Trump believes iPhones can be made in the US, says White House
2 years ago by Sunshine (she/her) to c/apple
So how high does the tariff have to go for that math to work out?
I don’t think the skills exist. Foxconn now has decades lead over competitors on assembling tiny devices with crazy low tolerances at a massive scale, with last-minute changes.
Perhaps I’m wrong, but there’s nothing that is manufactured in North America or Europe on that scale, with comparable tolerances, lead times, and speed.
That’s before we get into the discussion about labour - working hours, pay, etc.
The original plan was to build it in the US in the first place. Steve Jobs did not trust that China wouldn't rip off everything about the iphone. He was firmly against the idea of China making the iphone until Apple got him to take a tour a new facility built just for making the new device. China fronted all the funding and manpower to build the facility to make the phone and they did it very, very fast. Steve was instantly smitten.
So it's actually rather ironic that long after his death, there's talk of making it in America.
I mean, if iPhones went from $1,100 apiece to $7,000 apiece and minimum wage jumped to $38 an hour, then sure maybe.
But then, if we did that, your parents and grandparents can say goodbye to any concept of their retirement accounts having value enough for them to survive on without working a full-time job.
When you're thinking- okay, maybe this is a me thing, but when I think about financial equality, I consider the extremes.
Taking into account what the person or family that makes $80,000 to $140,000 a year doesn't really do anything for the poor and the destitute, right?
So if iPhones suddenly become $7,000 expenditures on par with like a decent used car from 10 years ago, then it's definitely going to be the kind of thing where somebody has to make enough money to afford it.
And you can't only consider the middle class when looking at the affordability of a particular object.
So if iPhone's multiplied by 7, then the minimum wage needs to multiply by 7. And I did a little quick math in my head, I didn't get the exact pennies, right? But I know 7.25x7 is like $36 and change, right? So, yeah.
But if the minimum wage were to suddenly multiply by seven, then the value of 401Ks, which are locked in at pre-minimum wage readjustments, are taken into account, then the value of 401Ks would drop by one-seventh, enriching the poor, while taking money out of the elderly and retired people who are relying on that for their daily survival. And as minimum wage increases, the cost of goods are going to increase along with them, because retailers will know that they can sell their products at a higher price because the minimum wage has gone up.
So yeah, that's several paragraphs and 1,492 letters worth of text to describe and explain my justification for two paragraphs earlier.
They can, at a terrible cost to people who won’t be working at manufacturing plants. Anyone saying it’s not feasible probably means that it’s not feasible without impoverishing middle class, which they belong to either economically or culturally. Some of the people are probably happy, most won’t be, because politicians don’t usually deliver on their promises.
I don't see Americans working sweatshop-style manufacturing jobs for pennies. They are actively getting rid of slave-wage migrant workers and failing to find replacements, so they are now changing laws to allow child labour again.
China is really good at making stuff and as a result their labour costs rose because they had to pay their people more. What did they do? The robotised a lot of it. For America to compete means fewer jobs in America.
knowing apple's fanbase, I can totally foresee them buying a $4000 iPhone-17 just because /insert any fucking reason here or none /
I think what he means is less that we are just as capable to manufacture here and more that he is willing to pay Americans a similar wage to make them. They'll be just as cheap, but it'll be Americans making $2 an hour to make them.
If manufacturing jobs don’t pay $25-30/hr MINIMUM, I don’t want it. And I don’t see that because even with tariffs, labor in some countries is cheaper.
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@lemmy.zip
There are a couple of community rules in addition to the main instance rules.
All posts must be about Apple
Anything goes as long as it’s about Apple. News about other companies and devices is allowed if it directly relates to Apple.
No NSFW content
While lemmy.zip allows NSFW content this community is intended to be a place for all to feel welcome. Any NSFW content will be removed and the user banned.
If you have any comments or suggestions please message one of the moderators.
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He's not wrong. They could be made here, and we would pay 3 or 4 grand a phone for the privilege. Poor dumb orange manchild doesn't understand the basics of our reality because he has never had to.
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