[eternalban]

This is a fair rant all around, but in my opinion your righteous anger is misplaced.

Apple, as other nominally American "multi-national" corporations, was and remains subject to government policy and plans.

Which institutions, centers of power, and influential individuals determined that the de-industrialization of United States was such a hot idea and pushed that to its extremes in the 90s?

Apple simply operated in the stated and promoted policy regime. They are not alone.

(Also cross your fingers regarding your "last hopes". Patriot Act. Secret courts. Permanent state of "national emergency" with attendant curtailment of our Natural Rights, "Surveillance Capitalism", ...)

[goatinaboat]

Which institutions, centers of power, and influential individuals determined that the de-industrialization of United States was such a hot idea and pushed that to its extremes in the 90s?

It’s worth remembering that in the 90s, Francis Fukuyama was the hottest philosopher around and there was a general belief that economic liberalisation would inevitably lead a country towards Western style democracy and all that entailed. No one, certainly no one as prominent as Fukuyama ever predicted the opposite would in fact occur.

Not that this excuses Apple or anyone else. Once it became apparent they should have acted urgently. Because it meant that all their basic assumptions about how the world works need to be re-evaluated.

[aiscapehumanity]

Lol people like baudrilllard, gilles, and guattari had better 21st century predictions then fukuyama. Fukuyama is like the starwars of 90s philosophy, mainstream tripe.

[goatinaboat]

Sure but I didn’t assert he was the greatest philosopher, only the most popular, the star of the show.

He has since renounced his 90s work, to be fair.

[FabHK]

And arguably his 90s work has been caricatured and mischaracterised, too.

[mistermann]

Ross Perot had a thing or two to say about the economic wisdom of offshoring America's manufacturing.

[pseudalopex]

Would Fukuyama have been as prominent if he predicted the opposite?

[eternalban]

Fukuyama simply wrote a book. It strains credulity to think a single book moved the entire Western establishment to radically alter the status quo.

[goatinaboat]

The End Of History wasn’t just a book, it was the whole fin-de-siecle zeitgeist. I guess you had to be there. He was the Anna Kournikova of philosophy back then.

[eternalban]

I was there.

p.s.: https://www.newsbud.com/2018/02/09/the-rockefellers-and-roth...

(No, this news is not "fit to print" in The New York Times.)