Photo: Steve Jobs the champion of the iPhone concept
By : Ya Libnan – Op-Ed series : “Bring It Home: Rebuilding America’s Manufacturing Power”
Key Points:
Apple — the symbolic heart of American innovation that builds abroad.
- iPhones are designed in the U.S. but assembled in China and India.
- Assembly labor is minimal
- Why are we shipping jobs and technology abroad when we can make them here?
President Donald Trump is once again raising the right question: Why isn’t Apple — one of the richest and most powerful companies in the world — making its iPhones in the United States?
Apple has long claimed that moving iPhone manufacturing to the U.S. is impractical or too costly. But that argument doesn’t hold water. What’s really at stake is profit margins — not practicality. And if America is serious about rebuilding its economic backbone, it’s time to stop making excuses and start making things again.
Let’s Be Honest: Assembly Isn’t the Issue
Some quoted Apple as saying that it takes around 20 hours to assemble an iPhone — but that number includes automated processes. The real manual labor? It takes less than one hour of human hands to put together an iPhone. Even at American wages, that labor would only add $20 to $40 to the cost of each device.
That’s a small price to pay for rebuilding an industry, restoring pride in American craftsmanship, and giving jobs to American workers.
We’ve Forgotten How to Make Things
For decades, the U.S. sent its manufacturing overseas, chasing cheap labor and bigger profits. In the process, we lost factories, skills, and the dignity of building things with our own hands. Whole towns were hollowed out. Generations grew up without ever seeing what a thriving local factory looks like.
Apple is a symbol of American innovation. But what good is innovation if it’s always built somewhere else? It’s time to match great ideas with great American manufacturing — and to bring back the jobs, training, and supply chains that made the U.S. an industrial powerhouse.
It’s About Economic Power, Not Just Politics
This isn’t just about Apple — it’s about the country’s long-term economic strength. A nation that can’t make its own goods will always be at the mercy of those who can. The more we outsource, the more we lose our leverage, our independence, and our ability to shape our future.
America should not just be a consumer of high-tech products — it should be the maker of them. If we don’t control the production, we don’t control the future.
A Moral Obligation to America
Apple benefits enormously from being an American company. It enjoys strong legal protections, tax advantages, and a massive U.S. customer base. Yet it gives very little back in terms of jobs or industrial investment at home. That’s not just a missed opportunity — it’s a moral failure.
If Apple sells iPhones to American consumers, it should build them with American workers. The company can afford it. The country needs it. And the message it would send — that America can make world-class products again — is priceless.
Conclusion: Make It Here, Sell It Here
President Trump is right to push for American-made iPhones. This is about more than one company — it’s about rebuilding a national culture of production, pride, and independence.
Let Apple lead by example. Let America remember how to build. It’s time to turn “Designed in California” into “Designed and Made in the USA.”