Why Apple will never bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.

First topic message reminder :

Just the cold hard facts.

Why Apple will never bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/17/technology/apple-china-jobs/

macky

Apple makes products that please their customers - they do this very well and thus are extremely successful.

Americans have voted with their wallets, proclaiming that functionality, style, and low price are much more important to them than where the products are manufactured.

Apple is simply making what customers want. If customers wanted American-made products and were willing to pay twice as much for them, then that's what Apple would be providing.

So why the anger toward Apple? Shouldn't the anger be with the customers?

SteveR wrote:Apple makes products that please their customers - they do this very well and thus are extremely successful.

Americans have voted with their wallets, proclaiming that functionality, style, and low price are much more important to them than where the products are manufactured.

Apple is simply making what customers want. If customers wanted American-made products and were willing to pay twice as much for them, then that's what Apple would be providing.

So why the anger toward Apple? Shouldn't the anger be with the customers?

I myself am not angry with "Apple" nor am I angry with the "customers" as people want to purchase things as cheaply as possible...

I am concerned that people accept whats told them, without question..

there are "other cost" associated with business other than "as cheap as possible" for the last hundred years or so the only entity that will come in and pick up these "other costs" seems to be the National government
of various western democracies....

the free market would still be throwing toxic chemicals directly into rivers without this "Bad government regulation"

After this latest financial catastrophe we have had, i think it was Alan Greenspan who testified before congress that something he has believed in ALL his life is NOT TRUE..

The Free Market is NOT the practically holy self correcting entity that he has believed it was (he looks disillusioned in the video)...

elvis44102 wrote:

SteveR wrote:Apple makes products that please their customers - they do this very well and thus are extremely successful.

Americans have voted with their wallets, proclaiming that functionality, style, and low price are much more important to them than where the products are manufactured.

Apple is simply making what customers want. If customers wanted American-made products and were willing to pay twice as much for them, then that's what Apple would be providing.

So why the anger toward Apple? Shouldn't the anger be with the customers?

I myself am not angry with "Apple" nor am I angry with the "customers" as people want to purchase things as cheaply as possible...

I am concerned that people accept whats told them, without question..

there are "other cost" associated with business other than "as cheap as possible" for the last hundred years or so the only entity that will come in and pick up these "other costs" seems to be the National government
of various western democracies....

the free market would still be throwing toxic chemicals directly into rivers without this "Bad government regulation"

After this latest financial catastrophe we have had, i think it was Alan Greenspan who testified before congress that something he has believed in ALL his life is NOT TRUE..

The Free Market is NOT the practically holy self correcting entity that he has believed it was (he looks disillusioned in the video)...

Great points from both you guys. The only thing I can add is if Americans want to "buy American", that's simple. We will just need to give up every cotton pickin' electronic gadget - from microwaves, phones, GPS units, TVs, computers, to the chips that run our cars and the screen we're reading these forum posts on.

No problem!

I'm absolutely not anti-American I'm just anti-Bullshit!



macky

Macky: I think you left some things out

Research firm UBM TechInsights did the math, and the final price tag to build an iPhone 5 turns out to be $167.50 — making it Apple's most expensive phone ever.That may not seem like a large margin for Apple — just $32. But remember, that $199 you paid is just your cost for the phone with a new two-year contract. Your cell carrier had to pay Apple much more and here's why:

http://www.tecca.com/columns/why-buying-a-smartphone-without-a-service-plan-is-so-expensive/.

After all, an unlocked out-of-contract phone sells for $649, allowing the world's richest company plenty more room to get even richer.

So...let me get this right...

Apple makes a simple no frill Iphone in the states, with the tools and capacity that America can provide them. Now the American people want something more with all the gadgets they can get, so Apple says, "Sure we can provide what you want, but in order to keep the cost down, we will have to move all production over to China where it will be cheaper for us to produce, thus selling it in the states for a price you can afford....so what do you think is best? Take away jobs from Americans, so you can all afford to purchase our Iphones, or keep the jobs here, where it might cost more to purchase it?" If All americans were posed this question...how do you think they would respond? (With the exception of those rich folks who don't give a damn about jobs going over seas). You are right in saying that we should blame customers, but in truth Americans are spoiled brats and want to furnish their life with every toy out there. But in for the majority of people of common sense and loyalty to this country, I don't think they intended for Apple to produce what they want, in China. For most, they would've been happy with what they had.

So...let me get this right...

