[inieves]

This was a disappointing article on a few levels.

1) it doesn’t make a clear logical case for why manufacturing isn’t done by Apple (or many other companies) in the US, right now

2) it doesn’t give reasoning about why sotuation is unlikely to change, or if it does change, how it will not look anything like industrial-era factory labor manufacturing

3) it doesn’t explain that these realities have nothing to do with Apple, except that Apple finds these economic realities faster than other companies

4) it ends completey abruptly without drawing any real conclusion or thesis or adding any insight (based on solid reasoning)

===

The fact that Jean Louis Gassed can’t use a screwdriver has nothing to do with anything... Manufacturing of complex computer systems is complex, therefore requires many different competencies, said competencies must communicate to resolve challenges, and that in and of itself is hard. This hardness requires (literally) an ecosystem of skilled workers to address. Could Apple (or any other company) build such an ecosystem? Yes, if they did it from scratch early on, when the cost to build it was low because the ecosystem was relatively simple. But now, its not a simple ecosystem, and it would be painfully expensive to replicate.

It should be noted that there is probably a strong difference in the complexity (therefore difficulty) of manufacturing high tech products versus other consumer products like cars/trucks, general electronics. That difference is the velocity/pace of new features going to market, required to drive sales. Tech products literally compete on feature sets. Sales of cars and toasters and espresso makers can depend on many factors and so they are not constantly racing to update the product every 6-12 months. I could be wrong here, but I believe the conclusion that tech manufacturing is like all other kinds of manufacturing is baseless. And in fact, the fact that so much has moved to China is the strongest evidence that it can’t simply exist anywhere.

[Reason077]

The article also doesn't mention that the Mac Pro line has been manufactured in Texas since 2013 (Admittedly a niche product compared to Apple's overall scale.)

Apple is also investing $390m in a chip plant in Texas to supply some of their custom silicon, and there are several suppliers of iPhone components in the area.

[webninja]

Texas Instruments (TI)?

[jccalhoun]

Agreed. This is a remarkably information-free article for such an outlet that prides itself and is held up for the quality of its journalism.

[ramblerouser]

This article is anti-trump pro-globalist propaganda. The lack of real arguements demonstrates that. This is meant to demoralize Americans and make them feel helpless and dependent on a global free trade regime that has decimated the working class and could be abolished easily by restoring the tariffs that existed through the 1970's.

[mc32]

Maybe not the best examples, since the companies don’t exist anymore, but weren’t NeXT and Sun Micros built in the bay area in the early days? I think Sun hung on to the newark facilities nearly to their shuttering. Were they a mess too?

[bluedino]

Good examples but they didn’t really do volume compared to the consumer brands.

Gateway built computers in a South Dakota. Compaq and Dell in Texas.

[jacobmoe]

I agree it's a disappointing article, but your second point is answered:

“You can’t bring manufacturing back because of those webs, you would have to bring the entire community back,”

[dreamcompiler]

It would have been nice to see some examples of what "those webs" entail and why they can't exist in the US.

[ramblerouser]

They don't exist because China has protectionist policies that give them an advantage and the US elites abolished most of its tarrifs in the 80's and 90's. they could easily come back but the new york times doesn't want them to, and they don't want you to think it's even a possibility.