NY Times: Steve Jobs and Obama

Chris sent me this. It completely addresses what I was thinking about, and illustrates a very difficult truth.

“It is hard to estimate how much more it would cost to build iPhones in the United States. However, various academics and manufacturing analysts estimate that because labor is such a small part of technology manufacturing, paying American wages would add up to $65 to each iPhone’s expense. Since Apple’s profits are often hundreds of dollars per phone, building domestically, in theory, would still give the company a healthy reward.

But such calculations are, in many respects, meaningless because building the iPhone in the United States would demand much more than hiring Americans — it would require transforming the national and global economies. Apple executives believe there simply aren’t enough American workers with the skills the company needs or factories with sufficient speed and flexibility.”

9 Notes

  1. seanbury said: “…with sufficient speed and flexibility.” Weird how that’s defined: I need to make a major change to the screen and still keep the same release date in a month. That’s not a true need. That’s a luxury enabled by near slave labor.
  2. shinyredballoon reblogged this from chriscantwell and added:
    talking about. It’s ridiculous...America can’t supply these skilled workers - we have so...
  3. mundy said: This might sound dumb, but why doesn’t Apple open up a Trade Engineering school that teaches people how to build their shit. They can treat it like another business. They get tuition from the students and then they get capable employees.
  4. chriscantwell posted this