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.
this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2025
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So how high does the tariff have to go for that math to work out?
Ive gotten quotes for general circuit board mfg in the US, its 1000% more than china.
Yes 10x, minimum.
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.
He'll just tell his bud Tim Apple to do it. When you're prez they let you do it. Don't even ask, grab them by the apples.
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.
They did try that. It was in Texas for Mac Pro. It was such a failure that the whole product launch was delayed. And it was then under perfect conditions without all the tarrifs.
Trump is the expert. I am sure he knows what he is talking about. /s
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.
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.
The iPhone is now $6k
Well, yeah, they can, but they'd be much more expensive. Which wouldn't be a problem if wages matched inflation.
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.
What? Clarify.
Any mid to major corporation can afford to pay their employees more. Pay the CEO, and Execs less, and don't give me "We have to pay them that much to retain the best and brightest leadership" bullshit. How about paying the employees more to retain their skills and loyalty.
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.
See, you've bought into this Friedman economic dogma bullshit.
"If the peasants have more money, the cost of everything is going to go up, and nothing will change! Corporations will suffer, shareholder's won't get every dime they deserve, and businesses will charge more because the peasants have more!"
Also, 401K's are the absolute worst, most evil scam perpetrated on the American poor ever devised. Most employers won't let you opt out. Why wouldn't anyone let their pensions be gambled with by MBA's, no risk them? And all those delicious fees? 'Murican Capitalism! Anyone who doesn't want to get rich is a fool, and lazy!"
Guess what? You're going to die like everyone else, and money is meaningless when you're dead, and no decent person will admire your wealth.
We're done. You're obviously a Disciple of Mammon, which I find repulsive. Goodbye.
My dude.
Like, you should chill the fuck out, ok?
There's no need to go around condemning people to eternal torment and isolation from God because of a two paragraph comment.
knowing apple's fanbase, I can totally foresee them buying a $4000 iPhone-17 just because /insert any fucking reason here or none /
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.
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.
What did they do? The robotised a lot of it.
They're also gradually moving out of China to other places like India and Vietnam.
The low and mid-tier guitar business has mostly moved to Indonesia. And they're very good at it.
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.
America can build all their electronics in the country affordably but Trump won’t.