Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

I asked Grok: “How much would an iPhone cost if all of the raw materials and ores, mining, refining, extraction, processing, design, programming, manufacturing, assembly, labor... were done 100% entirely and exclusively in the United States?”
Wordpress ^ | April 10, 2025 | Dan from Squirrel Hill

Posted on 04/10/2025 9:23:52 AM PDT by grundle

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-77 next last

1 posted on 04/10/2025 9:23:52 AM PDT by grundle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: grundle

” This reflects ... Apple’s profit margin (typically 60–62%).”

I think we’ve located room for some cost increases.

Hint: Companies don’t charge the total of their costs, but what the market will bear, for their products.


2 posted on 04/10/2025 9:26:54 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: grundle

you could give it a better prompt, saying something like, assuming you are a US based supply chain expert, etc. (ie, to get a deeper, more well thought out professional answer...).

My personal opinion is that once American problem solvers put their minds to this, it will get done and the US based products will be competitive, very quickly....

Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s my opinion.


3 posted on 04/10/2025 9:28:09 AM PDT by ConservativeDude
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 9YearLurker

Fair enough, and they owe that to their shareholders...but if their customers start making preferences known....hmmmmm


4 posted on 04/10/2025 9:29:09 AM PDT by ConservativeDude
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: grundle

5 posted on 04/10/2025 9:30:43 AM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 9YearLurker

6 posted on 04/10/2025 9:34:03 AM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: grundle

Practically all the manufacturing of a smartphone can be automated, very few humans needed................


7 posted on 04/10/2025 9:34:26 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 9YearLurker

I think this is all so short sighted. If you bring a bunch of high paying jobs back and there are jobs for everyone who is willing to do the work and improve skills etc no one is going to care if it cost more because they’ll also have more. If my income grows i’ll pay more for things and I’d manage.


8 posted on 04/10/2025 9:34:28 AM PDT by wiseprince (Me)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: grundle

Is the article making the case for lower labor costs? I’m confused..because it certainly seems like it.


9 posted on 04/10/2025 9:35:15 AM PDT by mikelets456
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: grundle

Seems like a good case for doing away with federal mandated minimum wage.


10 posted on 04/10/2025 9:37:34 AM PDT by Billie Bud
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 9YearLurker
"This reflects ... Apple’s profit margin (typically 60–62%).”

Which in turn reflects the cult-like adoration many have for the Apple brand.

11 posted on 04/10/2025 9:40:16 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: grundle
Raw Materials and Mining: iPhones contain about 75 elements, including rare earths (e.g., neodymium, dysprosium), aluminum, gold, and silicon. The U.S. lacks domestic sources for many of these.

Equine feces. We have all of those minerals, but many if not most are sequestered by environmental set-asides, distorting both strategic availability and price. Consider Chocolate Mountain.

12 posted on 04/10/2025 9:40:42 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Magnum44

Maybe just defaulting to the dad with the most known kids in the US today?


13 posted on 04/10/2025 9:41:09 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: wiseprince

Yep. Give the working class decent wages again and they’ll be higher-level consumers. Henry Ford figured that out long ago.


14 posted on 04/10/2025 9:41:53 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Joe 6-pack

Yep.


15 posted on 04/10/2025 9:42:14 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: grundle

So we asked a big tech google search accumulator that presents the results in conversational style rather than as a list, with all the parameters set by big tech, what it would cost to force big tech to not built it in China?

No vested interest there, no sir...


16 posted on 04/10/2025 9:44:07 AM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2025... RETURN OF THE JEDI...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: grundle

“The U.S. lacks the scale and expertise of China’s manufacturing hubs “

This is a significant disadvantage in a war. And alone is enough reason to move manufacturing processes back here.


17 posted on 04/10/2025 9:45:18 AM PDT by DannyTN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: grundle

Well that is more costly but clearly not “The End of the World As We Know It”.


18 posted on 04/10/2025 9:46:40 AM PDT by ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton (You can vote totalitarians in but you can never vote them out...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: grundle

I was listening to Peter Zehan talking about the impact of technology on manufacturing and farming. He said, in the US and probably only in the US the cost of modernizing and robotizing the manufacturing process and farming process can be amortized. The market is big enough and the farms are large enough to make large scale industrialization possible. He recounted the story of a shirt factory moved from China, where it employed hundreds of people at sewing machines to a fully automated US facility with two employees on staff at any time. One loaded bolts of cloth and the other managed software. The facility produced shirts at a fraction of the cost of producing in China.

As for agriculture, advances in AI and video meant a machine rolling over the rows of food could instantly assess the needs of each plant spraying with insecticide, or nutrients as required. Essentially industrial scale gardening.

The entire supply chain would be shorter and therefore cheaper. As is shipping to the final market.

When we evaluate a change, we do so assuming all else remains constant.


19 posted on 04/10/2025 9:47:07 AM PDT by Gen.Blather (I had a tagline and I dropped it. The cat back-pawed it under the Barcalounger. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 9YearLurker

Wonder what samsungs profit margin is


20 posted on 04/10/2025 9:47:43 AM PDT by goodnesswins (Democracy to Democrats is stealing other peoples money for their use, no matter how idiotic)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-77 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson