Apple Can Make iPhones In America & Charge The Same Price. The Only Difference Is Profits Will Go To Workers, Not Shareholders.

Is that so wrong?

The trade war kicked off by 100% tariffs on Chinese goods has sparked a conversation about whether certain consumer goods can even be manufactured in America anymore.

The current administration posits that many areas of manufacturing can be reshored, creating countless good-paying jobs around the country.

Those who oppose these measures say it’s a pipe dream, and most use the iPhone as an example. Experts like Dan Ives claim that if the iPhone were made in America, it would cost at least $2100 instead of the current $1300 price tag.

Of course, that’s just an estimate, and nobody truly knows how much an American-produced iPhone would cost. Dan Ives isn’t factoring in automation at U.S. factories and other factors that would be more efficient than current production methods that mostly rely on slave labor instead of innovation.

Those experts like Dan Ives are leaving something else important out, and that’s the part about where the profits go.

Apple can most likely sell an American-made iPhone and only raise the price by 10%. However, more of the profits would go to workers instead of Apple’s meteoric stock valuation.

Right now, a tiny percentage of profits are eaten up by labor costs, and those profits go straight to shareholders. In an American-made iPhone, those profits would be distributed to the workers, and less goes to the shareholders.

Reshoring and U.S. manufacturing isn’t impossible as the experts would like you to believe. Reshoring just means more of the profits go to workers instead of huge investors like Dan Ives.

So, is that so wrong? As a country and an economy, which direction should we take?

Of course, that’s an ideological debate. But what’s strange is that the political party that has historically been pro-worker is seemingly against any attempts at reshoring U.S. manufacturing and giving workers a larger share of profits.

To be clear, I’m not arguing for either side since we’re essentially talking about hypotheticals. Anyone who claims they know what will work and what won’t with 100% certainty is lying to you.

But I think it’s important to understand that when these experts say a product can’t be made in America, they mean it can’t be made while maintaining the same profits. That's because a larger percentage of profits would then go to the workers on the assembly line, not CEOs and hedge funds.

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James La Forte is an IT professional & freelance writer focusing on technology, business & finance. His work has been featured in U.S. News & World Report, TechRepublic, MarketWatch, Gartner Insights, and other publications.