The thing that was clear last night, particularly from the detail that, although the chips are machine-made, the iPhone itself is the product of about 300 -- I forget exactly -- sets of hands, young eyesight and endless repetition, that's where they have us for the moment. Bring it back here and you'd have to invest in some serious robotic production, because there's no way they could afford the masses of young workers in America, even if they paid minimum wage. They'd have a much quieter factory floor and a few dozen workers to stop the line or do a finishing detail or inspection-- not the thousands and thousands of workers. American workers, in fact, are far more productive when used that way. But why do it, our bosses say, when we don't have to invest in China; these kids are incredibly disciplined, and Chinese society keeps them quiet.
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My first summer job was on the production line at Armstrong Cork making linoleum, for $1.40 an hour. But of course, that was in 1910! Er, 1961. I was 16.
And I worked the next three summers at a Coca-cola bottling plant, and made enough to pay my way through college.
That's what you can do when an economy is firing on all cylinders.
