November 22, 2009
UTNE READER

The Creativity Conceit

(Page 4 of 4)

July-August 2008
by Eamonn Fingleton, from the American Conservative 
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Due to a legacy of isolationism that cut the region off from outside intellectual influences, East Asia was slow to enter the technology race. Now it’s becoming the world’s technological center of gravity. When the region began opening up, government leaders insisted that the first duty of leading scientists was not to win Nobel prizes but to build national economic muscle—and to do so mainly by overtaking the West in advanced manufacturing. Throughout the region, career incentives have been structured to ensure that the most brilliant scientists go into industry rather than universities or public research institutes.

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This brings us back to the untold story behind Apple’s statement of origin. Although the company is correct in stating that its products are assembled in China, this sidesteps the real question: Where are the components made?

One key part of the iPod is a miniaturized hard drive that is made by Toshiba of Tokyo, and it constitutes a disproportionately large share of the total manufacturing cost. In terms of employment, the real winner has not been California, where Apple’s design department has created negligible employment opportunities. Nor has it been China, where assembly workers are paid a pittance. Rather, it has been in the highly capital-intensive manufacturing facilities of Japan, where factory workers enjoy some of the highest wages in world manufacturing—and their employers enjoy a healthy trade surplus.

 

Eamonn Fingleton is the author of In the Jaws of the Dragon: America’s Fate in the Coming Era of Chinese Hegemony (Thomas Dunne Books, 2008). This piece is excerpted from the American Conservative(Nov. 5, 2007), a journal of “old conservative” ideas, cofounded by Scott McConnell and Pat Buchanan in 2002. Subscriptions: $29.95/yr. (24 issues) from Box 9030, Maple Shade, NJ 08052; www.amconmag.com.

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