Let's start a movement. How about: Challenge: Apple

[Failhorse]

OK you will all think that I'm crazy. You may also know that my daily job is to partly sell an American made product here in the US and overseas.

Lets get something straight really fast. Currently up in Congress is more free trade garbage that will cost 2.1 million American jobs and won't save the average American a single penny. Also keep in mind that I do import the bulk of my current business from Korea. I'm looking at saving apx 3% per unit I sell. But that will never be passed onto the store or consumer. For me it's a give and take. Not everyone can afford 2-5k for what I sell. So I offer imported products that are relatively the same quality for 400-1k. The major difference: How about paint. USA has OSHA/EPA standards and unlike Korea we don't think it's safe for someone to be spraying poly all day with nothing more than a hair net and dust mask.


Now to the point
To the best of my knowledge Apple makes nothing in the USA. But via Chinese companies, they employee about 25,000 laborers there. Figure the iPhone 4 is apx 70 dollars in materials and if one person assembled, that's 1.50 a DAY! in labor. Not per unit. Just $1.50 a day. Then ship them here, and sell them to you at a modest 150% upcharge. I say we start a movement. We have all the power of the internet to start. The goal is simple. Demand Apple create and market 1 product that is Made in the USA. That definition by law is something that is 60% American sourced goods.

SO, why Apple? Again it's simple. They are growing and are huge. They are also profiting mainly off of cheap pre-teen Chinese labor. They also like to tout they have the brightest minds around. So why couldn't they build in the USA? Obviously certain things I've said here would have to be striken from the record. But when you look at things American is in a lot of trouble. It's going to be really hard to dig ourselves out of this economic hole. This time around we don't have manufacturing to fall back on. We've lost so much in the last 10 years. Some 52,000 factories. And regardless of political affiliation, it should be very obvious we could never compete against someone who makes 1.50 a day. (in China) or 88 pesos a day in Mexico.

SO we should fall back on Apple. They do think differently. And if any company is going to lead a new American economy. If they can get their heads out of China's ass. It'll be apple.

I think it's fair to start this. Just demand 1 product from Apple that is USA made. Who's with me? And how do we start?

[stanley]

. Who's with me? And how do we start?

i say we start by rallying up as many people from a small gaming forum that no one knows of to gain publicity.

[Maringue]

Most of these free trade agreements are ways for US companies to take advantage of the fact that most other countries have little in the way of safety standards for workers. But honestly, if all you are qualified to do is manual labor or assembly, you're pretty much fucked as far as getting a job. It's not going to get easier for Americans with the same skills as someone with two hands. Your salary is basically a measure of how replacable you are. If someone can teach a farmer from China to do your job in a week, you're not going to make a livable wage in this country.

But, on the other side, these are ways for US companies to sell stuff that skilled US workers make to the rest of the world. I heard a NPR report on a bridge being built here by a Chinese construction company. They had to reject the whole first batch of steel because it had all substandard welds. There are still things we do better than the world, but manual labor is not one of them.

Remember that when Congress wants to cut research funding. It's pretty much the last thing that we do better than anyone else.

[rem - anarchy]

Bleh Apple. Apple is terrible. If you want to start a movement I'm sure there's a better movement you could start or organization you could choose. Or make it broader than a single company, like all the IT and support call centers, etc. over seas.

[cloud]

Think about a company like walmart. They claim that all of their items are American made. What this actually translates to is "made by an american company stationed in a foreign country." Stuff like this is all around us, we just need to think before we buy

[mrpikmin2]

Think about a company like walmart. They claim that all of their items are American made. What this actually translates to is "made by an american company stationed in a foreign country." Stuff like this is all around us, we just need to think before we buy

As much as I like it, this is a REALLY old thread.

[cloud]

Its never too late to raise an old topic