So sayeth a man who many find the visionary business genius of our time, Steven Jobs.
This in answer to President Obama's question of about a year ago, "what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?".
CHARLES DUHIGG and KEITH BRADSHER examine iBusiness's penchant for locating their manufacturing everywhere but the United States in an article in yesterday's New York Times
So why is the ubiquetous iPhone made in China?
The president’s question touched upon a central conviction at Apple. It isn’t just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products.
In other words, the ability to build a factory, essentially to spec is an important consideration and there are just too many 'regulations' for that to happen here. But think about the second clause "diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts" is in my opinion just doublespeak for Apple can exploit the labor (the diligence) and the inability of workers to organize (industrial skills).
“Apple’s an example of why it’s so hard to create middle-class jobs in the U.S. now,” said Jared Bernstein, who until last year was an economic adviser to the White House.
“If it’s the pinnacle of capitalism, we should be worried.”
According to Apple, China is the only option (yeah, right). They're flexible (exploitable) for example,
One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.
. That is, I don't care if its Christmas Cratchit, I want what I want and I want it now.
A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.
Need Apple say more? Well, yes...
“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”
What was it that Apple wanted and wanted now. A glass screen for their iPhone. Sixty years of labor organizing to demand a just, safe, and life affirming work space be damned. And It's not like workers here have achieved these minimal goals universally here in the United States.
I'm so sorry Tim, papa has to work on Christmas.