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Trump will mandate Apple manufacture all products in US if elected
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NewsPoster
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Jan 18, 2016, 10:42 PM
 
Apple could be forced to manufacture its products within the United States, if campaign promises from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump become a reality. Speaking at the Liberty University in Virginia, Trump mentioned he would coerce Apple and other US companies to perform all manufacturing within the country instead of outsourcing production abroad, with the main punishment to those who do being a potential 35 percent tax on goods crossing the border.

Before speaking out against Apple's international manufacturing program, Trump gave the suggestion of the 35 percent tax penalty, but shortly followed it by claiming to support free trade, reports Gizmodo. A few sentences later, Trump declares "We're going to get Apple to build their damn computers in this country instead of other countries."

Photo by Gage Skidmore
Photo by Gage Skidmore


While the sentiment is likely to receive approval from supporters, there are a number of obstacles in the way of that happening for all of Apple's products. Advocating legislation to deter companies from outsourcing is the main issue, but even after making it harder to work across borders and adding a financial disincentive to work against the cheaper labor and materials, the US would then have to create electronic supply chains on a par with Asia in order to cope with the production requirements of Apple and other companies.

Currently, the Mac Pro is the only Mac model manufactured within the United States.

( Last edited by NewsPoster; Jan 18, 2016 at 10:48 PM. )
     
bobolicious
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Jan 18, 2016, 10:57 PM
 
...is a cradle to grave bioregionalism in the end the only truly sustainable approach...?
     
Mike Wuerthele
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Jan 18, 2016, 11:02 PM
 
Apparently, if you want to take four seconds to summarize a matter that really takes a lot of education and practical experience to figure out.

I think he believes he's running for King of the US, not President.
     
MitchIves
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Jan 18, 2016, 11:07 PM
 
@Mike... The job is already taken... Obama is already acting like a King. That said, Trump could do a lot to entice Apple to build here, but we'd have to do our part and provide the necessary workforce. Apple might want a long term plan to reduce it's dependence on China. While I'm not one of them, I have a lot of leftie acquaintances that aren't happy buying things made in Chinese sweat shops where suicide is high. This problem isn't going away, and I notice Apple is already building more things here...
     
coffeetime
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Jan 19, 2016, 02:16 AM
 
President is just another name for a four-year-term king. As for domestic manufacturing, It should work, right? It worked in the first half of 20th century when America was self-sufficient. Watch "The Men Who Built America" (History Channel) and the show will pump your blood up.
( Last edited by coffeetime; Jan 19, 2016 at 02:27 AM. )
     
Jeronimo2000
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Jan 19, 2016, 03:03 AM
 
"Apple could be forced to manufacture its products within the United States..." - no, they couldn't. Just because some orange dumbass says so to get attention doesn't make that a realistic or viable proposition.

Don't honor that clown by using words and sentences that make it sound as if there were any merit to the verbal diarrhea he's emitting.
     
buddhistMonkey
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Jan 19, 2016, 04:57 AM
 
You've profoundly embarrassed yourself and this site by allowing that deeply ignorant bag of bluster even a whiff of credibility.
     
Mike Wuerthele
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Jan 19, 2016, 07:51 AM
 
Originally Posted by buddhistMonkey View Post
You've profoundly embarrassed yourself and this site by allowing that deeply ignorant bag of bluster even a whiff of credibility.
Quite the contrary. There's no credibility assigned here. What there is, though, is an utter lack of emotional response, and only the facts. His campaign is based on a visceral response to his one-sentence simplifications, and too many venues buy into it.

Perhaps more venues should look at what the candidates say dispassionately. After all, they're not in it for us, they're in it for themselves.
     
