Those jobs couldn't exist in the US. The article said Foxconn has 200,000 workers assembling iPhones. The average wage for a factory worker in China is ~$200 (according to a quick Google search). That's $40 million per month, now move those employees to the US and it's going to cost around 20 times that.
Close to a billion dollars a month to employee an equivalent number of US citizens. The iPhone couldn't exist at those prices.
i think you didn't read the article? They cited a study that claimed that since the majority of iphone cost is materials and logistics, making it in america would only add $65 to the production cost of a single phone.
But the real barrier is that making all the screws, the gaskets, etc, is all overseas and it would be prohibitive to have to ship those raw materials.
And sure, to make ALL those things -- American all the way down -- would be quite expensive. But nobody is advocating for more american factories making screws.
> making it in america would only add $65 to the production cost of a single phone
This is false. Making it in America would remove $65 (if that was indeed the figure, which is very doubtful) from the profit of the device. The price wouldn't change. Product pricing has nothing to do with the cost to make it, but is instead whatever the market will bear.
Close to a billion dollars a month to employee an equivalent number of US citizens. The iPhone couldn't exist at those prices.