Merely 25% increase on labor is optimistic. Labor in the U.S.A. is obviously more expensive in direct wages, true enough, but the U.S.A. also assertive health, retirement, collective bargaining, OSHA/NIOSH, EEOC, etc., as rights and obligations that the current administration is systematically dismantling (or converting to PRIVILEGES), because F a bunch of lower-income, sick, weak, old, differently-abled, differently-identifying, different-thinking people, anyway.
And then you have raw materials supply, which is affected by all the labor issues, plus supply chains, starting with energy supply chains. And then supply chains are affected by all their own labor issues, plus environmental concerns plus logistical workloads, several of which are inextricably international and double dip energy and labor. And there the U.S.A. struggles with educational and ideological pathologies endemic to wealthier societies, where content creation and service based economics often trick people into disrespecting day-to-day labor (most of which is way too tedious and cost-ineffective to automate).
Totalitarian central control over birth, education, health, safety, housing, welfare, materials, energy, environment, transportation, communication, etc., etc., surely keeps manufacturing costs down. And Mr. Cook was operations guy, after all, not head of engineering, not head of HR. Apple is only one recent nugget in the giant muck-pile of companies that sold the U.S.A.'s industrial base down the proverbial river to claw back that extra nickel.
So, yeah, $3000 iPhones, $5000 base MacBooks, $5 songs, $15 movie streams, $50 monthly TV+, will be just the beginning. The REAL systemic national security problems will be more apparent later, when the U.S. Dollar is no longer the world's reserve currency. Why do y'all think the current administration of billionaire bros are so vested in crypto - because their actual INTENT, and the inevitable consequence, of recent maneuverings is to convert the U.S.A. treasury to their personal posession, and remove the U.S.A from the world's stage as the 800 lbs. gorilla of free markets, individual freedom and rule of law, which intrinsically act in opposition to oligarchs and kleptocrats.
