Rush Limbaugh: Apple products create jobs in America

Mac, iPhone, and iPad user Rush Limbaugh today discussed Apple Inc., Apple product manufacturing, the second 2012 U.S. Presidential Debate, Candy Crowley, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama on his radio program that, since its inception on August 1, 1988, is the highest-rated talk radio show in the United States.

The 3-hour Rush Limbaugh Show airs daily on a network of approximately 590 AM and FM affiliate stations. The program is also broadcast worldwide on the U.S. Armed Forces Radio Network. A November 2008 poll by Zogby International found that Rush Limbaugh was the most trusted news personality in the nation.

From the live transcript:

Now, something fascinating came up the other night in a debate, and I wanted to mention it the other day, and I didn’t get to it. Candy Crowley brought up the Apple example and manufacturing. And the example was that not one Apple product is made in America, and yet they’re the largest company in the country, they sell gazillions of products, and not one of them is manufactured in the United States, and of course the hand-wringing and, “Oh, what can we do? Can we bring that back? Oh, my God.”

There’s a simple reality. The last time Apple products were really manufactured in this country, you’ve gotta go back to when John Sculley ran the company, the early nineties. Apple had two factories, and they could stamp out a million Macs a day, computers. There was no iPhone at this point in time, just the Macintosh. They had two factories. One was in California, I think Fremont, if I’m not mistaken, somewhere in California. The other one was in Cork, Ireland. But the iPhone, the iPod, the current iteration of the iMac, all the Macintosh line of computers, the iPad, have never been made in America. Those are not jobs lost. Those are not manufacturing jobs that have somehow been squandered and lost.

Those products have never been made here. However, they wouldn’t exist without American ingenuity. All of the industrial design, all of the software engineering, many of the components for the various products, all of them are designed here, every damn one of them is designed here. Many of the components inside, the chips, made here… what did it take to get those iPhones in everybody’s hands? It took airplanes. FedEx, an American company. Apple buys out FedEx routes for weeks leading up to the release of a product. Then once the iPhones got here, where did they go? They went to Apple stores, they went to carrier stores, they went to individuals’ homes. They had to be delivered by somebody. UPS delivered some, FedEx delivered some, people picked them up themselves.

The Apple Store has its own employees. The number of jobs that Apple creates or facilitates, despite the fact that their products are manufactured (or assembled, I should say) in China would astound people if they ever stopped and looked at it. There are plenty of jobs in this country that are being filled and that are necessary because of Apple, even though their products are manufactured there…

By the way, I’m not speaking to you as an Apple fanboy. I’m speaking to you once again strictly in economic terms. Apple is not a drag on the US economy, even though those products are not manufactured here. Those are jobs that are never gonna come back. Have you ever stopped to think…? The iPhone 5 right now, they can’t make enough. They are selling every iPhone they make.

They have had the fastest rollout, international rollout of a product ever. The iPhone is on sale in more countries than any phone at this stage of its release date as any product they’ve ever had. They simply can’t make enough…. Their phones, their products, their computers, the iPads, the iPhones, the iPods. All these are made by one company called Hon Hai Precision, Foxconn, and they’ve got factories all over China, factories that employ 300,000 people. The total number of employees of the manufacturing firm is over one million. It takes five days to make an iPad, I read. Manual labor, five days. I don’t know what it is for an iPhone. One of the reasons the manufacturer says the iPhone’s late or tough to get is because its design is so intricate.

It’s the thinnest and the lightest and it just takes a long time to put one of these things together, and it is really hard because it’s so miniaturized. It’s so technically advanced… The bottom line is that those jobs were never here. We didn’t lose those jobs. And the jobs that are related to all those products are real, and they are American jobs, and the intellectual content — the stuff that makes those iPhones valuable — is all made and designed here…

I don’t know where to stop when talking about Apple. Look at the people that make accessories for all their products: the cases, the external batteries, the chargers. It really represents total economic ignorance to sit here and wring your hands and worry about the fact that the iPhone, the iPad, whatever, is not made in the United States. The economic activity associated with the assembly of those products over there by the ChiComs is incalculable.

Well, you could calculate it, but it would stun you.

Full transcript here.

MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last January:

Many make their living from Apple who do not work for Apple, ourselves included. Mac developers and iOS developers, for one example. iOS device accessory makers, for another. The impact Apple Inc. has is enormous and the amount of employees on Apple’s payroll, regardless of country, pales in comparison to the number of jobs and economic activity the company actually generates around the world.

