[xnx]

There have been many of these announcements that never amounted to anything:

2017: "Apple promised to give US manufacturing a $1 billion boost"

2018: "Apple will make $350 billion contribution to U.S. economy and promised to create 20,000 jobs"

2021: "Apple commits $430 billion in US investments over 5 years"

From https://bsky.app/profile/bgrueskin.bsky.social/post/3lvqqyd4...

[AlecSchueler]

Have we also seen them couple the announcements with similar gifts of gold given personally to the sitting president?

https://www.theverge.com/news/737757/apple-president-donald-...

[MaxPock]

The reason why they don't amount to anything is because there is usually no follow-up and accountability. In China,after such an announcement ,a CCP official(whose promotion hinges on successful implementation of the investment)would have been assigned to Apple to see to it that the project is completed

[bamboozled]

Because it’s an authoritarian dictatorship that forces people to do things to achieve its goals ?

[mayama]

> Because it’s an authoritarian dictatorship that forces people to do things to achieve its goals ?

That's just part of the puzzle. What makes CPC different from most dictatorships is like NK or SU is that most of ruling elite of CPC is made up of engineers. Along with mandatory CPC ideology leaning, they also have notion that a developed nation is one that builds things. Bankers and Lawyers are ranked way down on power rankings.

On the other hand, most of American ruling elite are lawyers or bankers. So their worldview is mostly rule lawyering, interest earning, hedge fund etc.. Power brokers in these fields make the rules. Builders and engineers rank pretty low in power totem pole.

[sswezey]

Do you have more information about this engineering culture of CPC?

[MaxPock]

https://archive.md/DrquB

[benterix]

Looking at the chart it seems like it's a relatively new phenomenon though.

[mbs159]

Them being forced to do things due to the dictatorship is not a compelling argument, as people are forced to do things in Western societies too, via other external factors like risk of poverty and hunger.

[ulfw]

What does this have to do with Apple or manufacturing investment pledges? Who is going hungry?

[analognoise]

About 17.9% of households with kids under 18: https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/fo...

[ulfw]

And that is because of Apple Inc.?

[darthoctopus]

that is the point --- precisely because the usual mechanisms of enforcement do not apply, there will be no accountability for Apple.

[pjc50]

Accountability of what and to whom? Which law are they supposedly breaking?

[tekno45]

didn't our president say they'd be a dictator on day one?

[bamboozled]

Yup, and all this needing to appease behavior is part of the shtick

[Buttons840]

He doesn't pay enough attention to see past the headline though.

[rayiner]

grep -C 5 “I’ll be a dictator on day one.”

[estearum]

For anyone curious, the context here is that he said he'd be a dictator only on day one.

First, even one day of dictatorship is in direct violation of the Constitution.

Second, we're coming up on day 200 and the Trump administration continues to assert an expansive view of executive power far beyond any historical precedent and to degrade the systems designed to check that power, following a 100% run of the mill authoritarian playbook.

[rayiner]

> For anyone curious, the context here is that he said he'd be a dictator only on day one.

Still not correct.

[FranzFerdiNaN]

It’s an authoritarian president that forces Apple to make these promises, even though they will most likely never fulfil them. It’s all just one big play to appease to Trumps love for big numbers.

[MaxPock]

project management and accountability are communist ideals .

[pjc50]

Well, yes, because it's a "state capitalism" hybrid regime. If your position is that US companies should have a shadow board member who gets to dictate company policy over the wishes of and at the expense of investors, people might reasonably call that .. communism.

[benterix]

They may call it that, but to be precise it would be just an aspect of a planned economy[0]. NB democracies use a similar mechanism but only via companies where the state has the majority of shares which is completely different.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_economy

[Eddy_Viscosity2]

> have a shadow board member who gets to dictate company policy

This will happen sooner than you think if the US continues on its current path. Already Trump is asking for something similar for universities. He can use the same hammer for companies as well; deny them all government funding/contracts until they 'voluntarily' give in.

The 'c' word for this is not communism, but corruption. The special thing about corruption is that it can happen in any political 'ism'.

[rayiner]

Going after universities using government contracts as leverage was literally on Trump’s platform: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/platform. People voted the guy who promised to do that to be CEO of the branch of government that manages government contracts.

I don’t even know what to call someone who thinks the government should give private parties discretionary grants and contracts, but shouldn’t be able to use those to influence private actors. I’d call it libertarianism, but the principled libertarian would say we should abolish all funding to private universities.

[jhp123]

> I don’t even know what to call someone who thinks the government should give private parties discretionary grants and contracts, but shouldn’t be able to use those to influence private actors.

The idea that the sovereign should be limited to follow law, due process, and the advice of experts in the administration of grants goes back at least to the magna carta and is so widespread that you would use a more specific term — a "constitutional monarchist", "republican", "democrat", or "democratic socialist", etc., would all agree on this point. The opposite point of view however, has a name — authoritarian — so you could call such a person "anti-authoritarian".

[rayiner]

> The idea that the sovereign should be limited to follow law, due process

Due process protects rights and entitlements. Nobody has a right to receive discretionary government contracts or grants. To the extent we’re taking about preexisting contracts, the universities can sue to enforce whatever contractual rights they have. We have a robust system for recovering from the government for breaches of contract.

> and the advice of experts in the administration of grants

The “expert” stuff is the legacy of a scientific racist who didn’t trust democracy. It’s antithetical to democracy to suggest that the public should be forced to give discretionary grants and contracts to particular entities based on what “experts” think. Those experts are often themselves closely intertwined with the entities receiving the funding! They’re alums of Harvard, they met their spouse during grad school at Columbia, etc. They’ve got deep conflicts of interest.

