Back in February, President Obama surprised Steve Jobs with a question of what it would take to make the iPhones in the United States, rather than China.

Jobs replied that the iPhone could never be made in the United States ... and no, it's not because American labor costs (in fact, labor cost is a tiny fraction of the cost of making an iPhone). It's because America simply doesn't have the manufacturing might anymore:

“Apple’s an example of why it’s so hard to create middle-class jobs in the U.S. now,” said Jared Bernstein, who until last year was an economic adviser to the White House.

“If it’s the pinnacle of capitalism, we should be worried.”

Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher wrote this intriguing article over at The New York Times about the death of manufacturing and the disappearing American middle class - if you read only one thing today, make it this one: Link | TLDR? Here it is in video summary

Aditya Chakrabortty of The Guardian explains what's going on with what has been called Britain's De-Industrial Revolution:

In significant part, it's a tale about where Britain is going, one that's been told by Conservative and Labour alike over the past 30 years. It's a simple message that comes in three parts. One, the old days of heavy industry are gone for good. The future lies in working with our brains, not our hands. Two, the job of government in economic policy is simply to get out of the way. Oh, and finally, we need to fling open our markets to trade with other countries because, despite the evidence of countless Wimbledons and World Cups, the Westminster elite believe that the British can always take on the competition and win.

Yet there's ample evidence that the promised rewards of this post-industrial future haven't materialised. What was sold as economic modernisation has led to industrial decay, with too often nothing to replace it.

Link (Photo: Abandoned Spillers Millenium Mills, south east of London by The Urban Adventure/Flickr)

Our friends and neighbor (and makers of the nifty Zombie Magnets and Zombie Doorstop), Zach Manchester and Derek Reynolds of Odd Art Fabrications, got featured in the local newspaper yesterday.

One thing I really like about OAF is how Zach is focusing on making things in America again. How hard could that be? Actually, from my experience with him working on the Neatorama line of products, this is actually harder than it seems because a lot of raw material and toolings aren't even made in the USA anymore.

Kat Mabry of The Signal writes:

Manchester tries to use all local business connections as much as possible, and his business partners Silao, and Paul Sellier both agree.

“We want to keep it all in the United States,” said Paul Sellier, in charge of the business and sales side of OAF.
Manchester said he will go even farther if possible.

“I’d like to keep it all in Santa Clarita,” Manchester said. “I’ve already sort of done that though. My fiberglass facility is right down the street; my sheet metal place is right around the corner.”

The value of conducting business locally without looking outside the area is stronger than ever for Manchester now that he’s been in business for a full year, he said.

Now he’s passionate about his mission.

The way business in this country operates is the reason jobs have disappeared, Manchester said.

“I tried to find a place local to cast the dead wedges for us, and it doesn’t exist,” he said.

If you've want something built, Zach's the guy to talk to: Link | Odd Art Fabrications website | You can also contact Zach at: oafs@oddartfabrications.com (photo: Jonathan Pobre/The Signal)

Have you ever wondered what makes the famous and expensive Baccarat crystal so special? This pretty video by James Bort following the glass workers who hand craft it may give you some clues. Link

Shop owner Mark Andol climbs aboard a bus and tells the riders that shopping here is a patriotic act.

“When you walk through them doors, I guarantee when you’re shopping — the homework’s been done — it’s 100 percent made-in-America products. Made in this country by American workers, and the money stays in our economy. So, enjoy yourself,” he says.

Customers pour into the spacious building, which used to be a Ford dealership. American flags and patriotic quotes adorn the walls.

The store has not yet turned a profit, because Andol is still expanding his line of products. He researches every item to make sure the components are all US-made, including the packaging. Link -via Fark

(Image credit: Daniel Robison for NPR)

The term “globally” here does not mean worldwide so much as it means seeing the problem as a whole as opposed to its parts. Dr. Eli Goldratt {wiki} explains what happens to the supply chain of consumer goods during a recession, in terms even I can understand. With animation by Aharon Charnov. -Thanks, Joe Brown!

The companies who employ prison labour for making dentures and other dental appliances are members of the National Association of Dental Laboratories, so they must have their workers properly trained to do the job. This may actually give a skill that could be used on the outside and keep prisoners from re-offending.

That’s just one of the items on the list of Everyday Things You Didn’t Know Are Made in Prisons. Link

So, why are they surviving the recession better than the rest of us? Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post suggests an interesting answer: It’s The Factories, Stupid.

What sets them apart from the world’s other major powers, purely and simply, is manufacturing. Their predominantly industrial economies meet their own needs and those of other nations, and have made them flourish while others flounder. [...]

For the past three decades, with few exceptions, America’s CEOs, financiers, establishment economists and editorialists assured us that the transition from a manufacturing to a post-industrial economy was both inevitable and positive: American workers would move to more productive jobs, and the nation’s financial security would only grow. But after rising steadily during the quarter-century following World War II, wages have stagnated since the manufacturing sector began to contract.

Harold went on to explain why most Americans are wrong when thinking that we can’t compete with China’s cheap labor (after all, Germany’s labor cost is even more expensive than ours): Link

Did you know frozen peaches and peas can actually be healthier for you than fresh ones? Were you aware that Chicken McNuggets actually contain beef extract?

There’s a whole lot most of us don’t know about the foods we eat every day and HowStuffWorks is here to fill us in on some of that info. Of course, I don’t recommend reading this if you’ve just ate -particularly if you just ate canned mushrooms.

Link

In 1990, when I was in grade school, I watched a union-sponsored commercial in which a mother told her little boy that they would have to move because Dad had lost his job—too many people were buying imports. As union jobs dried up, so did that campaign; now, 14 years into nafta, buying local is hot, but buying American is, at best, a joke (though in August Barack Obama dusted off the sentiment with his "Buy American, Vote Obama" slogan). When I told Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, that I was going to buy only American for a week, he laughed. "I’m very sorry to hear that.

"It’s exceptionally hard, if not impossible, to be 100 percent pure," he explained. "There are just some things you can’t buy. It’s incredibly difficult and depressing."

Link