Apple is such an important company to the economic structure to the United States, that they were even a topic of debate between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in the second Presidential Town Hall Debate last night. The moderator, Candy Crowley, pointed out that Apple products such as iPads and iPhones were made in China. She asked how we could convince this great American company to bring the manufacturing back to the states.
Romney answered first and attacked China as his main argument. He charged that they weren't giving us a level playing field, He accused them of cheating by holding down the value of their currency and stealing our intellectual property. It sounds like he's talking about Samsung vs. Apple, but I'm sure he's talking on a much wider scale. A little more sensibly, he also believes “We have to make America the most attractive place for entrepreneurs, for people who want to expand their business.”
President Obama got his shot and said there are some jobs we don't want back, “Because they are low wage, low skill jobs. I want high wage, high skill jobs. That’s why we have to emphasize manufacturing.” He believes that will happen with the best science and research in the world. If we're creating tax cuts for people who don't need them, and “we’re cutting investments in research and science that will create the next Apple, create the next new innovation that will sell products around the world, we will lose that race.”
It turns out President Obama had a VIP angel sitting on his shoulder for this part of the debate. Back in 2011, according to Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson, Jobs told the President, “If you could educate these [30,000] engineers, we could move more manufacturing plants here.” Perhaps the person who knows best how to get Apple manufacturing back here is the person who talked to Jobs face to face about the issue. Interestingly, he never brought that up in the debate, as Jobs' knowledge would have brought down the house.
Photo Credit: nydailynews.com