyer a lot of dollars, paying the initial fees and several renewals to the government over the years, I have decided it's just not worth it. It's mostly my fault, I had no good plan for producing it nor a good plan to market it. Yet everyone that uses a table saw that sees it wants one. At first I had a small machine shop make them, then I did it for myself on a CNC Router at home to cut costs. It was too much work and the only cost I was cutting was my time and labor. I built enough to sell and attempt to recover all the money I had thrown into it. When the current patent period runs out, some company, and I think I know precisely who, will just start building and selling my invention as if it was their own. If the government/lawyer part of the process wasn't so expensive (for the little guy), we'd get a whole lot more useful items to market. Otherwise, my next invention I will just keep to myself and someone may find it in an old 20th Century Motors facility long after I'm gone.

the patent process is time consuming and expensive for inventors. It doesn't help that Congress steals user fees to support the general treasury, increasing pendency times for patents. There is a lot of high skills going into the writing and arguing for patents.What really makes it frustrating are when patent Examiner's waste an inventor's time with prior art that is irrelevant. Maintenance fees are completely a money grab-which pays for social programs mostly. The Treasury has stolen over a Billion in patent fees over the last decade-1 billion is a drop in the bucket to our debt -but would enhance the patent process substantially. It is the only voluntary self funding agency in the United States government.

1.society project sounds ...progressive. Oh! and look a Noam Chomsky term is used!
2. Property rights need to be protected universally, not just in small communities
3. I find it ironic that a site promoting les government and more private solutions is a non-profit. but that's just me

Hello teri-amborn,
Indeed. We use MasterCam. It is the most popular PC-based Cad Cam program on the market. The first seat of it I purchased was over $15,000 dollars and that was over two decades ago. It does not have the most powerful CAD front end, but it is extremely reliable for generating powerful, efficient and reliable tool paths from the very powerful CAM back end. It also has a robust assortment of translators so we can import many native formats from other systems like Catia and Solidworks. Compared to the early eighties when I started my company without the aid of CNCs and CAD-CAM, one man can now do the work that used to take a half dozen. This is vital for the survival of my company because skilled tradesmen of this sort are becoming rare and world competition fierce.
Respectfully,
O.A.

A CATIA Station is about $4,000 per year according to my husband (who works on one). It not only improves efficiency but he can use it to instantly create new dimensions in thought at the click of a key or two. Simply amazing! Worth every penny.

Thanks

Thanks.