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It’s like the electronics industry. Machines populate and solder the circuit boards. We invented the machines. The labor involved in assembling a cell phone is mere pennies. So why are the Chinese making our cell phones?

I always found wave soldering machines to be impressive, given my own efforts to solder up Dynaco Stereo boxes.

It’s like the electronics industry. Machines populate and solder the circuit boards. We invented the machines. The labor involved in assembling a cell phone is mere pennies. So why are the Chinese making our cell phones?

Because labor isn't the entire picture for business costs. Sure, it's a big part of it, but you have to look at a lot of other factors that we have, that China doesn't/is much less: land costs, building costs, building codes, utilities, regulations - city ordinances, regulations - state law, regulations - federal law, regulations - all sorts of random agencies, environmental considerations, etc. Chinese-sourced materials (plastics, metals, etc) are also probably a lot cheaper (crappier quality though). Not to mention, a warehouse full of robots putting stuff together is a massive initial expense, and upkeep/maintenance/programming guys are much more than $1 an hour.

So is the overall "made-in-China" worth it? Apparently so, because a LOT of companies do it; and as they start divesting China, it's gonna be the Philippines and Malaysia and Africa and other cheap poor countries picking up the slack, I doubt much cheapcrap manufacturing is coming back to these US.

Side note, while yes, a lot of phones are Chinese, mine is not! :D Sony's XPeria line is all made in Japan, and a couple others (LG mainly) are made in SKorea.