Apple’s New Mac Pro to Be Made in Texas

Also, really makes one wonder if that sort of specific setup is perhaps the subject of an existing patent.

Imagine being in a position whereby there can be no innovation beyond a specific exclusion on a competitive cost basis, and that exclusion being wholly owned already.

Seems an alarming way to either enrich incumbents, or stifle Innovation full stop, or both.

"Under the June 24 notice, requests for exclusion had to identify the product subject to the request in terms of the physical characteristics that distinguish the product from other products within the relevant 8-digit subheading covered by the $200 billion action. Requestors also had to provide the 10-digit subheading of the HTSUS most applicable to the particular product requested for exclusion, and could submit information on the ability of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to administer the requested exclusion."

So... it's not exactly a surprise if the list reads like it was compiled for the benefit of individual companies. Because... it was.

Lets say there's a tariff to encourage those little bags of screws that home depot sells to possibly come from the USA instead of China, or at least tax the Chinese because they do govt funded product dumping to make the market unfair. Really it doesn't matter why. The point is we want to discourage retail sales of Chinese screws for whatever reason, possibly even valid reasons.

Given the above... if I'm importing screws to build cars, and our govt likes domestic auto production, the govt doesn't want to screw me over with high screw taxes such that people buy Japanese cars instead. What they want is people at home depot not buying little bags of chinese screws, what they don't want is instead of "making" 1 cent of taxes on screws they'd lose 1 dollar of taxes on my electric cars because my cars would be too expensive compared to untaxed japanese cars or whatever.

So I apply for an exemption, but seeing as you don't employ me, so I'm gonna spec "M3-0.5 16 mm long SSHS grade 6 anti-corrosion finish screw". There's no point in me paying my lawyers to get an exemption for "screws" in general, just so that you don't have to pay for an exemption to import screws for your internet connected toaster. I mean, good luck with your internet connected toaster product... but pay for your own lawyers.

It is admittedly kinda silly to try to centrally control large scale industrial operations by taxing material components, why not do social control of operations directly by tax codes for electric car factories and internet connected toaster makers, but here we are doing tax code stuff on the parts that make those toasters or whatever.

> As set out in Annex A, the exclusions are reflected in 38 specially prepared product descriptions, which cover 46 separate exclusion requests.

As is clear from Section C, these are decisions on publicly filed exclusion requests that were the subject of public notice and comment. There is in fact a whole website dedicated to explaining what these exclusion requests are and how to apply for them: https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/enforcement/section-301-investi...

As discussed above, criteria for exclusion are things like products that are only available from China, whether the product is strategically important to China, etc. But the decisions are made case-by-case and that’s why the list of excluded products is literally a list of specific products.

This is just a funny misunderstanding, but a lot of “the government is so corrupt” type ranting is rooted in these sorts of erroneous readings of legal documents.

[1] https://mobile.twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1154774656...

Name me one piece of a commercial airliner that you are allowed to source from China. I'll wait.

So when you consider what we're currently making, Apple Computers in a massive factory with suicide nets over the windows is a race to the bottom. Nobody wants to compete with Chinese manufacturing on their home turf of cheap Wal-Mart goods. We'll be living in dog cages too if we do that. We want to make airplanes and spaceships and meaningful technology.

No, tech is not a universal equalizer by itself. Without an entire socioeconomic environment to support innovation, gains will be at best temporary. (On the flipside, we lately seem to be entertaining the idea of converting the US to an autocratic environment too, so we can certainly achieve leveling that way)

It was an interesting story that but my google-fu isn't strong enough to find it.

1. We are no longer on a precious metal standard so there is no limit to the supply of money.

2. States don't do business with states, individuals do business with individuals - you, personally, likely have a severe trade deficit with Apple (or your computer vendor of choice) you have purchase their services for money but they have never directly purchased yours. This does not matter you are at a deficit and surplus with a variety of players and the world keeps on turning.

And yes, by far the semiconductor dependence on Taiwan is like another tip of the iceberg thing to the whole process.

Just as American big co extremely naive in thinking that they can replace Chinese labour and factories with Vietnam (whose total industrial output is like one district o Dongguan,) it is equivalently naive to think for mainlanders that they can run away from dependence on Taiwan when even Koreans and Japanese can't do it now (Samsung tapes out a lot of ICs at TSMC and UMC, despite having own fabs for cutting edge stuff)

This is the one product Apple could build anywhere on the planet and still make a profit. Will probably run between 30 and 50k for configurations that most effects houses would want in any case, so the higher cost of production is no sweat off their backs.