Related articles:
How Romney and/or Obama should have answered Candy Crowley’s Apple assembly question – October 17, 2012
Romney and Obama spar over Apple’s Mac, iPad, and iPhone manufacturing jobs – October 17, 2012
Apple, Steve Jobs, Obama, America and a squeezed middle class – January 21, 2012
Apple’s real market value: How many U.S. jobs it creates – November 21, 2011
iOS developer salaries skyrocket – November 9, 2011
How many U.S. jobs has Apple’s iPod created? – July 8, 2011

60 Comments

    1. Haha. Yes indeed.
      As is pointed out below, the FIRST thing “tolerant’ liberals do is resort to ad homenim. Do they listen to Rush? Not a freaking chance. But they’re damned sure he’s an idiot nonetheless.
      ..
      Note to my fellow MDN readers: If you hadn’t noticed the guys at MDN are RL fans. Look how many hits they get every time his name is mentioned. It’s like printing money.

      1. Rush isn’t an idiot. He has to be damned smart to do what he does for hours on end. But that does not make everything that he says the truth. Some of what he says is reasonable, and some of it is wishful thinking, spin, or even pure fabrication.

        Listen to Rush and Fox if it makes you happy. However, if you rely upon Rush and Fox as your primary sources of news, then you are not getting the full picture. That is the same mistake that Bush made – he purged his administration of everyone who did not agree with him, and that is a *very* bad idea. A leader needs to invite different viewpoints and debate them with an open mind in order to drill down to the best solutions to difficult and complex issues.

        Yes, I get tired of Fox blaming nearly everything on Obama to the point of ridiculousness. But I still tune in from time to time to stay informed of viewpoints across the board.

        Romney/Ryan’s take on tax rates, for instance, has some merit. The big hole in it right now is the lack of information on the “loopholes” and “deductions” that will be eliminated to make it “revenue neutral.” I am not willing to take that on faith – I need to see the details and the math. In fact, it is so easy to cut tax rates and so hard to cut tax deductions (as both parties have shown over a period of decades), that I encourage every citizen to demand the execution of the loophole closure and deduction elimination *first* as a precondition for any tax cuts. This country cannot handle any more unfunded tax cuts and decade-long wars – the true legacy of the Bush administration.

        1. kingmel:-
          One minute you’re talking about:
          “…noise that detracts from the purpose of MDN…”
          “….the vast majority of the political rants on MDN are trollish because they have virtually nothing to do with Apple…”
          And the next you’re all.. Fox News, Obama, Fox News, Bush tax cuts, Fox News, Romney/Ryan, Fox News………….
          What is wrong with you?
          The article and topic is Apple, and Rush’s perspective on the debate. You people are so blinded by hate you’ve lost the ability to think rationally. It’s pathetic.

      1. Please don’t misuse the term “troll,” especially in all caps. It does not mean “someone who disagrees with you.” In my opinion, the vast majority of the political rants on MDN are trollish because they have virtually nothing to do with Apple, its products, or its competitors and their products.

    1. tbone. When you have listened to Mr. Limbaugh for six weeks – then come back here and tell us what facts or lies he has broadcast. Until then – keep watching and listening to Mr. Matthews and mopping up the dribble down his leg. Obama is going down in November. I love the picture of Rush and use it some of my emails.

      1. If you take rush’s “entertainment” as facts, then that makes you a “foole”. After all, rush himself says he is just an entertainer an will defend himself as just using humor.

        By the way, I listened to him from day 1 up until he started getting stupid. Probably about the time his drug addiction started.

        1. He gives more actual facts than you will find in the New York Times, CNN or Time Magazine. All media outlets are biased but at least Rush does you the courtesy of admitting his up front.

        2. Well, I can’t argue with pre-conceived biases so I will say this. Newspapers may pretend to give facts. I will use my intelligence to sift through it.

          Commentators or people who give opinion, I know they are opinions. No mystery there. One thing I will not do is pretend an opinion is fact.

          Rush may mention facts but they are just facts. He makes his money giving his spin. Don’t confuse facts with his spin.

