

Why Apple Got a "Made in U.S.A." Bug - shrig94
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/why-apple-got-a-made-in-u-s-a-bug/

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ck2
Shouldn't we all wait and see what they actually do vs. marketing hype?

If they only make a dozen jobs for supervisors and the rest is machine
automation, does that count?

What if it's in a US territory to escape minimum wages and standard benefits?
Does that count?

What if no-one works more than 29 hours a week to dump the health costs on
taxpayers instead of Apple? Does that count?

What if all the machines, tools, parts, building materials used in the
facility were made outside the USA? Does that count?

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yummyfajitas
_What if it's in a US territory to escape minimum wages and standard benefits?
Does that count?_

The minimum wage in all US territories was recently raised to the US minimum
wage in increments of $0.50/year, starting in 2007.

It's one of those rare cases where a min wage increase had any effect at all -
usually min wage increases go from WAY below market to simply below market.

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brudgers
This article shows what Apple hopes to gain from the announcement that they
will be manufacturing in the U.S. - articles about Apple planning to
manufacture in the U.S.

I remember Walmart's "Buy American" campaign in the late 80's early 90's. Ten
to fifteen years later it still shaped perceptions about the company's
merchandise long after it had gone to a global logistics chain. I wouldn't be
surprised if Mr. Cook has made a similar observation.

Apple's investment is trivial. $100,000,000 is still small business in
American manufacturing. It's about the cost of a new moderately sized High
School.

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jackalope
Exactly. Isn't it a little suspicious that it's for a product segment that's
waning in popularity and profitability? I won't be surprised if in three years
the line is killed and the factory is closed.

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DigitalTurk
You know, as a European who used to live in China I have to say that those
'Made in the USA' slogans are really off-putting for me.

To me it almost reads like 'More expensive because we're jingoists'.

Whatever happened to globalization? Has it become hip to be 'protectionist'
now the economy isn't doing so well?

This really does bug me because the companies that use the 'Made in the USA'
tagline otherwise tend to be cool (it's all over Kickstarter).

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DeepDuh
I think you're missing the point. Domestic production is very important if we
want to keep our living standards while accounting for the ecological costs of
our consumerism. 'Made in the USA' is just a label to sell American consumers
on, but the reasonings are deeper than jingoism. Sooner or later our
greenhouse gas output is going to bite us in the ass and for that we need new
solutions. For the Chinese economy I'm not concerned, since they're growing
into a huge domestic market themselves. Luckily they also seem to understand
the ecological dangers, thus they're beginning to invest quite heavily in
clean energy.

P.S. I'm European. I have much more hope for the USA to turn around their
economy however. Long term Europe is in a much tougher position to compete in
the new global economy, mostly because we have no silicon valley and we have
hardly any top tier universities that churn out massive amounts of startups.
On the other hand what's _very_ worrysome about the US are the exploding cost
for academic degrees - that's gonna hurt really soon when a whole generation
of high potential people (a) aren't able to get a degree or (b) get a degree
but can't spend any money on consumer products because of their loans. However
- this as well as medical care is fixable in mid term. Not having a culture of
innovation is much tougher.

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yummyfajitas
_...but the reasonings are deeper than jingoism._

Could you explain the reasoning? Your post is very unclear unclear what
greenhouse gas output has to do with American manufacturing.

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DeepDuh
When big consumer brands launch a new mobile product they often book all the
available air cargo space they can. Chinese manufacturing has lead to an
explosion of air as well as ship cargo, thus adding tons of CO2 cost to your
products. That's were domestic manufacturing would safe you.

~~~
yummyfajitas
I seriously doubt the CO2 emissions of shipping an iPhone are remotely
significant. In fact, I'd bet at even odds that driving a car to the Apple
store emits more CO2 than shipping the iPhone from China.

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Geee
Maybe Apple actually plans to assemble iTVs in USA; it would probably make the
most sense. Unit sizes are huge, most customers are domestic, keeping it more
under the wraps etc...

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zevyoura
Tim Cook said it would be one of the Mac lines.

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aaronbrethorst
I'd put a wager on it being the 2013 refresh of the Mac Pro.

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k-mcgrady
That makes sense. It would be a good way to get started considering the
relatively low demand for Mac Pro's they could presumably assemble all of them
in the USA (therefore all customers get the same product).

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37prime
The post losts all credibility as soon as the quote from Rob Enderle showed
up.

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panacea
Yep. Closed the tab when I got to that.

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Tloewald
Enderle? Sigh.

I wonder if the writer realizes that Steve Jobs started out using robot
factories (with NeXT) and then went to China. Its cheaper to hire and fire
poor people than robots.

My guess is that Apple plans to assemble the most expensive macs (especially
Bro models) in the US. I'm hopingthis includes the Mac Pro replacement.

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meaty
Either labour costs are cheaper (the Chinese are starting to want real money
vs many unemployed people in the us) or they're getting a tax break somewhere
or a subsidy.

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camus
doesnt matter how much Chinese want , china is an infinite source of cheap
labour. And you forget something, you cant freely work where you want in
China. You cant just quit your job and find another one, you need an
authorisation to do so. Some forget that China is still a centralized
communist country.Their economy is still highly planified and there is no
difference between government and "private" sector. they are the same entity.

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chimeracoder
> Some forget that China is still a centralized communist country.

China was never a centralized communist country - it was a country that
attempted to create a state-capitalist economy, to varying degrees of success
over the years.

This isn't a matter of quibbling over terminology; it's a rather important
distinction to be aware of for anybody who wants to understand modern China's
economic history.

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adamesque
The New York Times quoted Rob Enderle? Whoa.

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derleth
> Groklaw is an Anti-SCO FUD propaganda site

[http://web.archive.org/web/20040928043900/http://pl.caldera....](http://web.archive.org/web/20040928043900/http://pl.caldera.com/2004forum/agenda/Enderle_keynote_SCO-
Forum2004.html)

Earlier things in the speech were said obviously tongue-in-cheek but the title
of the talk that quote is from is "Free Software and the Idiots who Buy It"
and it was the keynote at SCO Forum August 3, 2004.

Just in case anyone else's memory was as rusty as mine is.

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xradionut
There probably is a political motive that involves government or military
contracts here. Or an political/economic motive if Apple wants to repatriate
money back into the US.

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beloch
It isn't necessarily labor costs that will likely keep at least some component
manufacturing overseas. Semiconductor fabrication involves a lot of nasty
chemicals and byproducts. Fab plants are substantially cheaper to run in
countries with lax worker safety and environmental standards.

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Alaskan005
Tim Cook thinks different though ;). He also re-instated the charity giving.

Either way, even if Apple makes a few dollars less on each Mac the publicity
alone is worth it. "Look, we make things in USA." Remember BP's, Beyond
Petroleum?

\--- edited to add "less"

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mtgx
As long as people don't think iPhones and iPads will be made in US, because
that would just be misleading. I assume most of the components will still be
made abroad anyway, and just the assembly in US, which again makes it kind of
misleading to say it's "made in US", if 90% of it is made elsewhere.

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agravier
Globalization distributes the chains of production enough that most "made in
X" statements just mean "assembled in X."

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nathos
Indeed. As Tim Cook stated in the interview w/ Brian Williams, even the "made
in China" iPhone has an American-made System-on-a-Chip and Gorilla Glass.

