This is the one weekness that Apple has. They have not needed PR until now, but now they need it. And they need to take a lead on this issue. These jobs ARE gone, but industry isn’t. Apple is the one cpany that uses this supply chain to the best advantage. Other companies use it to build race-to-the-bottom engines.
Sadly, we’re no longer a manufacturing nation, so we will fumble with this issue before we can understand it. Henry Ford wouldn’t know would be stunned at how we’ve changed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html
Senator Gronk 3:07 am on January 22, 2012 119 days ago Reply
Edit: Henry wouldn’t know what to say and would be stunned to see how we’ve changed.
JPWatkins 9:25 pm on January 23, 2012 117 days ago Reply
Actually, despite what is commonly thought, I believe the US still has the largest manufacturing output of any nation, and Europe, as a whole, is even larger. I know Chinese manufacturing has grown greatly, and will continue to do so. But Let’s not buy into the “The West is Done!” hype that is senselessly repeated.
Senator Gronk 9:37 pm on January 23, 2012 117 days ago Reply
I certainly don’t believe that the “West is Done!” but there’s a messaging problem here. We probably don’t want the rapidly scalable technology jobs that have left. What happens with iPhone glass might sound sexy but look at the parable of the story: The chinese live in dormitories and the engineer in California wants to see his kids play soccer. We can’t have both. That’s the message that needs to get out. “Let’s find a stable balance of manufacturing that shares the load.”
Sadly, I could go on for days on this particular topic. It’s not simple. Which is my fear, that this issue blows up out of proportion without someone stewarding the cause for greater quality of manufacturing jobs here in the US while we outsource the lower-overhead work elsewhere. (Which in itself is a political football)
JPWatkins 11:36 pm on January 23, 2012 117 days ago Reply
Your response sounds sensible to me.
What annoys me is that the Apple execs who were quoted in that article were extolling what they called the “quality” and “scalability” of Chinese manufacturing, when in fact what they were praising was the desperate work conditions. People are so disenfranchised that they’ll do whatever they are asked (move into a dorm, work with hazardous chemicals that make them sick, forgo seeing their families for months at a time, etc.) because they have no other option. Plus Apple (and all the others using Foxcon, etc.) doesn’t have to worry their heads about it or get their hands dirty. It’s pathetic (and frankly, it not sustainable.)