China dominance in manufacturing, at least in tech, it's not based on cheap labor, but rather in skills, tooling and supply chain advantages.

Tim Cook explains it better that I could ever do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wacXUrONUY

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themaninthedark 3 days ago | parent [-]

But it's not like China had the skills, tooling and supply chain to begin with....and it's not like the US suddenly stopped having all those things. There are reasons manufacturing moved out of the US and it was not "They are soooo much better at all the things over there!"

Tim Cook had a direct hand in this and know it and is now deflecting because it looks bad.

One of the comments on the video puts it way better than I could:

@cpaviolo : "He’s partially right, but when I began my career in the industry 30 years ago, the United States was full of highly skilled workers. I had the privilege of being mentored by individuals who had worked on the Space Shuttle program—brilliant professionals who could build anything. I’d like to remind Mr. Cook that during that time, Apple was manufacturing and selling computers made in the U.S., and doing so profitably.

Things began to change around 1996 with the rise of outsourcing. Countless shops were forced to close due to a sharp decline in business, and many of those exceptionally skilled workers had to find jobs in other industries. I remember one of my mentors, an incredibly talented tool and die maker, who ended up working as a bartender at the age of 64.

That generation of craftsmen has either retired or passed away, and the new generation hasn’t had the opportunity to learn those skills—largely because there are no longer places where such expertise is needed. On top of that, many American workers were required to train their Chinese replacements. Jobs weren’t stolen by China; they were handed over by American corporations, led by executives like Tim Cook, in pursuit of higher profits."

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hombre_fatal 3 days ago | parent [-]

> it was not "They are soooo much better at all the things over there!"

Though I think we should also disabuse ourselves of the idea that this can't ever be the case.

An obvious example that comes to mind is the US' inability to do anything cheaply anymore, like build city infrastructure.

Also, once you enumerate the reasons why something is happening somewhere but not in the US, you may have just explained how they are better de facto than the US. Even if it just cashes out into bureaucracy, nimbyism, politics, lack of will, and anything else that you wouldn't consider worker skillset. Those are just nation-level skillsets and products.

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bcrosby95 3 days ago | parent [-]

Hence "had the skills" and "was not". They are not making claims about the present day, they are talking about why the shift happened in the first place and who brought it about.

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hombre_fatal 2 days ago | parent [-]

Good point. When I commented, the sentence I quoted was the final sentence of their comment essentially leaving it more abstract. Though my comment barely interacts with their point anyways.

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themaninthedark 2 days ago | parent [-]

Sorry. I was typing, got distracted and submitted before I meant to. I thought I had edited pretty quickly, normally I put an edit tag if I think too much time had elapsed.

	▲	hombre_fatal 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		I was just blaming it on that. In reality my comment was making a trivial claim rather than a good observation.