The US can't even make cell phones any more.
What would it take to get that capability back?
What would it take to get that capability back?
Purism is selling the Librem 5 USA at $1,600
From the site: "The Librem 5 USA has Made in USA Electronics with all fabrication and manufacturing done at the Purism facility. Individual components used in fabrication are sourced direct from chip makers and parts distributors. We use US companies with US fabrication whenever possible. Most distributors are based in the US with the exception of large integrated circuits that are made in a variety of countries where those companies do fabrication (US, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan); an example is the NXP CPU we use from their fabrication in South Korea. While we source chips that are made in the US whenever possible, chip country of origin is not nearly as meaningful as country of board fabrication, especially when all chips are verified hardware circuits that are driven by free software in the kernel."
[1]: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5-usa/#table-of-origin
If you look at the table on the site, its not 100% USA yet but they are getting close and thats a positive development.
There's no evidence CCP is "subsidizing the cost with spying" when it comes to consumer electronics. Even when it came to telecom gear (during 5G rollout in developed countries), concerns were mostly theoretical.
Also these guys have an anti-interdiction service thats pretty nifty: https://puri.sm/posts/anti-interdiction-services/
On the hardware side:
Customized tamper-evident tape on the sealed plastic bag surrounding the laptop itself
Customized tamper-evident tape on the internal, branded box
Glitter nail polish covering the center (or all) screws on the bottom of the laptop
Pictures of all of the above plus pictures of the inside of the laptop before sealing the bottom case
All pictures sent to the customer out-of-band, signed by Purism and encrypted against the customer’s GPG key
All coordination occurring over GPG-protected email
Integration with PureBoot Bundle
On the Software Side:
Shipping the laptop and Librem Key to separate addresses
Postponing shipment of the laptop until the Librem Key is delivered
Configuring the Librem Key and PureBoot with custom, user-provided GPG keys and/or PINs
That's actually worse than it seems on the surface. $1,600 might seem only twice as expensive as a "normal" phone (eg. iPhone 16, $799), but if you look at the specs it's much closer to a low-end phone that sells for >$100. For instance the redmi a3[1] sells for ~$75 and is better in every aspect CPU, GPU, display, memory, storage, battery.
What it would take for the US to make cellphones is direct subsidy to the (inefficient, and for that reason likely therefore doomed by the market without artificial support, since there is robust competition) US firms doing so.
Of course, not only would this cost the amount of the subsidy, but the amount of the lost opportunities in places where the US has comparative advantages foregone to provide the subsidy.
The question then is why would you want to do this?
The problem is we don't need efficiency, we need effectivity.
>The question then is why would you want to do this?
Because He Who Makes Leads The World. You can't and won't lead if you don't actually get your hands dirty and make shit. China is the world leading superpower now because they make everyone's shit, we are all beholden to them.
>> What would it take to get that capability back?
> The question then is why would you want to do this?
National security, obviously. Cell phones are a critical modern communication device, and whoever though it was a good idea to outsource that kind of thing political and economic rival was an idiot.
There's all kinds of accounts of past CIA/NSA daring-do where they used US-manufactured products to subvert rivals, and now we're going to get to be on the other end of that kind of thing.
Then there's the adding factor of it being kind of a good idea to have significant manufacturing capacity for the full-range of modern products located domestically or with allies in case the geopolitical SHTF.
You know, all that important stuff the market doesn't give a shit about, because it's a limited and imperfect system.
i would argue this to be a good thing - a global "country". And yet, it is the human condition to separate tribally. It's why civilization can't advance more, until this becomes solved.
Mexico is ideal since you can ship partially assembled goods via truck or rail to and from Texas. It's easy to manage logistics and partnerships due to the close proximity.
The future of the US is Mexico.
Vietnam and India can absorb SEA manufacturing.
Manufacturing was always going to move to where it costs less.
It's bad for a productive american economy but it's a prisoner's dilemma so you can't blame businesses or consumers.
The government is the only party that had the power to do anything. it's 100% an economics problem.