Apple Says New Mac Pro Will Be Manufactured in Texas After Receiving Tariff Exemptions

[konqerror]

And we don't seem interested in anything like a new GI Bill type program to help folks get the skills they need for this. Maybe because we don't have a large chunk of a generation coming back from a bloody war that we feel we need to repay.

No, it's the complete opposite. Kids in the US are over-educated. What you need are people who went to community college and know how to program robots, how to go to the machine shop and make a manufacturing fixture, how to use a comparator to inspect the tolerance on a batch of incoming screws. You need 2-year AA level people who are willing to work in a loud factory on their feet all day.

Instead of teaching kids how to program a robot, colleges today teach them the linear algebra used to model joint movements and paths. Sitting behind a book and computer. Because this is what professors and academia does. Put them in front of a real robot, they are clueless, or worse get themselves literally killed.

What is needed is to discourage people from getting an expensive 4-year theoretical bachelor's, who then realize it's useless without either going up to a Master's, which is too hard for them, and instead going into a completely unrelated job like real estate.

In essence, everybody thought, like you, a GI Bill-type 4 year college education for the masses should continue. Unfortunately, times have changed and the net result is a gross oversupply of one particular kind of educated worker.

I'm also completely ignoring the people who get degrees in Women's Studies, art, history, music, etc.

A lot of this is pushed on by universities themselves since mass undergraduate education is the easiest way for them to get money. The incremental cost of enrolling another undergraduate student is very small. Making kids read a textbook and do homework on paper is far cheaper than giving them an industrial robot.

Some of the more encouraging motions in this area are programs to skip the last 2 years of high school, where kids are doing AP tests and foreign languages to get into a 4-year school and replace that with 2 years of AA-level community college education. You get workers with the right level of education cheaper and earning a wage faster.

And also, the "post-9/11" GI bill is actually the most attractive it has ever been. Tuition caps lifted, addition of full housing payments, a stipend, an out-of-pocket cap...

 

[citysnaps]

They could do it, but China spent decades building this infrastructure so it could very well take that long in the US, as well.

And the Chinese government greatly subsidized developing that infrastructure. The US government is building an expensive and unnecessary wall.

 

[DaveN]

Thank you President Trump

for having most everything he sells made anywhere but the USA?

 

[benshive]

Thank you President Trump

This was only possible due to an exemption from something Trump himself implemented and the previous version of the Mac Pro has been made in the US since 2013. Seems like a bit of a stretch to thank Trump here...

 

[beaker7]

And the Chinese government greatly subsidized developing that infrastructure. The US government is building an expensive and unnecessary wall.

I guess the US is going through it's wall phase of history. The Chinese one didn't work either. That means we're on track to have iPhone building capability in around 600 years.

 

[wigby]

Is it still going to cost more than a new car?

So long as it's still going to be the fastest pro computer around, it should pay for itself 10x over. What car can do that?

 

[beaker7]

It'll be interesting to see though how much additional delay this causes.

What's another year when you're going on 8 years absent from the workstation market?

 

[jonnysods]

That's great news!

 

[Ruggy]

You have to ask yourself, do you want people having a job, even if it is low wage? Or do you want people living off welfare and the government. I say a lower paying job, at least they are contributing to society and the US economy. I have been working since i was 16 in jobs that only paid $4.00 a hour to jobs that paid me $45 dollars a hour. So you live within your means and if you want better you work to make yourself better and get more pay.

I will be working for the next 10 years at least, in a job that pays me half what i made in the 90's. But i work and don't cry about low wages.

You do know they earn less than $2 a 12 hour day manufacturing phones in China?

 

[DailySlow]

An Apple product that will have the lowest user base of their whole device lineup will be made in America.
*Tim pats himself on the back*
How about iPhone production next?

You gonna be in there with o binocular scope and tweezer doing QA in a bunny suit before soldering at $13/hr?

 

[mannyvel]

I guess the US is going through it's wall phase of history. The Chinese one didn't work either.