Peter Bonte
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Jan 19, 2016, 09:30 AM
 
I love Trump but this is just stupid, the best they can do is higher the import tax on electronics or something of that matter.
     
prl99
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Jan 19, 2016, 09:35 AM
 
It bothers me how blindly some people on this forum can support even the craziest of people and their insane ideals. Trump has no desire to bring any manufacturing back to the US unless he could make money doing it. The US doesn't have the number of skilled and available people necessary to produce the quantity of devices Apple and others want to build. We also don't have many of the special natural resources (minerals) that go into electronic devices, especially battery components. Do you really think China would sell these components to Apple if they also quit manufacturing there? Don't blame Obama for the mess we're in. He might be acting like a king but that's because Congress refuses to do their job, acting like a bunch of kids who are incapable of playing with each other. No, I don't follow Obama blindly, in fact I'm upset he hasn't pulled everyone out of the middle east and reduced our military presence from around the world. But at least he's trying to do his job. Trump is just a loud mouth buffoon who's playing to the reality TV crowd who have a really warped idea of what reality actually is. Add his latest statements to his previous absolutely unconstitutional statements dealing with racial profiling and he is an embarrassment to this country. He's laying the groundwork for WWIII with many of his anti-everything except himself comments.
     
Elderloc
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Jan 19, 2016, 10:05 AM
 
Well that will be interesting considering we don't have the Tool and Die makers and also many other trades because of our decline. Then all the regulations and time to change tools etc. Yeah not going to happen. Steve Jobs addressed this a few years ago. My father was one of only a handful of tool and die makers left in Michigan back in the late 90s. I was in the program but dropped out, I'd like to think there are more but based on the comments from Steve and Tim a few years ago that does not appear to be the case.
Elderloc

We were just a bunch of sawgie old men eating egg salad sandwitches in a card board box, playing tease the wild wolverine in a confind space.
     
iBricking.com
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Jan 19, 2016, 11:05 AM
 
Say what you will about Donald Trump, he remains 100% effective as clickbait.
     
Mr. Strat
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Jan 19, 2016, 11:26 AM
 
It's not really economically feasible to make iPhones, iPads, etc. here. You'd be paying thousands of dollars for the devices. The labor costs alone would add tremendously to the cost of manufacture. Plus, I doubt that any president could create such a requirement.
     
Peter Bonte
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Jan 19, 2016, 11:31 AM
 
labor costs alone would be +10% on the device at the most but its just not possible, and even in China they are replacing the workforce by robots.
     
bdmarsh
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Jan 19, 2016, 11:35 AM
 
Mr Strat, Apple has calculated additional US labour costs, and it isn't nearly that high - around 5% (was in the $30-40 more per iPhone range). The problem is the supply chain of the parts both in time and cost to get it here (if possible as one other person mentioned some countries may refuse to sell needed materials, or jack up the prices of those materials)
     
msuper69
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Jan 19, 2016, 11:56 AM
 
"Perhaps more venues should look at what the candidates say dispassionately. After all, they're not in it for us, they're in it for themselves." Mike Wurethele
Yep. That's why he's donating his Presidential salary to the veterans and why he's turning over the running of his organization to his children while he is in the WH.
I think you are off base on this.
     
Mike Wuerthele
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Jan 19, 2016, 12:05 PM
 
Presidential salary of less than a million dollars annually to the veterans:

1) I'll believe it when I see it. I hope he does. As a vet, I have been witness to so many political lies and half-truths, I stopped counting.
2) Token gesture, given how much he has. That's equivalent to me giving $100 a year, and I do well more than that.
3) Related to #2, self-interested gesture, because he can say he's doing it, and not get examined too closely, and get credit for it by some of the electorate.

Turning over the running of his organization to his children:

That's not self-interested how?

And "they" refers to all candidates, not just Trump.
     
iBricking.com
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Jan 19, 2016, 12:34 PM
 
Mike Wuerthele, please remember this thread the next time you scold your readers for taking an "Apple-related" thread on a political tangent.
     
Mike Wuerthele
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Jan 19, 2016, 12:51 PM
 
Difference is, these remarks are still on topic, and as of yet, nobody is making ad hominem attacks which I do not tolerate on the news forums.

Additionally, I've taken no sides in the matter.
     
mac_in_tosh
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Jan 19, 2016, 03:58 PM
 
"I have a lot of leftie acquaintances that aren't happy buying things made in Chinese sweat shops where suicide is high."

