The problem with iPhones is not China. It's us
And is not in WHERE we make things.
In January 2019, Apple cut revenue forecasts for the first time in over a decade, blaming its woes on an economic slowdown in China, which accounts for about 18% of Apple’s sales. President Trump answered that Apple should “change how it makes the iPhone”: “I want Apple to make their iPhones and all of the great things that they make in the United States."
There are two obstacles here: first, it would be really difficult and expensive. Second, it would not solve some real problems in the background.
Peak complexity. Or peak globalization?
“Man could be on Mars before Apple is producing more of its iPhones in the United States, just from a supply chain cost perspective”, say the experts. Basically, if you want your iPhone made in your own country, whatever that is, be prepared to:
- just wait a few years, until the global hi-tech industry completely rearranges itself to make, procure and assemble components in a totally different ways. But no big worries here, it shouldn’t be more than 10 times more difficult than “getting Brexit done”
- when the dust is settled, pay your iPhone much more than today
Pollution? Never mind
Pollution-wise, mere outsourcing toxic manufacturing processes doesn’t solve much: we know since at least 2014 that global winds push Chinese smog over the Pacific and dump it on the western US. Or, as Grist put it “We export carbon emissions to China, get smog back in return”. On the other hand, making iPhones or, again, any other hi-tech device, in many different places would just redistribute the same overall pollution quicker, and more fairly, without waiting for the winds.
The problem is not “where”
In the end, it does not matter much where iPhones, or any other complex device are made. What matters is how many devices are produced. As said here, what matters is the fact that rich countries are increasingly, merely “outsourcing the impacts of their growth”.
No matter where you do it, getting and processing all the raw materials needed to manufactures all the iPhones needed to keep Apple growing costs too much, and will cost even more in the future: “As global resource use nearly doubles in the coming years, so, too, will the pressures on the environment as well as conflicts over access to limited resources".
Image sources: insane iPhone line, “Donald Trump won’t give up his iPhone” and “How Far You Can Go To Buy An iPhone?"