The New York Times today published a startling article discussing the manufacturing of the Apple iPhone and the economic impact of the company’s production decisions over the past several years. The crux of the piece centers on Apple’s global supply chain and the dominance of Asia when it comes to electronic manufacturing. The article also questions whether it would be possible to make the iPhone in the United States and how the shift of manufacturing by U.S. companies has impacted the American economy and the middle class. As an American, the article is utterly terrifying.

Some excerpts from How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work:

For over two years, the Apple had been working on a project — code-named Purple 2 — that presented the same questions at every turn: how do you completely reimagine the cellphone? And how do you design it at the highest quality — with an unscratchable screen, for instance — while also ensuring that millions can be manufactured quickly and inexpensively enough to earn a significant profit?

The answers, almost every time, were found outside the United States. Though components differ between versions, all iPhones contain hundreds of parts, an estimated 90 percent of which are manufactured abroad. Advanced semiconductors have come from Germany and Taiwan, memory from Korea and Japan, display panels and circuitry from Korea and Taiwan, chipsets from Europe and rare metals from Africa and Asia. And all of it is put together in China.

In its early days, Apple usually didn’t look beyond its own backyard for manufacturing solutions. A few years after Apple began building the Macintosh in 1983, for instance, Mr. Jobs bragged that it was “a machine that is made in America.” In 1990, while Mr. Jobs was running NeXT, which was eventually bought by Apple, the executive told a reporter that“I’m as proud of the factory as I am of the computer.” As late as 2002, top Apple executives occasionally drove two hours northeast of their headquarters to visit the company’s iMacplant in Elk Grove, Calif.

But in the last two decades, something more fundamental has changed, economists say. Midwage jobs started disappearing. Particularly among Americans without college degrees, today’s new jobs are disproportionately in service occupations — at restaurants or call centers, or as hospital attendants or temporary workers — that offer fewer opportunities for reaching the middle class.

“We shouldn’t be criticized for using Chinese workers,” a current Apple executive said. “The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we need.”

I hear a lot of Americans say that we don’t need manufacturing anymore, but the truth of the matter is: jobs at Wal-Mart rarely turn into anything better than low wage retail jobs. And they certainly don’t hold much promise of economic advancement. As the Times points out, it’s all about job multipliers.

Read the full article here.

One more thing while I am on my soap box. Reporting and news like this is the reason why The New York Times is worth supporting through digital subscriptions, or better yet, throughtraditional subscriptions. Just my two cents.

:)

Shocking Blue were a Dutch rock band from The Hague that existed from 1967 to 1974. They had a hit world-wide with the song “Venus,” which went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1970. The song was immediately covered at the year of its release by Greek pop band Olympians, with entirely different lyrics in Greek and retitled as “Το Κορίτσι Του Μάη” (To koritsi tou Mai - The girl of May). It was later part of the Stars on 45 Medley (which put it at #1 in 1981), and covered by British girl band Bananarama in the 1980s (1986) and Japanese singer Yoko Nagayama (also in 1986).

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Wasir atau ambeien atau hemoroid merupakan penyakit atau gangguan pada anus. Bibir anus mengalami pembengkakan dan terkadang disertai pendarahan.

Untuk mencegah penyakit ini, biasanya dokter akan menyarankan agar teratur buang air besar (BAB) dan banyak makan makanan berserat. Teknik BAB yang baik dan benar juga bisa membantu mencegah ambeien.

Dilansir Med.umich.edu, Kamis (16/12/2010), berikut beberapa teknik BAB yang sehat dan benar untuk mencegah ambeien:

1. Duduk di toilet dengan mengarahkan badan ke depan. Istirahatkan lengan di paha dan sedikit angkat tumit kaki.
2. Alternatif lain, arahkan badan ke depan dengan memegang pergelangan kaki.
3. Usahakan rektum (jalur usus besar dekat anus) santai dan rasakan ada sedikit tonjolan yang keluar
4. Bibir, rahang dan mulut yang terbuka akan memfasilitasi relaksasi otot panggul yang normal selama BAB.
5. Tarik napas dalam melalui hidung dan hembuskan lewat mulut atau mendesis lembut lewat gigi. Ini bisa mencegah perut tidak menjadi keras.
6. Jika pasca melahirkan atau mengalami penurunan perineum (daerah antara vagina dan rektum), tempatkan jari-jari di luar perineum.
7. Setelah selesai, kembalikan kondisi otot panggul dalam keadaan normal.
8. Ulangi cara di atas 3-4 kali bila belum berhasil.

1. Temukan waktu terbaik Anda untuk BAB.Biasanya waktu terbaik setengah jam hingga 1 jam setelah sarapan, tapi untuk beberapa orang setengah sampai 1 jam setelah makan siang. Waktu ini terbaik karena menggunakan refleks gastro-colic, yaitu stimulasi gerak usus yang terjadi dengan makan untuk membantu BAB.
2. Pastikan Anda tidak terburu-buru dan memiliki akses mudah ke kamar mandi
3. Biasakan makan dalam jam yang sama setiap hari, baik sarapan, makan siang dan makan malam.Fungsi usus akan sangat baik bila orang makan dalam jam yang reguler.
4. Biasakan juga selalu makan dalam jumlah yang sama setiap hari
5. Makan makanan yang tinggi serat, seperti buah-buahan dan sayuran.
6. Minum banyak cairan tanpa kafein, idealnya 64 ons sehari atau 8 gelas air.
7. Melakukan olahraga setiap hari, ini akan membantu kerja usus secara konsisten.
8. Jauhkan kafein karena dapat menyebabkan diuretik usus besar dan membuat kotoran menjadi keras.