MitchIves; But you're happy with this?
     
Makosuke
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Jan 19, 2016, 07:38 PM
 
Good luck with that.

It's easy to randomly say things on the campaign trail that sound good, but the reality is that returning most/all manufacturing to the US for US companies would be a massive undertaking that would require major legal changes, require the Supreme Court to work through constitutional challenges, huge fights from massive companies and wealthy oligarchs, and then--even if you got it past all that--years, probably decades of retooling. Oh, and the massive hit to the Chinese economy would also result in all sorts of international friction.

Let's also just assume that labor costs make up such a small fraction of modern electronics that the difference between Chinese laborers working 10-12 hour shifts for around $350 a month and a US factory worker wouldn't make a huge difference in cost of goods. And that at least locally the increase would be offset by an improved economy (although that would do little good for companies like Apple that do a substantial fraction of their business overseas).

Even if all those things aligned, you can't just open a factory that can crank out 10 million iPhones a month overnight. Those factories cost literally billions of dollars to build, and take time and expertise to build.

Having factory workers making a living wage with high standards of living would be great. More US manufacturing would be great. Manufacturing closer where goods are consumed (which for Apple would be significantly in China, but also significantly in the US) would be great. But such changes will take a lot of time, and be met with the typical resistance born of anything involving billions of dollars, millions of people, multiple nations, and decades of global restructuring.

Point being, comments like this might as well be promising to wave his hand and reduce carbon emissions to zero or drop the domestic crime rate by 90%. It's not a serious short-term proposal, and anyone with as much business experience as Trump has knows perfectly well it's not even remotely realistic as-proposed.
     
Steve Wilkinson
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Jan 20, 2016, 02:37 AM
 
Originally Posted by prl99 View Post
It bothers me how blindly some people on this forum can support even the craziest of people and their insane ideals. ... Don't blame Obama for the mess we're in. He might be acting like a king but that's because Congress refuses to do their job, acting like a bunch of kids who are incapable of playing with each other. No, I don't follow Obama blindly, in fact I'm upset...
Heh, I'd have to include those following Obama, then, too. He has actually accomplished quite a bit, though I'd disagree about how good those accomplishments are. And, Congress has done quite a lot too... you just don't hear about it on the regular news. TPP, CISA, etc.

Here's the thing, though. While Democrats and Republicans have their pet-projects (with which the other side vehemently disagrees!), they are pretty much two-peas-in-a-pod when it comes to reducing citizens rights to keep the government under control or economics policies. Unless we can break out of this either-or situation, we're sunk.

I suggest every American (and even outside America if you think what America does matters) subscribe to a podcast called Congressional Dish and find out what is REALLY going on in Congress. And, you're not hearing about it in the rest of the media, whether it be PBS or Fox. And, when you do, you're going to be mad.

Originally Posted by iBricking.com View Post
Say what you will about Donald Trump, he remains 100% effective as clickbait.
Yea, the general media is playing into this hook, line, and sinker. They are infuriated he's not paying-to-play, like everyone else.
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Steve Wilkinson
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Jan 20, 2016, 02:44 AM
 
Originally Posted by Makosuke View Post
Point being, comments like this might as well be promising to wave his hand and reduce carbon emissions to zero or drop the domestic crime rate by 90%. It's not a serious short-term proposal, and anyone with as much business experience as Trump has knows perfectly well it's not even remotely realistic as-proposed.
Yea, I don't know what he's up to. The only thing I can guess, is that maybe he'll shake things up like crazy, and then pass the baton?

What maybe scares me most, is that people are so upset with the way things have been going, that they'll vote pretty much anyone in for 'change.' And, we've already been experiencing that for the last 7 years... it would just be to the other extreme.

On the other hand, if things don't get shaken-up a lot, the country might just fall apart under whoever is in next.
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just a poster
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Jan 29, 2016, 03:36 PM
 
"Trump will mandate Apple manufacture all products in US if elected"

Sounds good to me.
     
   
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