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Comment by albertgoeswoof | Hacker News Reader

There are a few reasons why this might not be a good idea:

- it pisses off trade partners who may not act as rationally as you expect

- it might not be possible to manufacture an iPhone without cheap labour

Both of these will disrupt trade significantly, meaning productivity drops and the global economy suffers, reducing economies of scale and creating a negative feedback cycle that continues.

Also manufacturing jobs are crap, regressing your economy towards that will lower the standard of living for your citizens in general. The reason cars are manufactured in the US is to reduce shipping costs and give a great marketing line. Firearms it’s to reduce dependencies on other nations for weapons.

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> Also manufacturing jobs are crap

That's far too broad of a statement. You're thinking of $1/hour 2003 Chinese labor style manufacturing, or making cheap toasters for $12 / hour.

The developed world doesn't do much of that manufacturing any longer, they all shifted to high value manufacturing. Even South Korea - a more recent member of the developed club - makes its phones in Vietnam, not domestically.

The manufacturing jobs in eg Germany and the US pay moderately well in fact. The US BLS indicates total compensation for manufacturing employees averages over $39 / hour ($25.x salary, $13.x benefits).

There are a vast array of manufacturing engineering jobs that pay far better than that.

Manufacturing jobs are progressive, not regressive. They absorb large amounts of lower skill, lower education labor. They're a requirement for countries with any meaningful population base. Without those jobs, lower skilled labor tiers end up working $10-$15 / hour service jobs (in the US), typically with few benefits. Further, they often teach a trade, valuable skills, in the process. And last but not least, it's almost always critical to make things, which you can trade with the rest of the world. A high income economy can't survive on domestic barista service jobs (ie low value consumption jobs).

>it pisses off trade partners who may not act as rationally as you expect

It forces trade partners to lower their own protections, resulting in freer trade than before. People respond to incentives.

>it might not be possible to manufacture an iPhone without cheap labour

Automation.

> Also manufacturing jobs are crap.

Manufacturing provided decent jobs for many American men feeding their families. Next you'll tell me that trucking is terrible and we should get rid of that too. Schumpterism is probably a necessary trait for ambitious people, but don't be cavalier about jobs that provide respectable livelihoods to normal people.

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