        3. CitizenX: Your logic is bizarre.
          1- “If you take Rush’s “entertainment” as facts, then that makes you a “foole”.”
          2- “Rush may mention facts but they are just facts.”
          Your (ahem) “intelligence” does not seem to understand basic logic, or that that EVERYONE has “pre-conceived biases”.
          RL does not “pretend an opinion is fact”. He simply states the facts of a topic and then gives his opinion.
          Either English is not your first language or you were educated at a government school.

        4. Damn that English language. Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough for you. I know in my head, I was plenty clear.

          Let me explain it slowly for you. Yes rush may mention facts. I.e. “Studies show this is the warmest year on record”

          That is a “fact”.

          What people hang on is is biased spin on the fact. Ms. Poole wasn’t extolling the fact that he read a press release about the summer temperature fact but his biased spin and interpretation. That is not fact. That is what my comments addressed.

          I’ll rewrite it for you. Let me know if it meets your approval.

          “Rush may mention facts but they are just facts” and are meaningless until he adds his spin. They are used as a set up for the righteous indignation (opinion) over the latest “democrat” move.

        1. Sigh.

          Does the left always have to personally insult everyone that disagrees with them politically?

          That is really one of the most obnoxious things about liberals.

        2. Please don’t shake your head sadly and sigh dramatically, twilightmoon. You know as well as I that there have been plenty of ad hominem attacks launched on this forum from both extremes of the political spectrum. To pretend to think otherwise is foolish, especially since I have seen this same line posted multiple times over the last few months. The truth is, some of the people on this forum enjoy baiting others, and others enjoy reacting. For the rest of us, it is just noise that detracts from the purpose of MDN.

        3. It’s not insulting- just a simple fact.

          A law and order Republican that gets nabbed doctor shopping and forcing his maid to supply his hillbilly heroin addiction. The man made himself deaf taking illegally obtained drugs and lied to his audience that it was an auto-immune disorder.

          Republicans are very good a projection- accusing others of what they are guilty of.

          Maybe Shep Smith at Faux can come out at the same time as Rush.

  1. This need not be a political issue. It’s purely an economic and practical issue, and when it comes to that whether you like or loathe Limbaugh you can still agree that what he says is true.

    The money on these products isn’t in the manufacturing . . . If Apple didn’t get them manufacture as cheaply as they do, they’d have to sell them for more money to make the same profit, they would not be competitive and the Apple economy would crumble over time.

    I don’t make my living off of Apple as MDN and many others do, but as a smaller publisher I’ve got Macs all over the place. I also have tech contract with a small local school district to maintain their network of about 150 macs because no one else in the area knows how to do it. Even though it makes up only about 5 percent of my revenue, it’s still a very nice little side project for me that allows me to do something I really love on the side.

    The problem with debates and sound bites is that it’s very hard to simplify these topics because they are so intricate. But there’s no doubt the Apple economy is now woven into the fabric of the world economy, particularly in the U.S. and the one that could crash that would be expensive assembly.

    1. Agree wholeheartedly! Especially to the last paragraph. After the recent presidential debate, I was telling my friends the exact same thing about the sound bites.

      As for the jobs question, I’ll bet Microsoft provides far more U.S. jobs than Apple: all those IT guys needed to fix everyone’s Windows problems! 😉

  2. As a left-leaning guy – I hate when people group left and right people together. 1 or 2 opinions in one direction doesnt mean I can’t agree with 1 or 2 opinions on the other side…

    either way, this isnt really a political issue – but Rush brings that out in people – and he’s right in this circumstance. The App market alone has catalyzed a billion dollar industry all on its own.

  3. The fact is these assembling jobs in China are just that: Assembling parts. There’s no design, no research, no ingenuity. Therefore, they pay is very low, and would be low even if the jobs were here in the U.S. They’re just not skilled labor jobs.

    Apple’s key jobs — engineers, software designers, etc. — are in the U.S. Apple has employees in its retail stores worldwide. Just think about how many jobs Apple has created since it decided to open retail stores and provide smart features like the free Genius Bar.

  4. He’s not wrong on this one, which probably proves the theory of an infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of typewriters.

    But he did say that Macs used to be made in California, and now they’re not. So some Mac manufacturing jobs have been lost (and more Macs are being manufactured now than ever before). I’d argue that the manufacture of Macs will someday move back to the US, when they can be made almost entirely by robots. Wasn’t that Steve’s dream?

  5. If dumbass professional propagandist Rush Bimbaugh can figure out that Apple = THOUSANDS of US jobs, what is wrong with the DumbTards constantly railing against Apple?

