Not much in the areas of Economics, Business, or real life, those DU folk, not even the nice WIntel or Deciduous Fruit Computers machines they use to post on DU.
Whether they have a desktop, a laptop, or a tablet, whether it's from Apple, Dell, HP, or ??, almost none of the parts in it or the labor to assemble it were from the US. Maybe the processor, graphics processor, and a few of the larger chips were fabbed in the US. MAYBE! (In the case of Intel processors and chipsets, some might be fabbed in, HORRORS, Israel) None of the major sub-assemblies were made in the US - processor module, motherboard, graphics board, drives, power supply, case. Apple and Dell (and other computer companies, I'm sure) have screwdriver plants in the US and Euroland where the drives for non-standard configs are changed. DU's shiny new server? Whether a stand-alone server(s) or "blades" in a cabinet in a huge server farm, pretty much none of it was made in the US. Pretty much only what-price-glory, high-end systems and BYO systems are built in the US, and those still use mostly non-US-made sub-assemblies. The vast majority of electronics manufacturing is done in Asia, and this has been true for2-3 decades.
Why? You all probably know this, but indulge me for the education of DU-onlurkers)
The bottom line is that due to the high cost of labor, real estate, equipment, government regulations, and taxes, consumer electronics would be vastly more expensive if built in the US. That nice $500-$1500 WIntel desktop or laptop (with made-in-the-US motherboard, drives, and such)would be north of $1500, with some higher-end name-brand machines north of $3000. Those nice shiny iMacs and MacBooks would be well north of $2500. IOW, by simply existing and using it, DU and its denizens are beneficiaries of "outsourcing".
In DU-World, they believe all US should be forced to manufacture in the US, and they believe that would work just fine, but for US companies wanting a little more profit. In the real world, Apple, Dell, HP, etc. would be forced to choose between bankruptcy in a year or three and moving entirely outside of the US, because US companies don't operate in a world where they only compete against US companies. If Apple, et al, didn't manufacture outside of the US, companies like Lenovo, Asus, Toshiba, and more would drive US companies' vastly higher-priced products off the market.
For the sake of any DU-onlurkers who haven't yet fled this thread, what I described above is my working world. I've worked in Silicon Valley for over 35 years; I've walked the hallways of the likes of Apple, HP, and Cisco. US companies operate in the real world, all of it. And in that real world: unions have driven up wages without corresponding productivity increases (can you say, inflation?!); Federal and state regulations make real estate and building more expensive; Federal and state taxes on companies property and earnings are far higher than the taxes their competitors pay. IOW, Libs' and Progs' darlings - greedy unions and intrusive government - are very significant factors in the off-shoring DU folk decry (while benefitting therefrom).