BTW, the last time that Apple manufactured primarily or exclusively in the US was probably a long time ago. Back in the beige-case era it did a lot of assembly in places like Ireland.

If they did this with the iPhone then the shareholder meetings would be pandemonium.

Doesn't hurt that it's also the device with the least need for miniaturization. Even if from the standpoint of an American it's a little insulting that they're giving us a device that a monkey could build.

I don't know if they ever did put deckchairs on top but had they thought of it and wanted to do it, it might have worked out ok. (View was likely better inside, looking down).

[1] https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Repairing-the-hull-of-the-... - one of the people is sitting on the side of the photo. They were large enough, stable enough in-flight, and the top was accessible.

[2] https://www.airships.net/hindenburg/interiors/

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-manufacturing-dead-outp...

There is your problem buddy. There are still masses of companies making high-quality products in the UK but the issue is that most Brits expect to pay the same price as Primark.

It is totally illogical: why would you expect an adult in the UK to make clothes for the same wage (i.e. produce a product that costs the same) as a 9-year old in a Vietnamese sweatshop?

Whether it is worth it is really up to you but I have not come across a British company making products where the extra price isn't worth it (ignoring the ethics of having small children make your clothes)...and that is why they exist. Yes, most Brits don't pay for this stuff anyway but the companies that focus on quality generally operate in areas where that premium pays (your assumption is presumably that high prices are just about corporate greed...this isn't the case).

You can buy a pair of a suit shoes made by a child and they won't last very long. You can buy Church's and they will last until you die.

I also don't really think most people in the UK being poor. Relative to what most UK workers produce, they are paid a fucking bomb and are able to consume (and do) almost all of their income. The issue is that they spend their money on cheap tat (this is something in the national psyche, Brits love the idea of getting something for nothing...from what I have seen, other countries will pay for high quality products).

Welding and metalworking is more complex but not by much. When Japan and Korea were getting into shipbuilding, there definitely was a learning curve which meant places in the West surviving for a short while after their entry...but after a decade or so, they had caught up.

I am so sick of hearing that same old story "people don't want to pay for quality" because it's bullshit. I try to, but it's not always on offer, half the time it's just a more expensive (probably nicer-looking) version of stuff that lasts about as long.

I'm not talking about shoes. In fact I grant your point on shoes, if dress shoes were the only kind of shoes we need. Which is of course nonsense and I'd love to hear where you get for instance running shoes that last a life time.

But jeans. I've bought expensive jeans, I've bought cheap jeans. There is zero correlation how long they last. It's a gamble. In fact, because the cheap ones will occasionally surprise you with some serious longevity, the best gamble is in fact to buy the cheap jeans and see which keep best.

But unlike shoe stores there's usually nobody around who can tell you about their relative quality. Or they will tell you anything. Again, that's the lemon game. Lack of information. Not unwillingness to pay.

I am certain that many people calling out the "people don't want to pay for quality" are just trying to signal "I can afford expensive stuff" and kind of forget about the part where they can also afford to occasionally buy something expensive that is also shit, doesn't last quite as long as the premium suggests, but not feel it in your pocket and keep telling yourself you buy quality.

See I can afford $400 shoes, but I can't afford to "try" $400 shoes.

I do, and a lot of people. It is bit like arguing about Cars whether Bentley is any better, when they drive and accelerate , ( and all spec talks ) are similar to Toyota. It is one thing to admit something is good enough for you, it is another thing to admit something is better but not of value to your or you cant afford it. The latter understanding is severely lacking in todays world.

Absolutely, Sunpel could be the QA, just like what Apple is doing to their Manufacturing and Supply Chain. But more often than not, when you outsource manufacturing, the insight, and detail view of the product is gone. And quality starts to decline after a few years.

In the example of Apple, manufacturing are more like partners or extended part of Apple, where Apple dictate every single details. Something that is extremely hard to replicate without the volume, price and market share to function. I.e Your manufacturing will likely decline those request of Sunspel and find another client.

What are you trying to say here?

It's list price is $4,420.29 which is still about $1500 off. But that comes with Windows that supports 4 cores so you would need to upgrade to the 4+ cores one thats another $100 so more like $1400.

So basically $1400 is the difference between a top tier Dell and a top tier Apple. Still a fairly large margin, but after a certain number the amount matters less. People who are buying $4500 computers typically don't care about spending another $1000.