Apple Should Assemble and Produce All Products in the United States

It is not in the best interest of Apple or the world if Apple started to produce and assemble all products in the United States. In fact, it would be very harmful to the company and the rest of the world if Apple began making all products in the United States. Not only is it unlikely that that everything can be moved to the United States, costs would be raised, profits would hit the ground, and the company would be on a slippery slope which only ends in bankruptcy. The first thing that must be established are Apple’s priorities. The main priority of Apple is not to make their products in the most moral way. It is not to make their products in the way that makes their workers happy. The main priority of Apple is to make returns to its shareholders. So, the main priority of Apple is to, within the bounds of the law, garner the highest profit. As Apple has done for many years, the best way to do this is to employ workers, through Foxconn, in China. This way, costs are cheap, therefore the product is cheap to consumers, and thus more people buy it, which leads to the $8.2 billion profit that was had in the fourth quarter of 2012. [1] This is the single objective of Apple. To make the highest profit possible within the law, which it has been doing successfully for some time by employing thousands of assembly workers, engineers, and others in China. In other words, last quarter’s profit was obtained by assembling and producing all products through Foxconn, China, and in other countries. On the other hand, by producing and assembling all products in America, this kind of profit, if any, is not attainable. The first thing that would hinder profit is the cost to hire workers. Workers of Foxconn are not paid nearly as much as an American worker who does the same work. No, this is not fair. But neither is life. And the way to an $8.2 billion profit is not always the most moral or the happiest for everyone. But that is not the point of a corporation. As previously stated, the point is to get a high profit. An American would get paid exponentially more than a worker at Foxconn or an American engineer. Costs go up. And to compensate, Apple will have to raise the price of all its products to consumers. This way, less people will buy iPhones. Less people will buy Macs. Less people will iPods. And the list goes on. Just in the same way, profits would also go down if Apple made all of its products in America since American workers cannot work nearly as many hours as a Foxconn assembly worker can. Foxconn’s longer hours allow more Apple products to be created quickly and in a greater supply. If Apple makes all of its products in America, then there would be a deficiency of Apple products. Less iPhones, iPods, iPads, Macs, and so on and so forth. This limited supply would also lead to a rise in price, which would, as previously mentioned, decrease sales. It may not even be possible for this motion to be practically acted out. Apple has over 700,000 workers employed by Foxconn assembling and producing Apple products alone. [2] There may not be that many people willing to do that work, which would decrease production even further. But, it is possible, if not likely, that of the millions of unemployed people, 700,000 want to make iPhones and the like. And yet, even Steve Jobs is quoted as affirming the implausibility of bringing all production to the US. [3] Steve Jobs has stated that he needed at least 30,000 highly skilled engineers to make Apple products. [4] Those jobs are few and far between in the United States. Something the US does not like to talk about is its lack of skilled engineers. Foxconn can provide those engineers. But let us suppose that it is morally corrupt for Apple to employ people with long hours and strenuous work. First of all, if Apple stopped employing Foxconn overnight, then another company would probably do the same thing. Foxconn assembles 40% of the world’s electronics [5]. Apple pulling out would just make room for another company to do the exact same thing. This is not Apple’s problem. If this is such a bad problem, then President Obama should take the initiative of raising the standards of labor laws in China, similar to the work of Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. And if employing Foxconn is too morally bankrupt to tolerate, then sure, let us move some of the production and assembly to America. But certainly not all. By moving every single instance of production and assembly in other countries and continents, the cost would be too great. The company’s costs would rise. The product’s costs would rise. The shareholders would be furious. Apple may even go under. Therefore, moving all of the production and assembly of Apple products would be ultimately detrimental to the company and to the world economy. [1] http://www.apple.com...[2] http://online.wsj.com...[3]http://www.nytimes.com...[4] http://www.politifact.com...[5] http://business.time.com...