From The New York Times:
“When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley’s top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president.
But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States? Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.”
“Those jobs aren’t coming back.” Steve Jobs replied according to another guest.
What followed next is astounding and it should strike a cord with all Americans…
“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.”
By the way this is a great article for all to see what working conditions are like in the Chinese factories that manufacture many of the electronics we use today. And an awesome example for all to see what the American working middle class is up against. Here is the link to the NY Times article again: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?pagewanted=all
The argument you hear from most middle class Americans is that we didn’t want these low-paying jobs anyway but that completely dismisses the fact that the Chinese work force has an advantage over the American middle class work force and that huge multinational corporations like Apple have huge incentives to manufacture their products in third world countries like China.
Make no mistake these are slave labor camps that are being used in China to manufacture electronics at the lowest price possible. It’s all about the huge profits that the huge corporations are generating. It wasn’t long ago that safety nets had to be installed around the factory because the factory workers were committing suicide! And where does that leave the American middle class?
It appears manufacturing jobs have left the US for good and taken the middle class with them…
RIP
{ 0 comments }