“Trump’s rhetoric is designed to appeal to a base of voters who are struggling to find jobs in the US.”
The author doesn’t really look ‘big picture’. Trade deficits (extraordinarily large ones) hurt everybody, not just the unemployed.
“Assume you have a pool of workers skilled enough to handle the task (you don’t)”
Let me get this straight. The author thinks we’re too stoooopid to build phones in the US. He has unwittingly tapped into Trump’s appeal - he has a ‘can do’ attitude and doesn’t think the American people are morons, like most politicians.
I just cannot wait to see how trump forces Apple to do this.
Just like Halliburton and a myriad of other American corporations they will just pull up stakes, box the joint up and move headquarters overseas. Tons have already moved to Switzerland, Caymens and other countries.
It's not that we are too stupid to “build” (assemble) phones in the US, but rather that it requires semi-skilled labor that we are either unable (because of minimum-wage laws) or unwilling (because leisure or government benefits are valued too highly) to supply at a wage commensurate with its value to the employer.