    IDEA: Encourage MORE Apple-style companies in the USA! Imagine that. Positive behavior. It could happen!

        1. I have no idea who you like but you don’t have to call someone dumbass because you disagree with them politically nor change their name.

          Express your views without mangling people’s name like a grade schooler.

          Who is it that you do admire?

        2. What news outlets exist that are not ‘propagsnda’ ?

          You can choose Fox News, Rush, The Weekly Standard, Town Hall on the right, or you can chose New Tork Times, Time Magazine, CNN, Huff Po, or Slate on the left. Either way you are wading through a political filter. It’s just the same except you can chose your bias.

          Or do you have some magical source of information that mere mortals like me have no access to?

        3. In what way do you imagine that Rush Limbaugh is anything more than either (A) An ‘entertainer’, to use his words, or (B) a propaganda shill? There is no ‘news’ in his rants.

          Meanwhile, I ENTIRELY agree that our ‘news’ these days from most sources consists of what is filtered through the approval system of our Corporate Oligarchy.

          IOW: The concepts of ‘the liberal press’ and ‘the conservative press’ are jokes considering that just about everything is actually Corporate News.

          And yes, I consider that to be sick and perverted. We have been taught to go all mental about an imaginary liberals versus conservatives political war when in fact there is only the culture enforced upon us by our Corporate Oligarchy.

          This is one reason why I review news from AROUND THE WORLD on a daily basis.

          As I often state: We never know everything about anything. That’s a state of humanity, like it or not. Expect to be wrong. Perspective is everything. Get some.

    1. Willard RobbedMe isn’t going to have a cabinet, unless it’s in his mind.

      RawMoney is going down like the New York Yankees to the Detroit Tigers- in a sweep! Get out the brooms.

      ALCS 2012 Champion Detroit Tigers were never behind at any time during the series. The Yankees were exactly where they need to be, behind and making excuses.

      1. I really doubt Obama will win reelection. If Romney wins and your side loses I will do my best not to act as smug and condescending as you do.

        I make no promises but I will try.

  6. Rush not speaking as a fan, ha ha ha. He’s one of the biggest Apple fans in Rightwingerland, but apparently out of touch with his own inner fanboy. His devotion to all things Apple is so profound that I am compelled to nor completely distrust his hateful politics.

  7. I’m a left-wing liberal who makes his living at a state university maintaining its many Apple computers and happen to agree with Rush’s point about the US jobs Apple has enabled. I’ve made a living from my Mac experience for 25 years and plan on a comfortable retirement thanks to an early investment in AAPL.

  8. Rush is a repulsive racist, sexist, disgusting pig. I question anyone who manages to overlook this. I love Apple, I love Macs- but I have values. I would/could not personally associate with a fan of his.

  9. No cellphones, tablets, laptops or desktops plus game consoles are made in USA by any American company. This is not exclusive to Apple. Microsofts XBOX is made by same people that make Apple products.

  10. Rush is awesome! Tells it like it is and has been good for Apple! As the polls now show, Americans r sick of whining, hate-filled liberals bashing capitalism and religion! Steve said Obama would be a one-term president and was becoming a believer in God as he neared death. His prophetic vision and transformation r symbolic of a cultural paradigm shift our visionary knew was coming. Obama is the most anti-Apple president in history! Four years of attacking everything good in America prove prove that!

  11. Even Hitler and Stalin found excuses for their decisions. That was a nice try but not at all the point of Crowley’s question. The point is that we CAN’T make this stuff over here. We don’t have the automation, the supply chain, even the technology. So what is a President going to do about that? Tariffs, regulations, etc. aren’t the problem. The problem is that we have no leadership helping inspire Americans do be exceptional at anything other than design (Ives is British) or gambling on Wall Street. Our businesses are often filled with unethical dictators in the boardroom and our politicians are so corrupt the people never get a fair shot. I hold no grudge against Apple for its business decisions. But not every American can even read or write. If they can’t read or write, they probably aren’t going to be designers or brokers. What will they do?. Build gated communities around the homes of the wealthy so their illiterate children won’t be able to steal from them later on? I don’t want the USA to be another India, Brazil, Mexico where the few wealthy have the hoarding millions at their mercy and people walk through raw sewage in the street. An exaggeration maybe but the trends are not good and Apple could get more creative in manufacturing more here.

Reader Feedback

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.