Apple makes a simple no frill Iphone in the states, with the tools and capacity that America can provide them. Now the American people want something more with all the gadgets they can get, so Apple says, "Sure we can provide what you want, but in order to keep the cost down, we will have to move all production over to China where it will be cheaper for us to produce, thus selling it in the states for a price you can afford....so what do you think is best? Take away jobs from Americans, so you can all afford to purchase our Iphones, or keep the jobs here, where it might cost more to purchase it?" If All americans were posed this question...how do you think they would respond? (With the exception of those rich folks who don't give a damn about jobs going over seas). You are right in saying that we should blame customers, but in truth Americans are spoiled brats and want to furnish their life with every toy out there. But for the majority of people of common sense and loyalty to this country, I don't think they intended for Apple to produce what they want, in China. For most, they would've been happy with what they had.

[Great points from both you guys. The only thing I can add is if Americans want to "buy American", that's simple. We will just need to give up every cotton pickin' electronic gadget - from microwaves, phones, GPS units, TVs, computers, to the chips that run our cars and the screen we're reading these forum posts on.

No problem!

I'm absolutely not anti-American I'm just anti-Bullshit!



macky

[/quote]

Guess what Macky, I was brought up without most of those things. Never had a micro...TV was run on Tubes(nothing was digital), and phones were plugged into walls and operated from a telephone poll outside. Life was grand than...much simpler...mother's stayed home because they didn't have to work to be able to buy that next electronic that was due out..I'm sure you've heard it before. So, in order to stop all manufacturing going overseas, I would be happy to give all that up. Again, today's youth are spoiled rotten! But that's what they perceive America to be...a place that can provide them anything they want! Little do they know that it's China that's providing them with it.

The bottom line is that the American "dream" of prosperity without paying a price is done, done, done.

Here is a graph of countries and their unemployment rate.




And here is a topographical map basically showing the world and the degree of "quality of life".



Notice that they are almost diametrically reversed - one skewed to the right and the other skewed to the left.

Why? Simple answer. Live it up for now, us unemployed folks will take the hit, but in the long run look out! Either learn to live with less now, or that learning will be coming in short order (actually it already has come in the form of all of us unemployed).

macky

Marilyn, I believe we think very much the same!

macky

I grew up in the 1950's-60's...I think the US GDP was something like 11 times the rate of the next highest country...
the worlds manufacturing base was destroyed by ww2.....

The US enjoyed world leadership for a good while...The US still leads, but not by such a whopping amount....

mackylebourne wrote:The bottom line is that the American "dream" of prosperity without paying a price is done, done, done.
macky

I don't expect a free ride to achieve my dreams, but I don't intend to achieve my dreams while destroying the dreams of others. If my dream is not attainable within reason while profiting from others, than it will have to remain my "dream". How can achieving one's dream be a joyful event knowing that you have destroyed another.

The world as I see it, has missed the point..to share the world together, not on opposite ends.

I do believe a significant number of people also share in the dream of a world living in harmony.....

I think its hard to tell as i would not trust any "poll" put forth by the popular media...

from some of the polls relating to "trust" our government and such which is by one estimation at about two-thirds do NOT....we may already be in the majority...

I gotta say that this is one heck of a great thread (or topic). I didn't read all the posts (most but not all) but this is a really a great thread. Not for just the subject-matter but it also helps to get a handle on who's who around here.

As for my 2¢ on the topic, the article in the first post reflects what is going on throughout society. It all boils down to "the bottom-line". Case in point, the topic focuses on APPLE but I think the same can also be applied to many other companies as well, like DELL (oh wow, that rhymes). Please correct me if I'm wrong but, if I'm not mistaken, it was people in America who built DELL up to be the Rolls Royce of the PC world back in the '90s. Then, from what it seems like to me, when the new century/millennium rolled in they turned their backs on those same people. And that's the same way it is with the majority, if not all, of the manufacturers who started out in this country in my opinion.

It's like what the late George Carlin once said, "you think they care about you, they don't give a **** about you".

I once heard this guy who use to be on the radio (internet-radio that is) a few years ago said something that goes somewhat along the line of what DesperateInRI was saying. He said that we should go to our representatives and have them pass into law a mandate that all companies that started in the United States and that move their company (or divisions of their company) to another country be made to pay the people over there the same minimum wage over here or that company can no longer be allowed to sell there products in the U.S. I agree with that except I'd take further. That the law would require that they not just pay minimum wage but whatever the same prevailing wage is in the state where their company initiated.