It's harder to find items made in the US, to be fair. Other than my top-rated iron skillet and all-clad cookware (purchased from Macy's instead of Amazon, hoping to keep a department store open), I can't think of much else I own.
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Tim Cook at CEO Summit in China to Talk Supply Chain, Trade Issues
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Finally someone expresses my point of view. People moan about lost jobs etc. Yet they admit to using Amazon, Walmart, Costco etc. Amazon decimated small and medium size businesses in the US because they attracted customers who were too lazy to get their fat ass off the sofa and go shopping locally.
Then you'll hear "BuT tHeN tHe NeW iPhOnE wIlL cOsT tHrEe TiMeS aS mUcH aNd I wOn'T bE aBlE tO uPgRaDe YeArLy AnYmOrE"
And? Our society would be better off having less obsession with our god damn phones. And I say that as someone who upgrades his iPhone every year for the last 10+ years. But I think I'll live if I don't get to do that.
I don't disagree on either count, but it's not like the exporting country doesn't suffer economic losses either. Companies like Foxconn would take quite the hit if Apple, who is one of their biggest customers, suddenly cut their iPhone orders by two thirds or something crazy like that. I think we in the US would be hurt more for sure but not exclusively.
Tim, while you're there, can you speak to them about their complete disregard for the environment and their carbon footprint? What about work conditions and suicides? I know you care about this stuff Tim, because you tell people you do. There's no way you're just saying all that and you're just there to push your economic agenda. That can't be.
I know from experience that you are not smooth and glowing like a youngster at 64As Tim just turned 64 earlier this month, he should be smooth and glowing like a youngster. It will all fall apart next year when he hits 65.
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If the trade is keeping my income, I’m all for it. I can’t opt out of income tax like I can a purchase, let alone an expensive Mac I buy with several years between… by the time this is all reversed lol. We’ve yet to see what comes of these tax proposals however.
Well, that is your experience. I am 65 and last year I was smoooooth and glowwwwingI know from experience that you are not smooth and glowing like a youngster at 64
Better not forget PRC are in control of a significant share of the precious metal resources. Local recycling won`t compensate for that. It is not just moving expenses and competence costs at play. The US owns China A LOT of money.
This isn`t a one way street, American export will suffer, there`s a price to be paid, and the world are ready to charge you.
What is rather well known is that chaos and crisis leaves perks to be had for a few. But that`s not you or me.
Would a US assembled iPhone be cheaper than a Chinese one even with 60% tariffs? I'm not sure since all the non-Chinese and non-US parts of the iPhone would face a 10-20% tariffs before they entered the US.
Also, working on an assemble line for mass-produced, small, consumer electronics, looks horrible. I'm not sure why so many Americans wants a job like that.
Most ppl are living check to check so they can’t do much else but buy china made with their meager wages.
As someone interested in bringing American manufacturing back into shape, it really helps to learn what strengths China has over the U.S.
As I understand it, China’s labor costs aren’t that far behind developed countries anymore, but their manufacturing strength (especially in electronics) comes from their short supply chain (you can go from mine, to refinery, to factory all in the same area by rail), and their sheer production capacity (which comes with having 1 billion people, often educated)
Not insurmountable obstacles for America if we strengthened our supply chains with other countries, but a mountain to climb nonetheless.
And to our credit, America does still have a strong manufacturing sector. It’s just that manufactured goods in America are typically highly automated, extremely expensive to transport, or very high quality, oor some combination of the three.
Too true .... including myself LOL .... hope it is just a freak shot. Future photos will prove right or wrong.
I suspect that any jobs that do come back to the US are probably those which can be largely automated (ie: the company gets around the issue of high labour costs by not needing to hire that many people to begin with).
At the end of the day, it’s still not going to meaningfully improve employment rates, and I am not sure it needs much education to operate (maybe to QC?).
That's how Tim looks these days,..fully botoxed. What picture would you rather they have used?
That will never happen. Aside from it causing World War 3, China isn't taking Taiwan because it's not in its interests. The worldwide semiconductor manufacturing that happens in Taiwan cannot be disrupted and China likes stability.
I thought Walmart decimated small and medium businesses? You're getting your boogeyman mixed up.
Had Amazon not dominated e-commerce, someone else would.
Good point.
They will however use whatever pressure they can sensibly apply to "make Taiwan want" to reunite in one shape or another.
There`s a lot more to be said about this and similar policies, but that will cause a lot of trouble, thus I prefer to stay pragmatic.
Obama famously asked Steve Jobs, during his first term, what it would take to have the iPhone made in America. Jobs said ten years of investment in the training and infrastructure. That was almost fifteen years ago. Nothing happened.
I don’t want to get into a political discussion, but I’ll just say no administration since the invention of the iPhone has seemed very keen on actually improving American manufacturing. One of them says it cares a lot about it, but didn’t make much headway last time it had a chance.
We’ll see.
Did consumers really have a choice when outsourcing and offshoring began? Also it began during a time many people on this forum were children or not born yet.
Consumers didn’t choose this, the “leaders” of major companies did this. I remember in the early 2000s when it started to shift from Americans sending all their designs and equipment to China for manufacturing, to the Chinese using those designs for themselves.
Don’t blame the consumers, blame the business owners who really chose this for short term gain.
Unfortunately, so long as it was more profitable to not do anything about it; nothing would be done.