5 ms·

I wish Apple would turn its gift for innovation toward manufacturing so they can bring those jobs back home to America, or at least some percentage of them. Tha

by tlack 15y ago

I wish Apple would turn its gift for innovation toward manufacturing so they can bring those jobs back home to America, or at least some percentage of them. That would be a very noble effort on their part.

w1ntermute 15y ago
Steve Jobs told Obama point blank that those jobs are never coming back. We're better off looking for alternatives.
- kmfrk 15y ago
  I think Apple would be a force to be reckoned with in union-busting. As I understand, everything is done to prevent Apple Store employees from unionizing already. And hey, I understand the need for a break-neck pace for a company that constantly disrupts its own market and has to turn around the ship in the blink of an eye in order to stay on top of the business. I don't know if it's possible to bring back the manufacturing jobs to the States without breaking basic labour condition rights.
  - philwelch 15y ago
    > As I understand, everything is done to prevent Apple Store employees from unionizing already. It amuses me how modern-day union-busters like Apple and Whole Foods do everything to prevent their employees from unionizing by...providing good pay and benefits. Funny that.
- raganwald 15y ago
  They will only come back if you can convince an American to be ‘integrated and nimble’, translation, to live in a dorm attached to the factory so he can be woken in the middle of the night, given a biscuit and a cup of tea, and put on a unplanned twelve-hour shift. We needn’t debate whether this is right or wrong, good or bad, it is enough to recognize that the likelihood of negotiating such arrangements with Americans is remote.
- v2interactive 15y ago
  Oh, so now he's an economist as well? Interesting.
  - raganwald 15y ago
    Mr. Jobs was not an economist and never claimed to be. He was the CEO of a company in the centre of the issue being discussed, and he gave his anecdotal opinion as someone with a clearly expert knowledge of the situation. The Internet is a bitch. If an economist stands up and says “This is the case with tech jobs,” he’ll be shouted down as an academic with no real-world experience in the tech sector. If an expert in the tech sector stands up and says “This is the case with tech jobs,” he will be shouted down for lacking the academic credentials to offer an opinion. Tough room.
  - doctorwho 15y ago
    They know the jobs aren't coming here. We know it. So why do they try and distract us with this fluffy propaganda? Apple thinks we're all stupid. As long as their share price keeps climbing they'll keep doing shit like this, and PROVE that we're all stupid.
    - joelrunyon 15y ago
      Isn't 1/2 million jobs better than one at all? You sound like you want Apple to disappear from the face of the earth.
      - doctorwho 15y ago
        No, they're big and successful and I buy their products. I just want them to be honest.
- jjtheblunt 15y ago
  But he also noted supreme disappointment in the situation, as he'd built such a factory in Fremont (?) to build NeXT machines twenty years earlier. I think the issue is that all the suppliers are in the same area, which is in China, and that synergy was created by China to make the current manufacturing base only viable in China. Wise on their part. Maybe the US politicians had less foresight?
philwelch 15y ago
Those jobs are going to the robots sooner than anyone can bring them back to the US.
- doctorwho 15y ago
  And Apple will come out with a spin story about how many American robots were created to build the Chinese robots. Wait for it...
- SeoxyS 15y ago
  It'd be neat if the jobs could go to Californian robots, rather than Chinese ones. Remember when Jobs built a fully automated robotic assembly line in Fremont for the Next computer.
ugh 15y ago
Why exactly would bringing them back to America be noble? Apple has its roots in the USA but it is very much an international company. The USA are no more deserving of those jobs than any other place on the planet. Apple should speed up improving the situation of their workers in China. That would be great. Bringing them “back home” would seem just strange to me. Definitely not noble, nationalism never is. Your view seems very selfish to me and it seems strange that selfish and humanitarian seem to mix so well in those debates. It’s not better for Chinese workers if Apple were to pull out of China. The best solution for them is if Apple improves their working conditions.

by tlack 15y ago

w1ntermute 15y ago

Steve Jobs told Obama point blank that those jobs are never coming back. We're better off looking for alternatives.

kmfrk 15y ago
I think Apple would be a force to be reckoned with in union-busting. As I understand, everything is done to prevent Apple Store employees from unionizing already. And hey, I understand the need for a break-neck pace for a company that constantly disrupts its own market and has to turn around the ship in the blink of an eye in order to stay on top of the business. I don't know if it's possible to bring back the manufacturing jobs to the States without breaking basic labour condition rights.
- philwelch 15y ago
  > As I understand, everything is done to prevent Apple Store employees from unionizing already. It amuses me how modern-day union-busters like Apple and Whole Foods do everything to prevent their employees from unionizing by...providing good pay and benefits. Funny that.
raganwald 15y ago
They will only come back if you can convince an American to be ‘integrated and nimble’, translation, to live in a dorm attached to the factory so he can be woken in the middle of the night, given a biscuit and a cup of tea, and put on a unplanned twelve-hour shift. We needn’t debate whether this is right or wrong, good or bad, it is enough to recognize that the likelihood of negotiating such arrangements with Americans is remote.
v2interactive 15y ago
Oh, so now he's an economist as well? Interesting.
- raganwald 15y ago
  Mr. Jobs was not an economist and never claimed to be. He was the CEO of a company in the centre of the issue being discussed, and he gave his anecdotal opinion as someone with a clearly expert knowledge of the situation. The Internet is a bitch. If an economist stands up and says “This is the case with tech jobs,” he’ll be shouted down as an academic with no real-world experience in the tech sector. If an expert in the tech sector stands up and says “This is the case with tech jobs,” he will be shouted down for lacking the academic credentials to offer an opinion. Tough room.
- doctorwho 15y ago
  They know the jobs aren't coming here. We know it. So why do they try and distract us with this fluffy propaganda? Apple thinks we're all stupid. As long as their share price keeps climbing they'll keep doing shit like this, and PROVE that we're all stupid.
  - joelrunyon 15y ago
    Isn't 1/2 million jobs better than one at all? You sound like you want Apple to disappear from the face of the earth.
    - doctorwho 15y ago
      No, they're big and successful and I buy their products. I just want them to be honest.
jjtheblunt 15y ago
But he also noted supreme disappointment in the situation, as he'd built such a factory in Fremont (?) to build NeXT machines twenty years earlier. I think the issue is that all the suppliers are in the same area, which is in China, and that synergy was created by China to make the current manufacturing base only viable in China. Wise on their part. Maybe the US politicians had less foresight?

philwelch 15y ago

Those jobs are going to the robots sooner than anyone can bring them back to the US.

doctorwho 15y ago
And Apple will come out with a spin story about how many American robots were created to build the Chinese robots. Wait for it...
SeoxyS 15y ago
It'd be neat if the jobs could go to Californian robots, rather than Chinese ones. Remember when Jobs built a fully automated robotic assembly line in Fremont for the Next computer.

ugh 15y ago

Why exactly would bringing them back to America be noble? Apple has its roots in the USA but it is very much an international company. The USA are no more deserving of those jobs than any other place on the planet. Apple should speed up improving the situation of their workers in China. That would be great. Bringing them “back home” would seem just strange to me. Definitely not noble, nationalism never is. Your view seems very selfish to me and it seems strange that selfish and humanitarian seem to mix so well in those debates. It’s not better for Chinese workers if Apple were to pull out of China. The best solution for them is if Apple improves their working conditions.