Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has spoken out on his desire to return manufacturing jobs to the United States.
Sanders was written off by many in the face of a seemingly overwhelming campaign by Hillary Clinton, but has seen something of a resurgence of late. Sanders has won the last six states in the Democratic primaries, including Wisconsin last night.
Democratic hopeful wants Apple jobs back in the United States
Sanders used an interview with the New York Daily News‘ editorial board to outline his position on manufacturing jobs in the United States. He told the interviewers that he wants Apple to “be manufacturing some of their devices, here, in the United States rather than in China.”
The Democratic hopeful also said that he wants that “they would not be trying to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.”
As it stands Apple assembles the iMac and the Mac Pro in the U.S., with other devices such as the iPhone being put together in China. Sanders continues to take a stance against corporate business practices that he says “destroy the fabric” of the United States.
However Sanders says that Apple is not part of this group of companies. Instead he cites General Electric, JPMorgan Chase, and “virtually every other major bank in this country” as he says they cut jobs for U.S. workers.
Sanders and Donald Trump on the same page
As unlikely it may sound this is one point on which Sanders agrees with Republican hopeful Donald Trump. During his bombastic and controversial campaign Trump has called on Apple to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States.
In January Trump said that he would get Apple to “start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries.” As part of his campaign against Apple Trump said that he would boycott the company’s products, but in fact it was found that he kept on tweeting from an iPhone.
As previously stated both the iMac and Mac Pro are assembled in the U.S., so it is not clear how many more products Sanders wants to be made domestically. Assuming it is the iPhone, previous analysis by sources cited by CNET showed that the smartphone would cost around $1,300 if it were assembled in the United States.
That sum would put it out of the reach of most consumers.