It did work, just not in the way they expected. Saying that is like that dumb quote about land wars in Asia. Asians win land wars in Asia all the time. Western aphorisms should not be a substitute for actual understanding, although they tend to be seen as valid substitutes in the West.

 

[DailySlow]

It’s symbolic to China that the USA can influence one the wealthiest companies in the world to not manufacture an item in China.

Yes, LipService Pro plugin installed, locked, and loaded.

 

[xnu]

Tip my hat to Tim Cook. I really think this is good news. Sometimes I think it is unfair to compare him to Steve Jobs, but Tim has accomplished a great many things. No one is Steve Jobs.

 

[DailySlow]

There isn't a long-term plan to move manufacturing to the US. The US is much better at designing these products and writing the software that runs on them, which is far more valuable. It is a mystery why we are so obsessed with wanting low-skilled, low-paid manufacturing jobs back with horrible working conditions.

Because - a low skilled president and polity/base.

 

[lkrupp]

Is it still going to cost more than a new car?

This machine is not for you. Deal with it. It’s a pro level machine that competes quite well with other platforms in the same pro market. The monitor alone is very competitive with the $30K reference monitors that Sony and others sell.

 

[lkrupp]

An Apple product that will have the lowest user base of their whole device lineup will be made in America.
*Tim pats himself on the back*
How about iPhone production next?

If iPhone production ever returns to the U.S. you can bet your welfare check that it will be almost 100% automated with a few highly paid, highly skilled employees to monitor the automation. No low-level manufacturing jobs will EVER return to the U.S., period, end of story. Low skilled, poorly educated, unmotivated American workers have no future in their own country. They should move to China and work in their factories. Unless, of course, the socialists gain power and give them the guaranteed income they’ve been promising these people. Don’t hold your breath though.

 

[citysnaps]

You do know they earn less than $2 a 12 hour day manufacturing phones in China?

You do know???

Please cite a credible source, with a link, on that earning less than $2 per 12 hour day.

 

[citysnaps]

If iPhone production ever returns to the U.S. you can bet your welfare check that it will be almost 100% automated with a few highly paid, highly skilled employees to monitor the automation. No low-level manufacturing jobs will EVER return to the U.S., period, end of story. Low skilled, poorly educated, unmotivated American workers have no future in their own country. They should move to China and work in their factories. Unless, of course, the socialists gain power and give them the guaranteed income they’ve been promising these people. Don’t hold your breath though.

And that's a fact.

 

[cocky jeremy]

How about iPhone production next?

No. I'd rather them be made in China anyway. US workers would just whine and complain about the money they make and half ass them anyway.
[automerge]1569268754[/automerge]

If China can make a product for cheaper, LET THEM.

Yup. Exactly.

 

[hipnetic]

Is there a way to tell what day of the week they’re built by looking at the serial number so that I can avoid the ones built on a Monday?

 

[gleepskip]

And that's a fact.

Please cite a credible source, with a link.

 

[Piggie]

How about we define the meaning of the word "Manufactured" in Apple's mind.

Does it actually mean Manufactured or does it just mean 90% just assembly work from parts made abroad?

 

[gleepskip]

Because - a low skilled president and polity/base.

Please cite a credible source, with a link.

 

[G4DPII]

Tip my hat to Tim Cook. I really think this is good news. Sometimes I think it is unfair to compare him to Steve Jobs, but Tim has accomplished a great many things. No one is Steve Jobs.

You are tipping your hat to "a supply chain" guy, whose flagship top of the line machine is due to start shipping in 9 weeks and they haven't even started production. Regardless of how many they make, the factory should be churning out test units so they can find any glitches or problems that may occur if production needs to be ramped up.

 

[manu chao]

It’s symbolic to China that the USA can influence one the wealthiest companies in the world to not manufacture an item in China.

Yeah, it shows to China that you just have to waive something shiny in front of Trump (do something largely only symbolic) and you get wide concessions.