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As it should be.

America isn't a manufacturing economy. If China can make things cheaper, LET THEM.

Americans spend thousands of dollars publicly on each citizen to teach them things like calculus and fine arts and literature so that they DON'T have to do things like manual assembly labor.

How many millennials do you know are willing to work doing manual labor like picking strawberries or cleaning toilets or assembling houses? Nobody in America wants to do that at ANY price - and that's confirmed by employers having difficulty finding workers to fill those roles.

Let other unskilled people in countries do those kind of work. Let's open the borders so that low-skilled people can come in and do the manual labor that Americans don't want to do.

This is the optimum global economic strategy. I have no idea why Apple thought it was a good idea to manufacture in the US when it was obvious China (or other places in Asia) was a better option.


Actually America is having harder times filling higher end jobs IE: engineering type positions.

Hence the waves of work visas from many countries. Specifically India.
 
Please. The US is a powerhouse.

embed.png



Manufacturing jobs:
latest_numbers_CES3000000001_2008_2018_all_period_M12_data.gif

that is more than 12,500,000 jobs.

That's tiny.

Manufacturing only represents 11.6% of the GDP, compared to 28.1% of the GDP in 1953.
 
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Also, I'm genuinely curious: 28,000 screws in 22 trips? What kind of screws are these? That averages around 1,300 screws per trip. Even if they're BIG screws that run the entire length of the case, you could easily fit 1,300 of them in a small box. Why 22 trips? Didn't that actually add to the expense?

My guess? It had nothing to do with the size. The multiple trips were to deliver screws as they were being finished and to limit bottlenecking production as little as possible.
 
Exactly.

What other "Custom" parts are used that could easily be replaced with "off the shelf" parts, and possibly, wait for it , reduce the cost of Apple products?

I suppose it's some obnoxious head type that isn't flathead, Allen, Philips, etc to make it harder for users to remove themselves. Certainly the Mac Pro doesn't require some awfully specific screw like that.

And I certainly agree about off-the-shelf screws being lower cost; it's amazing how expensive they get when you need certain types for a device that has to live in a specific environment -- for instance, I've spent > $1000 on titanium screws for a system I built that has to live in a high-vacuum environment so as to reduce its outgassing rate. Crazy!
 
Now I'm curious about the manufacturing process to create custom screws. As anyone has seen who had to disassemble some piece of electronics, there can be quite a bevy of types and sizes of screws and the proper tools to work with them.
 
As it should be.

America isn't a manufacturing economy. If China can make things cheaper, LET THEM.

Americans spend thousands of dollars publicly on each citizen to teach them things like calculus and fine arts and literature so that they DON'T have to do things like manual assembly labor.

How many millennials do you know are willing to work doing manual labor like picking strawberries or cleaning toilets or assembling houses? Nobody in America wants to do that at ANY price - and that's confirmed by employers having difficulty finding workers to fill those roles.

Let other unskilled people in countries do those kind of work. Let's open the borders so that low-skilled people can come in and do the manual labor that Americans don't want to do.

This is the optimum global economic strategy. I have no idea why Apple thought it was a good idea to manufacture in the US when it was obvious China (or other places in Asia) was a better option.

And then people complain about lack of jobs, or china’s human rights problems
 
After 6 years, a major redesign is delayed due to screws?
What a pathetic lame excuse.

It clearly shows that Apple does NOT care about the Pro community whatsoever.

Imagine if they come in and next September they announce that the next iPhone 11 is delayed due to screws...
 
Interesting how this story only pops-up almost six years later, when Apple is now due to deliver a newly-designed Mac Pro. Is this Apple PR heading off potential criticism on the new Mac Pro being built in China? :cool:
 
Yes, due to a few screws the Mac Pro had to be postponed. Cause unfortunatly there are not enough different kind of screws on the market yet. It really needs to be special.

Here is a selection for the next products Apple could choose from. But I guess the AirMat suffers the same fate.
b7NUx.jpg
 
As it should be.

America isn't a manufacturing economy. If China can make things cheaper, LET THEM.

Americans spend thousands of dollars publicly on each citizen to teach them things like calculus and fine arts and literature so that they DON'T have to do things like manual assembly labor.

How many millennials do you know are willing to work doing manual labor like picking strawberries or cleaning toilets or assembling houses? Nobody in America wants to do that at ANY price - and that's confirmed by employers having difficulty finding workers to fill those roles.

Let other unskilled people in countries do those kind of work. Let's open the borders so that low-skilled people can come in and do the manual labor that Americans don't want to do.

This is the optimum global economic strategy. I have no idea why Apple thought it was a good idea to manufacture in the US when it was obvious China (or other places in Asia) was a better option.
People in this country will absolutely do those types of jobs. Maybe YOU wouldn’t or maybe your college friends wouldn’t, but there is absolutely a place for low skilled workers in this country, especially the rural white working class that finds itself out of work and in the throws of an opioid epedemic in the south and rust belt.

Just open the border. Lol. Sure.
 
This is funny, for decades these companies outsourced everything under the sun, but then come back and ask area manufacturers to make a product for them that they are not set up to do anymore.

I’ve been in manufacturing for 25 years and have seen first hand the devastation this outsourcing has done to these companies and people.

We the people are a significant part of the problem. We are addicted to cheap stuff fast. One of the areas that makes stuff cheap, labor. If China needs to make more screws, lots of folks willing to immediately start work. Foxconn can add 100k workers overnight to meet production and just as easily remove them. Not so much here.

We will never be able to compete until our demands are adjusted. Other words willing to accept higher prices and less demanding. No way our current system could find 100k workers over night.
 
America needs to get over this delusional idea that they can compete with China in manufacturing.

At Foxconn, they hire 450,000 workers during peek iPhone production. A solid third of them sleep in dorms on campus. They work six days a week and 12 hours a day. They get paid about a grand a month.

There is no place in America where you could even find 450,000 skilled workers. And even if you could, they would not work in any manner that even comes close to these hours or wages.

The sheer number of skilled people China can put on a project to produce something as simple as as screw or as complex as an iPhone in mind-blowing. If we made iPhones in America, they would cost $8,000 and there would be a two year waiting list for them.

None of this is an attack on America. But we have to understand that there are certain things we should not try to compete in. After all we do not want to create jobs like this in America.
 
After 6 years, a major redesign is delayed due to screws?
What a pathetic lame excuse.

It clearly shows that Apple does NOT care about the Pro community whatsoever.

Imagine if they come in and next September they announce that the next iPhone 11 is delayed due to screws...

Which would never happen since iPhone screws are manufactured in enormous volumes, likely in a factory not too far from the assembly line.
 
People in this country will absolutely do those types of jobs. Maybe YOU wouldn’t or maybe your college friends wouldn’t, but there is absolutely a place for low skilled workers in this country, especially the rural white working class that finds itself out of work and in the throws of an opioid epedemic in the south and rust belt.

Just open the border. Lol. Sure.

What makes you think your theories override actual confirmed cases throughout the country of employers being unable to find laborers?

Why do YOU think rural workers aren't going to where the jobs are?
 
Funny how this thread is going the direction of “see America can’t compete with China!” If China wants to corner the market on unnecesssry custom screws for Apple then I say we let them have this one.
 
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