[presentation]

Communism is a more specific term than that

[os2warpman]

> that never amounted to anything

They did amount to something.

Those announcements were part of Apple's initiative to build/assemble certain Mac Pros in Texas.

The idea is to do it on a high-margin, low-volume product so that any hiccups can be absorbed in the accounting and aren't as impactful to millions of customers. Hiccups like a dearth of US suppliers of subcomponents.

If a North American customer purchases a Mac Pro its final assembly occurs in Austin, Texas.

According to local media and government reports Apple has spent over a billion dollars in Austin and directly employed about 10,000 new permanent workers so far.

If you count local suppliers, the total is higher.

You can see some of the billion dollars here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/dHy52bEoWizDC5qz5

You can click on "See more dates" and select 2020 to see that in two years that site went from "empty lot" to "hundreds of thousands of square feet and thousands of workers".

The Flextronics facility about a mile-and-a-half to the south is another chunk of cash.

Additionally, many, MANY, components from audio codecs to SoC cores to sheets of glass used in Apple products are made in the US and exported for integration into products that are assembled overseas.

If you think 5 years from announcement to construction is a long time, I've been working about that long on a committee to build a tiny 4-bay fire station. It isn't about money, we have the money and infinite money wouldn't really change anything. It's about permits, contractor availability, and subsystem/subcomponent lead times. The diesel fume extraction system installers had a year-long backlog of work alone.

If you're waiting for the iPhone to be built in the US, you're going to be waiting for a long time, perhaps an infinitely long time. Other, higher-margin lower-volume, products? That's more likely.

I'm more familiar than most with how difficult it is to build things in the US, because I build satellites for a living and fire stations as a civic duty.

It's hard.

[stockresearcher]

> The idea is to do it on a high-margin, low-volume product so that any hiccups can be absorbed in the accounting

As opposed to actually eliminating the source of the hiccups.

The Japanese auto manufacturers moved their high-volume, low-margin assembly to the US and succeeded. They started by importing nearly every component and then steadily replaced them with locally-built components.

If Apple was serious, that’s what they would have done. You know, like how they did it in India. Like how they did it in Malaysia. Like how they did it in Vietnam.

Apple’s not serious about US-based manufacturing until proven otherwise. Gold statues don’t prove anything.

[nxobject]

> The Japanese auto manufacturers moved their high-volume, low-margin assembly to the US and succeeded. They started by importing nearly every component and then steadily replaced them with locally-built components.

Ironically, Trump's "gotta show results _now!_" rhetoric might kneecap onshoring like this.

[quickthrowman]

> The diesel fume extraction system installers had a year-long backlog of work alone.

What kind of system are you installing? I’ve provided electrical and control wiring for exhaust hose reels at DOT maintenance facilities and bus garages in my local market, you only need a roofer, a mechanical contractor, and an electrician.

If it’s CO/NO sensors with makeup air units and exhaust fans, again that is just roofers, mechanical, and electrical, with widely available parts.

My guess is your fire station is at the ass end of nowhere which limits contractor availability or something along those lines? I’m used to my local metro area market of 3M people with dozens of mechanical, electrical, and commercial roofing contractors around to work with.

[xnx]

Excellent details. No disrespect to the long and difficult work of real-world projects.

I could've been more precise in my wording. Sometimes these announcements (from Apple and other companies) are realized into completed projects, but very often they are misleading/exaggerated claims about money that was already going to be spent, or could possibly be spent.

[teamweightloss]

Trump 2016 was taken less seriously by multinationals, as the anti-globalization wave hasn't fully realized, and corporation were paying lip service to Trump, which the 2016 administration had no choice but to accept it due to only having power in the executive branch.

Trump 2024 is a completely different animal, with control in all 3 branches of government, plus overwhelming voter support in the election. As well as the collapse of globalization (baby boomer retiring reducing demand), and many countries moving to the right at the same time. Reshoring is the correct choice for the next 10 years and beyond, and many multinationals recognize this and have committed hundreds of billions accordingly.

[rayiner]

Fair point. But one difference is that Trump 1.0 was still full of globalist neocons while Trump 2.0 is full of true believers. There is follow-through this time. We now have the highest tariffs since 1910, which was inconceivable a decade ago.

The landscape has also changed. In 2018, Apple could wait out Trump hoping to get the Bush GOP back. That party is dead. It will still be corporate friendly, but not on immigration or trade. Big Ag couldn’t even get carved out of the immigration raids. The Clinton Democratic Party is dead too. What’s the odds that either Vance 2028 or AOC 2028 are going to let Apple off the hook on commitments?

[estearum]

Why would that change anything? Apple already got the exemptions it wanted. If Trump changes his mind and comes back, they just need to give him another shiny object and a headline.

The tariffs themselves obviously do not have the requisite durability to justify actual high scale capex. It would be quite literally stupid to invest much in US manufacturing just to get undercut in either 1) a few months when courts rule the entire endeavor unconstitutional or 2) a few years when Trump is out of office.

[rayiner]

> Why would that change anything? Apple already got the exemptions it wanted. If Trump changes his mind and comes back, they just need to give him another shiny object and a headline.

Because before, the administration was staffed with Bushies who were happy to let things go when the boss lost interest. Now it’s staffed with people who would be happy to burn Apple down.

> The tariffs themselves obviously do not have the requisite durability to justify actual high scale capex… a few years when Trump is out of office. Trump is the moderate one.

When Trump leaves office in 2028, he’ll either be replaced with JD, or a progressive Democrat. The Bush GOP definitely isn’t coming back, and I suspect the Biden Democratic Party isn’t either. Cutting tariffs isn’t going to be a high priority of the incoming administration either way. And even Biden didn’t cut many of Trump’s tariffs from his first administration.