Posted on 01/23/2012 4:27:39 AM PST by upchuck
When President Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley's top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president.
But as Steve Jobs of Apple spoke, Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: What would it take to make iPhones in the United States? Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.
Why can't that work come home? Obama asked.
Jobs' reply was unambiguous. "Those jobs aren't coming back," he said, according to another dinner guest.
The president's question touched upon a central conviction at Apple. It isn't just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple's executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their U.S. counterparts that "Made in the USA" is no longer a viable option for most Apple products.
Apple has become one of the best-known, most admired and most imitated companies on Earth, in part through an unrelenting mastery of global operations. Last year, it earned over $400,000 in profit per employee, more than Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil or Google.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldtribune.com ...
No, that can't be it...at least, that's not the whole story. You don't have to worry about Chinese workers unionizing either, right, Steve? However, there is that pesky detail of China stealing your IP. Oh well, can't win 'em all.
Assembling iPhone and iPads are jobs Americans are just not willing to do.
It depends. Element Electronics out of Minnesota is expanding into Michigan to make flat screen TVs. Chinese labor and transportation costs are skyrocketing while the business climate is improving in the midwest.
They’ll specialize in screens over 47 inches and will start with Chinese made components but say they intend to build a domestic supply network.
“Chinese labor and transportation costs are skyrocketing while the business climate is improving in the midwest.”
The article touched on, but didn’t go into depth, regarding the real problems here. One is that America is slowly but surely losing its hard-won manufacturing expertise. The reason for that is one of our biggest current challenges: there is so much regulation and taxation here that companies can be much more efficient and agile overseas. In China (of all places) for instance.
It is a travesty of the highest order that Red China is more friendly to capitalism and free enterprise than America circa 2012.
The number one root cause of this travesty is over-the-top environmentalism. We’re seeing it in full swing right now with the cancellation of the Keystone pipeline, and that is only the tip of the iceberg.
But we have plenty of illegal aliens available to do that work and millions more on the way!
The President is clueless when it comes to these types of questions. His background gives him no insight into what drives and motivates industry in general.
Industry will come back to the United States when the bottom line tells them it’s better to be here than be anywhere else.
The President thinks if you offer a company a one time tax exemption companies will flock back, that’s why this administration will never be allowed off the short bus.
I could create economic boomtimes for the midwest with 5 things.
1 slash taxes across the board.
2 roll back EPA regulations to rational levels.
3 Lift the great lakes directional drilling ban so we can have access to readily available natural gas.
4 Right to work laws.
5 Localize the taxes. Keeping more of our taxes in the states gives the people greater control of how they’re spent.
Yeah, well I live in Rural south Florida.
Loads of citrus, cattle and sugar farms. Seems only foreigners are willing to work these jobs. Then you go in to town and see countless healthy Americans lined in welfare lines.
Let them starve or get off their lazy asses and work.
It's not. Geographical diversification is also a big issue right now. Look at the companies that had all of their production in Japan prior to the earthquakes, tsunamis, and nuclear power plant issues there. Completely hosed (above and beyond any humanitarian concerns, of course).
Same thing for the flooding in Thailand -- Western Digital was making 60% of their hard drives there and production shut down completely, causing hard drive prices worldwide to skyrocket (roughly 100% increase).
Even should all of the other issues (taxes, regulation, unionization, etc.) be resolved, only a fraction of those jobs are coming back because these large companies are looking to spread the factories out, not bring them together. They'll take some inefficiencies of transportation and not always getting the cheapest labor rate to reduce the risk of losing a major portion of their ability to make products.
That will only last until they become unionized, then it will be the end .
Starting a manufacturing company in a non-right-to-work state is like starting a trucking company in a state that only has dirt roads.
That’s still not enough.
Our approach to science/math education is terrible because some people think a more rigorous math curriculum will hurt children’s self esteem and place a huge burden on the teacher’s unions.
And other people think that little league games and soccer practice are more important priorities.
It is fashionable to use old terminology to refer to Red China and Chicoms.
The reality is different, there is vast change in process. What Jobs meant was that we are dealing with Chicaps. That is, we are dealing with a new generation and breed of business men (and women) who are transforming China into something not yet apparent and perhaps not known.
The process is not limited to China. To one degree or another the process is unfolding in Indonesia, Maylasia, Thailand, The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and India.
The economic power of so many people in so many places is transformational. The world is changing on a rapid pace and we must learn how to deal with the new reality.
It was prudent of the President of ask his question, but it was imprudent to expect or to insist on “bringing those jobs home”. The task of the President is not to recreate the past but to set a new course in the turbulence of the current reality. The course must be to tear down the regulatory walls and unleash the power of American brains and capabilities.
It is ironic that policy is based on recreating an economy based on labor unions. Labor unions represent a trip into a past that is long gone. Progressive is actually regressive
Newt will do just that
Even union members are speaking in favor of right to work laws in Michigan. Its only a matter of time. Element Electronics knows this.
Right now, we’re waiting for the first domino to fall in Indiana.
Except in Illinois ....
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