Salon.com > outsourcing

Bringing the Apple jobs back home

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 12:45:00 +0000

Tim Cook may not be Steve Jobs, but the new Apple CEO proved this week that he is just as good as the old Apple CEO at getting the media to snap to attention. One carefully calibrated bomb dropped toward the end of a humongous Bloomberg BusinessWeek interview -- that Apple plans to spend $100 million to bring some Mac manufacturing back to the United States in 2013 -- rocketed around the world, from Twitter to the New York Times, in less time than it takes to run down the battery on your iPhone. Who needs Steve Jobs? Real jobs are coming back to America!

The timing was perfect for a growing cohort of economy-watchers eager to make the argument that globalization's malign impact on the American worker has hit high tide and is finally beginning to ebb. Just a week ago, the Atlantic presciently published "The Insourcing Boom," a fascinating in-depth story by Charles Fishman investigating General Electric's decision to start up new appliance assembly lines in the U.S. And "GE is not alone," writes Fishman, arguing that an increasing number of American corporations are discovering it makes economic sense to bring the factories back home. Apple's news was the exclamation point at the end of the Atlantic's sentence.

Apple to resume US manufacturing

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 14:18:00 +0000

Apple is bringing a branch of its manufacturing back within U.S. borders, CEO Tim Cook announced in interviews with Bloomberg Businessweek and NBC's "Rock Center." An existing Mac computer line will be exclusively manufactured in the U.S. said Cook, who took over as CEO from Steve Jobs in August 2011.

Last year, President Obama candidly asked Steve Jobs about the outsourcing of almost all Apple manufacturing jobs overseas.“Those jobs aren’t coming back,” Jobs reportedly told the president. But, according to Cook's announcement, Apple has not abandoned American manufacturing.

"We’ve been working for years on doing more and more in the United States,” the CEO told NBC's Brian Williams. Cook told Businessweek that Apple -- the biggest company in the world by market value -- had a responsibility to create U.S. jobs. He did, however, note that the U.S. education system is failing to produce enough people with the skills needed for modern manufacturing processes.

Romney drives Jeep off cliff

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:32:00 +0000

We've come to expect that the last week of a presidential campaign is a time for ratcheting up all the nastiness and lies and sleaze to maximum insanity. There's a lot at stake, after all. But there's something special about what Mitt Romney is up to right now, as he makes a last gasp grab for Ohio's voters.

Undissuaded by the facts, media derision, or the vociferous denials of Chrysler's CEO, the Romney campaign is continuing to run new advertisements in Ohio claiming that Obama is responsible for a supposed Chrysler plan to outsource Jeep production to China at the cost of U.S. jobs. Talk about chutzpah: Romney's campaign is attempting to turn its greatest Rust Belt weakness -- "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" -- into an electoral advantage.

Our outsourced lives

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:37:00 +0000

Would you pay a nameologist to help you name your child? Would you “Rent-A-Friend” to keep you company? How about paying a wantologist to help you determine what you want out of life?

These services may seem a bit absurd now, but they may soon become more mainstream, just like previously debatable outsourced personal services that are now everyday aids. For instance, today, if you are single, you probably wouldn’t think twice about paying an online service to help you find a date. And if all goes well, you may pay someone to plan your wedding.

Where do we draw the line? This is the question Arlie Hochschild asks in her new book, The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times. Hochschild traveled around the nation talking to people about which personal life processes they choose to outsource. She begins with Grace Weaver, a 49-year-old who hires Evan Katz to be her love coach. Katz helps her write her profile and takes her photo, but when he asks if she would like him to read all the responses she receives, she declines. That would be “over the line.”