[sinkercat]

Why doesn't Apple assemble iPhones here in the USA? It's all in the economics. Cheap skilled labor, fast and easy access to components, unregulated work conditions - none of this is possible in the USA.

A long article that does little to provide any insight into how we can solve this problem.

[incongruity]

FTA: "A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.” """

If that's the sort of existence we'd have to face for bringing those jobs back to the US, I'm not sure I could envision many Americans doing it – and, I, personally, couldn't expect that sort of availability and devotion.

I'll even go so far as to put my own moralistic spin on it – if that's the cost to humanity, I don't want my iPhone made more cheaply... but that may just be me.

[stonemetal]

Having worked a 12 hr shift in a tire factory I can tell you the only thing that would have to happen is the pay would have to meet American standards. I am not sure Apple is willing to pay that much when slave labor is available elsewhere.

[biff]

I've only ever been able to think of two directions we can go in.

We can strip away pensions, insurance, environmental regulations, unions, OSHA, and every other advantage the U.S. workforce retains. Or we can add some friction to offshoring and free trade.

The former approach means that we'll lose our stronger buying power and eventually become a less attractive market. The latter means there's less profit to be made and we'll become a less attractive market.

I personally favor the latter approach because retaining our buying power means we're less likely to be shocked by rising energy and food costs down the road, fewer people will be injured and out of work in a system with no safety net, less garbage and pollution gets pumped into our environment, etc.

But right now it feels like we're going halfway down the former road, chipping away at our workers' infrastructure while still remaining uncompetitive on the world market... and continuing to reduce friction on trade.

[davidcann]

If the US imposes higher import taxes, certainly other countries would respond by raising barriers for US exports, thus not solving the issue at hand.

[brador]

Would unions come into the equation?

[grantheaslip]

Sure, ununionized labour would be more employable, but these would be lower-class jobs, not the middle-class jobs that the west of today was built on. Nobody’s going to be able to support a family at middle-class standards on $10-15 an hour.

For some reason, the broader socioeconomic discussion the western world should be having has been condensed to creating jobs. But jobs aren’t a binary thing; and they’re means to an end, not the end goal (an equitable society in which the average person can be a member of the middle class).

[teyc]

The article said that most of the high value componentry came from Germany, Japan and Taiwan. I'm not aware of these people working under slavish conditions. Could it be that the US companies don't have sufficient technical edge?

[count]

Um, 'middle class' is squarely in the $10-15/hr range in the US today. That's about $25-30k per parent, with 2 working parents. That's 'average' in most of the US.

[grantheaslip]

I’m not in the position of supporting a family, but is that really enough to support a mortgage, car(s), daycare (if we’re assuming both parents are working), putting kids though university, buying supplementary insurance, etc?

I get the sense that “average” is no longer middle class unless you really loosen the definition of middle class.

[jeffool]

He mentioned "cheap labor" and "unregulated work conditions"? Aren't those the arguments against and for unions?