Manufacturing 101

How US lost out on iPhone Work is a must read to see why our economy is in the dumper. What's not said in this otherwise excellent NYTimes piece is the fact corporations were encouraged to go overseas for workers instead of staying here thanks, in large part, to the Fed and WS bankers striving to reward investors at all costs while the government helped out by allowing said companies to avoid taxes because "monies were made overseas". This is why GE paid no taxes in 2011.

As stated before, the article's terrific but what's even better is the interactive graphic one can see by clicking the image at the top of this post. It's a primer on why we are such trouble on the employment side of things, a situation which could get worse given the acceleration in all things digital with emphasis on robotics and AI, the twin engines of digital manufacturing.

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?

Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.

Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.

Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” he said, according to another dinner guest.

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.