I don’t understand.

If you’re buying a car obtaining a Mercedes or Ferrari, neither of which is cheap, is considered a wise choice reflecting both a person’s wealth and automotive acumen. But for some reason paying more for a premium product such as Apple produces is considered a sign of quite the opposite.

Also I believe that if Apple made its products in the West with Western labour costs, which would result in higher costs, the people whining about Apple would do the following things. First, they’d whine even louder about Apple’s ‘excessively priced products.’ Secondly, they’d buy cheaper products made with Chinese labour.

The objection to Apple using Chinese labour is based more on the long running feud between PC people and Macintosh people than what sort of labour Apple uses. It’s a feud that is no more capable of resolution than the Israel-Palestine conflict, for the same reasons. There’s too much ego involved.