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
69 points (97.3% liked)
Apple
879 readers
28 users here now
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.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
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.
Trump is the expert. I am sure he knows what he is talking about. /s
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.
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.
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.
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.
The iPhone is now $6k
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.
knowing apple's fanbase, I can totally foresee them buying a $4000 iPhone-17 just because /insert any fucking reason here or none /
America can build all their electronics in the country affordably but Trump won’t.