Apple Inc. Created 700,000 Jobs in Asia, Shouldn't Those Jobs be on American Soil?
I know everyone loves Apple products, but have you ever stopped to think where they are made? From your iPad to your iPhone and your Mac Air Pro. I’m not here to bash Apple, but isn’t it time our government makes it attractive for a company like Apple Inc. to manufacture its products here instead of in Asia? Let me explain my position by linking to two commentaries written by Paul Krugman and Robert Reich:
First, Paul Krugman, recently wrote a column on Mitch Daniels’ assertion that American businessman Steve Jobs was a hero–job creator who should be emulated. Krugman points out that it isn’t just lower wages that makes Asia attractive, but the local supply infrastructure. Shouldn’t we improve our manufacturing base, including the creation of more factories?
[A]nyone who reads The New York Times knows that [Daniels'] assertion about job creation was completely false: Apple employs very few people in this country.
A big report in The Times last Sunday laid out the facts. Although Apple is now America’s biggest U.S. corporation as measured by market value, it employs only 43,000 people in the United States, a tenth as many as General Motors employed when it was the largest American firm.
Apple does, however, indirectly employ around 700,000 people in its various suppliers. Unfortunately, almost none of those people are in America.
It seems that we have learned nothing from the Industrial Revolution during which America grew in leaps and bounds. The government has always had an industrial policy, but in the last 30 years, the much revered former president Ronald Reagan and every government since then, has been bought off by picking corporate winners in the name of “free market.” What has happened is that we have been robbed blind and the jobs won’t be coming back any time soon, unless the government makes a conscious decision to change all that. A Mitt Romney administration won’t do that and I am really iffy on President Obama even picking a fight with the Republicans on that front.
Robert Reich recent column, Jobs Won’t Come Back to America Until the Government Pushes Greedy Corporate Executives to Invest at Home, is dead-on. He says:
… An Apple executive says “We don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems. Our only obligation is making the best product possible.” He might have added “and showing a big enough profits to continually increase our share price.”
Most executives of American companies agree. If they can make it best and cheapest in China, or anywhere else, that’s where it will be made. Don’t blame them. … What they want in America is lower corporate taxes, less regulation, and fewer unionized workers. But none of these will bring good jobs to America. These steps may lower the costs of production here, but global companies can always find even lower costs abroad. …
But here’s the political problem. American firms have huge clout in Washington. They maintain legions of lobbyists and are pouring boatloads of money into political campaigns. After the Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision, there’s no limit.
Who represents the American workforce? … [C]orporate America isn’t their friend. Without bold government action on behalf of our workforce, good American jobs will continue to disappear.
I found it somewhat disingenuous that Steve Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, sat with First Lady Michelle Obama at the president State of the Union address. It isn’t time to talk about the greatness of Apple, but to find out why Apple chooses to make its products overseas and sell them here for significantly more than they cost to manufacture. Nothing is going to change unless the president takes a firm stand and holds Congress accountable. It seems that the government is now an oligarchy — made up of corporations by corporations and for corporations, not for the people. We are living in an age where the individual doesn’t seem to matter one iota. It’s all about big government saddled to big corporations who run the show. Well, without bold government intervention, Apple will continue to manufacture its products overseas and sell them here for an enormous profit. Who wins? Not Americans, specifically the people on Main Street, but the company executives, shareholders and all the other fat cats. When I think of America’s biggest company, I don’t exactly expect to hear that it outsources most of its jobs to Asia. Then, it’s Asia’s biggest company.
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