Quote:Yes, it is a talking point. Like I said there will always be human involvement in manufacturing, and if it were all robotics then it would already be done in the USA right now. I don't know why you think this is worth arguing.

 

It wouldn't take extreme tariffs, but extreme tariffs would be a good idea. The actual amount of labor involved in the manufacture of most items is a very marginal amount of its cost. Something as simple as assembling ipads would literally only take a few more dollars per unit to be assembled by Americans instead of the Chinese.

 

Still, a $100/unit tariff on ipads and iPhones would have production facilities in the US in months.

 

I'm not suggesting economic isolationism, right now the number one exports from the US are food and raw materials, the food the rest of the world will still want and will not try to have a trade war over, and the raw materials could be used in this country if we stopped exporting all of our production capability.

 

The dangerous ideas are the ones stuck in your head. The ones that keep telling you that rather than acting in the interests of the poor and middle class the USA has to keep kneeling further and further in deference to massive corporations.

 

So raising the cost of imports will help the poor and middle class?    And you don't think the rest of the world will retaliate and initiate a trade war.  We'll just slap a big old tariff on their products and they won't do anything?  

 

I don't think you understand why Ipads and Iphones are produced and assembled in China.   It would only take a few more dollars to do it?   I don't think you understand what you're talking about.   Read this:  http://www.tuaw.com/2012/01/22/why-apple...assembled/

 

"The New York Times asked that question, and after an extremely well-researched report involving interviews with both former and current executives at Apple, the answer the Times found is both simple and chilling: iPhones aren't made in America because they just can't be. The infrastructure and labor force doesn't exist at the levels necessary to support Apple's operations -- it's not even close."

 

"One could argue that Apple's success has come at the expense of the American manufacturing workforce, but if the New York Times' report is anything to go by, it seems the workforce Apple would have needed in America never existed to begin with."

 

And it's not just the workforce.  It's the fact that the Chinese build the factories that make the parts right next to the factories where the products are assembled.  We will never, ever, be able to match Chinese manufacturing processes in this country.  It is way beyond anything we have ever dreamed of.  

 

So, slap a $100 tariff on Ipads, and they will still be manufactured in China, and all you will accomplish is make all those poor and middle class people you are concerned about pay $100 more for an Ipad.  

 

And what of all the other tariffs you slap on all those other imports?  You think all those poor and middle class people will enjoy paying more for half the stuff they buy at Wal-Mart?   And you think the rest of the world won't retaliate?   You are living in a dream world. 

 

So we buy less of their stuff, and they buy less of our stuff because they're not making as much money selling us stuff as they used to!   Great!   We've made our worldwide customers a little poorer!   Great plan!    Let's just throw a bunch of sand into the gears of worldwide commerce.  

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