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Comment by Mtinie | Hacker News Reader

I’m envisioning an outcome beyond the article. Labor costs are higher in the U.S.A. to be sure but I wonder how much of a difference it ultimately is if you look at the related costs/benefits. I can think of a couple of reasons it is worth considering:

- Distribution and Shipping efficiencies

- Higher levels of productivity and training efficacy

- Nationalistic sentiment and contra-beneficial protectionism

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When they started building the current Mac Pro in the USA, they couldn't find the correct screws for a particular component. When they eventually found a supplier who could deliver something that was close to spec, the owner of the factory hand-delivered it to them over 22 trips in his Lexus:

https://9to5mac.com/2019/01/28/apple-mac-pro-screwed/

You won't be facing these kinds of delays in China.

You won't be facing these kinds of delays in China.

On day one, China has this advantage.

But on day 300? It's not like there is no company in the United States That can ever make the matching screw.

Its not just the capacity to make a screw - its the contract with Apple that they will buy it once your investors have started paying for the company to make it.

Good luck merely getting registered as a new vendor for anything a multinational company makes.

Let alone winning a tender.

It's probably a lot more than 300 and China can turn off the tap on day one.

I groaned at this. Purchased a Chinese made lawn mower engine and the bolts for it weren't long enough to mount it in my mower. So, I went looking for longer bolts. Turned out that the Chinese bolts weren't Metric or SAE. Totally nonstandard junk.

When you have to ship in 100 parts to make the phone that shipping efficiency disappears. They do just fine taking in shipments of their phones at 3 hubs and getting them all over the country.

“National sentiment” isn’t going to lower wages to $2/hr

When you have to ship in 100 parts to make the phone that shipping efficiency disappears.

The auto manufacturers make it work. Japanese, German, and Korean car makers all have factories in the U.S.

There’s a difference when most all the parts are manufactured within 2km of the production facility

>I’m envisioning an outcome beyond the article.

Also known as speculative wishful thinking

It’s hard to have something happen without first imagining how and why it would work. Is there something wrong with that if you also are aware of The existing problems and future pitfalls?

I’m not blind to the challenges but also expect the current economic and political situations aren’t going to just go away over night. This will make decisions which make not make sense today potentially more attractive in the future.

Leave the speculation to the actual economists. By the way, they are all almost unanimous that protectionist tariffs to prop up domestic manufacturing is an awful idea.

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