Finally, an iPhone with the made-in-America build quality of the Cybertruck.
this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
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It's not so much the quality. The US is very much capable of manufacturing high quality hardware products (less so in tech, but the point stands).
The key issue is economics. Salaries (and costs, which from my experience living in the US, are also driven by local corruption and lack of competition) are simply too high for relatively low cost consumer electronics manufacturing.
And the solution is to inflate everything with tariffs, push layoffs so folks stop finding higher paying roles, the commerce secretary getting people on board for 'factory jobs for them, their kids and their grandkids'.
He wants the US to resemble India and China, where a few fat fucks live in highrise mansions with slums for everyone else, 13 year old kids working in the fields, factories, you know, traditional conservative values.
Wouldn't you rather no kids worked in fields and factories? If production were moved to the US, I'd have higher hopes of that happening that in India or China. Moving production to the US and forcing US people to experience the toll required to produce their low cost good might actually make them care about workers rights and faar wages. They couldn't just go "out of sight out of mind".
Cheap, low cost goods see only possible due to the suffering of others. The workers pay a steep price for their work as the supply chain is filled with children, under-paid and overworked adults, and inhumane working practices.
If workers abroad were paid fair wages, had better working conditions, and didn't have to make children work, producing in the US would be economical.
Even if you avoid sweatshop style work environments, the US is simply not suited for consumer electronic manufacturing.
There are many countries where say the equivalent of €2,000 net a month would be an above average salary and would be highly competitive for a semi-skilled manufacturing position. €24 K a year in the US is nothing.
There is also the problem of massive corruption in the American medical system (I have a close friend who works in a provider and the rates they charge the insurance companies are borderline comical) and in other areas (e.g. telecommunication costs in the US are just stupid).
There are many countries where say the equivalent of €2,000 net a month would be an above average salary and would highly competitive for a semi-skilled manufacturing position. €24 K a year in the US is nothing.
If only workers for low cost products were earning the equivalent and had "above average wages". Also above average doesn't mean much if the average is poverty; that's why I said fair wage.
I do think US workers have to experience the same struggles as their foreign comrades to understand and empathise. Maybe it will help them value their goods more. Europe could do with the same as we don't see nor care about the suffering that goes into our low cost products either. Maybe having a silicon, lithium, or rare earth mine in the backyard will make us care about product origins and the supply chain more.
Americans can afford 1 or 2 American products, but 30 American products? Out of the question.