That&#x27;s supported by the observation in the article that companies are not investing much capital in improving productivity.<p>If you&#x27;ve ever seen video of a Foxconn factory you&#x27;ve seen the rows of people carefully placing ICs onto circuit boards. In fact, there are machines to do that. They&#x27;re called pick and place machines[0]. They&#x27;ve existed for many years. But labor in China is cheap enough that it often makes more sense to pay humans to do it manually than to invest in automation.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;SMT_placement_equipment" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;SMT_placement_equipment</a>