#manufacturing #USmanufacturing #iPhones #Apple #tariffs
More domestic manufacturing may be a desired goal, but it’s not as easy to pull off as it sounds.
Tariffs are designed to bring more manufacturing to the U.S., but it can’t happen overnight.
Take the idea of putting a tariff on an iPhone, which is now made in China.
To make an iPhone here, Apple would have to create enough capacity to fulfill the demand . As iPhones change and are upgraded, the manufacturing will have to change with it.
It probably means Apple would have to build all new factories. That alone would take years.
It would have to build them so they can be easily retooled as the iPhone evolves.
Then, there is the job of finding enough workers, which has not been easy for any employer recently.
What would Apple have to pay these workers to entice them to work in an iPhone factory?
If the tariffs go away BEFORE Apple can finish building the factory, would the whole idea be moot? Certainly, the Chinese-made iPhones would always be cheaper to make than the ones made here.
Now, let’s talk about how often iPhone users trade in their phones.
Are you the type of user that trades his or her phone every time a new iPhone comes out?
Or, do you hold on to your iPhone for as long as it works for you, or until Apple decides it no longer will support your old phone? (Such forced obsolescence is a debate for another day).
How will those decision-making patterns affect factory construction?
What about all the accessories – cases, holsters etc. – that go with iPhones. Do the companies that make those make them in the U.S.? If not, and they are tariffed, will a case cost more than a phone, or will those companies also have to create factories here?
The tariffs are being assessed without regard for any of this. It’s nice to wish for more domestic manufacturing, but it’s hard to achieve, considering the facts on the ground.
Most companies would gladly make more things here, if they could do it for the same price as they pay to make them elsewhere.
But labor, materials and everything else used to make things are usually more expensive here.
Those who wish to create more manufacturing jobs here learn quickly that Americans will not work long hours in a factory for minimum wage.
Americans are having enough trouble affording to live here, never mind having to be forced into an income that will not cover their bills.
In short, domestic manufacturing may be a great goal. But, not everything can be made here for the price that can make what we need affordable.
International trade should be as free of tariffs as possible to allow the markets to be stable, affordable and make products of the best quality and price.
Peter
Tag Archives: manufacturing
HOPE SHOULD NOT BE SCARCE
#hope #NewEconomy #manufacturing
It’s been said that where there’s life, there’s hope.
We can debate whether that idea holds true in a medical sense, but let’s look at it from a societal sense.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist John Brummett tackled this idea, in connection with Great Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, in a June 28, 2016, column.
He talks about those who appeal to those who’ve been aggrieved by the new economy.
From the end of World War II through the mid-2000s, America saw, mostly, great prosperity.
Most everyone, from factory worker to CEO, benefited. America made things and shipped them worldwide. Now, we don’t make as many things here as we used to, though reports indicate that manufacturing is coming back.
After that prosperous period came the gradual downsizing and exporting of manufacturing. Then, financial collapse came around 2008. To this day, many have never recovered. Therefore, they have lost hope and are using immigrants and others not like them as scapegoats for their predicament.
“Retrenchment, nativism, nationalism, isolationism, exclusion and reactionary politics – history tells us those tempting and emotional reactions not only don’t work, but prove corrosive and dangerous,“ Brummett writes.
So why should you feel hopeful when you’ve been so wronged?
There are many solutions out there to economic distress. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You will find lots of hope, optimism and success among average people, who’ve taken a step, and made the effort, to solve problems in their lives.
Certainly, there are naysayers who will, for their own purposes, want you to stay in your angry rut. But strong people will not listen.
Strong people will find what it takes to move out of economic hardship and into prosperity.
It will require work, and perhaps an exit (not a Brexit) from one’s comfort zone. After all, many experts tell us that success was not born in comfort.
How can one pull himself up by the bootstraps if he has no boots?
Sometimes he has to look for boots, or conceive of boots, to achieve boots. Once the boots appear, he can kick off his new life, with a new mind-set and plenty of hope.
“Democracy, a socially conscious capitalism, international alliance, economic evolution and ethnic and racial tolerance – we need to stay on the ship in service to those principles, not jump overboard in fear of them,” Bruummett writes.
The world is not what it was. Every day – every minute – it changes. Things we used to do for ourselves are being done for us. Ideas that were once ideal are becoming obsolete.
Change should not be feared, but embraced. We should approach new things the way a child approaches a wrapped gift at Christmas. Perhaps we can vent our anger by tearing off the paper. But then, it’s time to see the gift for what it is and learn how it will change our, and perhaps others’, lives for the better.
Peter