Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class – The New York Times

Building Apple’s iPhone in the United States would demand much more than hiring Americans — it would require transforming the national and global economies.

What remains unknown, however, is whether the United States will be able to leverage tomorrow’s innovations into millions of jobs.

In the last decade, technological leaps in solar and wind energy, semiconductor fabrication and display technologies have created thousands of jobs. But while many of those industries started in America, much of the employment has occurred abroad. Companies have closed major facilities in the United States to reopen in China. By way of explanation, executives say they are competing with Apple for shareholders. If they cannot rival Apple’s growth and profit margins, they won’t survive.

Source: Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class – The New York Times

Apple’s supply chain flap: It’s really about us | ZDNet

Apple is under fire for its supply chain labor, but every tech item—and thing you own—goes through the same manufacturing paces.

Source: Apple’s supply chain flap: It’s really about us | ZDNet

 

Is this a self-reinforcing problem? Average Americans demand cheap products because their real wages do not rise and their real wages do not rise because corporations move jobs overseas in search of lower costs in order to provide the cheap products demanded by the American consumer?