You’re kind of proving my point for me brother. Lenovo was NOT a serious player at all in the US or European PC market AT ALL until it was gifted tech/name brand recognition by a stupid American company. Lenovo was a piss ant that bought IBM’s PC business and that IMMEDIATELY put them on the map.
Chinese companies never made viable pc computers before then. Chinese companies really didn’t make anything of value. China was a poor backwater shithole before American multinationals started moving in beginning in the 80s. The Chinese didn’t have the technology to make jackshit. It was GREED from soulless lifeless American corporations that set up shop in China to exploit cheap labor and not have an EPA to deal with in order to make more and more money. And in order to gain access these dumbass US multinationals WILLINGLY gave up their trade secrets/tech/ip to China.
Apple very easily could’ve made their products here, charged the same amount of money for them, people still would’ve bought them by the shitloads and maybe they’d have accumulated $80 billion or $100 billion in cash instead of the TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY billion in CASH they had at one point. That’s nothing but greed. They produce there for one reason and one reasons only- it’s cheaper and they make more money by producing there.
Apple has spent about $175 billion on stock buybacks. Imagine if they had spent that money investing in American factories and jobs.
Yes, Lenovo bought IBM's PC business. That immediately brought them into the same IP range as their competitors. Once they did that, manufacturing at lower prices than their American competitors was easy to do, especially with subsidies from the Chinese government-- subsidies that they derive from interest money that WE are paying them for owning our debt.
You really don't want to argue the basics of this stuff with me. Overall I'm agreeing with you, but I can assure you I know the details better than you do. I've stood up manufacturing lines at Chinese ODMs for American company's products. I've worked directly with Chinese employees both of my own company, and our ODM vendors, throughout the process. I know the business. I know what I'm talking about.
Apple is an outlier and not really part of the overall discussion. I agree that they could manufacture entirely in the USA and still be alright-- and indeed they've already moved some significant portions of their manufacturing into the USA, with more planned. Austin is a major hub for that activity.
But computers, displays, most other consumer electronics-- that'a a different story.
Again, American consumers aren't willing to pay more for American goods. I've literally, directly, performed this exact experiment.
