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Comment by chmod775 | Hacker News Reader

By now the Chinese are going to have a lot of modern high-tech mass-market manufacturing know-how that is likely lacking severely in the United States. Not to mention the logistics of building that kind of supply chain from zero and overnight, or the fact that 95% of the world's rare-earths originate from China - many of which are necessary to build iPhones etc.

Good luck with moving all that to the US!

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The supply chain issue is not rocket science we already do that with cars.

Rare-earths are not actually rare.

The know-how is kind of a problem, but it's really the cheap labour, the zero rights they have (i.e. work now for 12 hours a day no bathroom break), the externalization of things like pollution etc..

It's possible to move most of that to the US ... but it would be complex and expensive. There's no reason to do it today.

Reducing dependency on an exploitative, rights-abusing, polluter nation seems like a good reason to do it today?

Of course it does, I was being cynical about 'no need'. This is the position of big business and free traders.

Trump is right on some level to want to bring some manufacturing home, I just don't think he's smart enough to consider how, what or why.

The bigger issue for the US is that other countries will also want their shit made in their countries.

Apple isn’t worried about shifting manufacturing to the US. Apple is worried that China will want iPhones sold to the Chinese made in China, India will want iPhones sold to Indians made in India, Europe will want iPhones sold to Europeans made in Europe and so on.

The problem for the US with these demands is that most countries want to step away from globalization, and the US has been the greatest promoter of it, precisely because it had, has, and likely will continue to be the greatest beneficiary of globalization. Trump doesn’t seem to realize this.

Why would a Russian want to pay more money for an iPhone so an American instead of a Chinese could get a job?

China has been the biggest beneficiary of globalization.

In and around 2004 the largest and most productive cell phone factory in the world was in DFW, TX (Nokia).

I'm sure it wouldn't be an issue to do that again with the right amount of funding. It's interesting to me that people think that doing this is impossible or so difficult that it is nearly impossible.

Anything is possible.

What will be cheaper: Tariffs or "the right amount of funding"? I'm guessing tariffs will still be far less expensive than ramping up US-based manufacturing that can cover all the components/labor that was sourced in China. Long run, it might pay off, but you're betting that the next president (or even the current unpredictable president) won't go and roll back the tariffs before the investment has paid off.

I'm not sure that it's that bad. The US was the manufacturing leader for decades. China has been the leader only in the past 2. I'm sure the US can take the lead again. What is needed is for the US shareholders to go back to the basics of building and investing in a medium-term company (long-term would be too much to ask at this point).

Yes, so let China have it and let’s not manufacture anything. What could possibly go wrong.

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