No, an American-made iPhone would not be better than a Chinese-made one

Original Trump photo credit: Gage Skidmore

Renowned American egotist and presidential candidate Donald Trump has said a lot of silly things over the course of his campaign, but here’s one of the silliest:

We’re gonna get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries.

Trump isn’t the first American politician to make use of this sort of rhetoric, of course, and he probably won’t be the last. But it’s just a cheap trick that plays on the fears of xenophobes and the misconceptions of Americans who think trade policy can somehow wind time back 50 years. It can’t. A made-in-America iPhone wouldn’t be any better than a made-in-China iPhone for anyone. Here’s why.

1. There aren’t many human jobs to bring back

The main idea behind forcing Apple to manufacture its products in the US is that this would bring back blue-collar American manufacturing jobs. It would not. Even in China, Apple suppliers are moving quickly towards plants full of robots, not humans. Foxconn, one of Apple’s main suppliers, laid off 60,000 people and replaced them with robots just a month ago. That trend is only going to accelerate, and it would go into overdrive if manufacturing is moved to the United States. If it’s cheaper for suppliers to replace Chinese workers with robots, imagine how big the economic incentive to switch to robots would be when the alternative is far-more-expensive American workers.

In the long run, the end result of a move back would be an American Apple factory full of robots. Steve Jobs was right when he said those jobs aren’t coming back, and not just because of the realities of international trade. In ten years there will be far fewer manufacturing jobs for humans even in China, and the situation in the US is likely to be far worse unless the American economy crashes. (Which, to be fair, it might if Trump is elected, so perhaps he’s not all wrong).

2. American-made does not equal better

Remember this? The Chevrolet Citation. It was meant to be Chevy’s answer to the flood of cheap, high-quality Japanese cars in the 80s. It was a piece of shit. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.

As far as the quality of the phones goes, there’s no evidence whatsoever that an American-made iPhone would be any better than a Chinese-made one. China has a reputation for producing shoddy products that isn’t wholly deserved – there are factories in China that produce crap, but there are also plants (like those of Apple suppliers Foxconn and Pegatron) that regularly produce top-quality electronics. Hell, I’m no fan of Apple’s and I’ve been very critical of the company in the past, but even I have to admit that the iPhone’s build quality is better than just about any other phone out there. And the iPhone is made in China.

Proponents of made-in-the-US products may also be forgetting the lessons of the American auto industry, which was virtually destroyed by Asian manufacturers who were making cars cheaper and better quality than their American counterparts. The high cost of American labor isn’t necessarily indicative of final build quality or any sort of international superiority.

3. US-made iPhones would cost more