Palmer Luckey asks if you'd pay 20% more for a laptop entirely made in the US

[godrilla]

That works....if there is a domestic option.

But right now, there are no domestically produced cell phones, or laptops. At some point someone has to start an initiative to fix that.
And he was absolutely right, if modern Ford is anything to go by and the sheer number of recalls they have from supplier produced parts.

I've never bought the whole "we cant make things here" line. If india can get iphone production up and running, there is no excuse for not being able to do it here, or in the EU. It's clearly possible, its just that multi trillion dollar corpos dont want to invest any money into the economy when it would cost them 19 superyachts.

The whole system is against you if you are manufacturing in the USA except for cheerleader support and a temporary current 4 year bandaid. Also the temporary 4 year bandaid is only getting the cronies to play nice so that they build their pet project robot factories before they make a cheaper one elsewhere rinse repeat.

 

[toooooot]

We have a lot of poor people. And I do not mean like really poor. I mean everyone who will look at 2 similar laptops, one priced at 1000 and another for 1200, and will always pick the first one.
Even tariffs are a better way compared to simply selling an item as American made with 20% markup. To ask this of people is asking them for donation. It would not work. Not because people would not care for wellbeing of their fellow Americans but because they cannot afford to.

 

[MasterAce]

Pay attention people: ”Chinese manufactured options from APPLE”.

That’s 20% on top of apple prices, he already included the apple premium in his own projected price.

So is it a plastic 700$ laptop from china vs. same plastic laptop made in US but at apple prices + 20%?

 

[Puiu]

It's all just BS. the US can't manufacture these things even with just an 100% increase in price.

 

[Aranarth]

BTW we used to make laptops here...

Twinhead, IBM, Panasonic, HP, Gateway, Compaq, etc. etc.

The difference is that it got easier to make to on an assembly line which meant we could ship production over seas.

Then we shipped everything over seas and all the suppliers went with them.
That means its going to make bringing manufacturing back really hard because the suppliers have to come back too.

Keeping Crucial here and bringing TSMC over here are vital first steps to being able to do it.

 

[Loadedaxe]

Not surprising that the poll result is like this on X(Twitter) a site filled with mostly right-wing nationalists of any country.

It's also not a surprise since he added "Chinese" a word like "Muslim", "Russia", "North Korea" and several others that has a heavily negative implication in the American mind and most of the rest of the world for whatever reason.

If you changed the question to "Would you buy a Made In America computer if it cost you 20% more?" the results might be wildly different. But even so this is an internet poll, like any random poll people just give random answers anyways.

Such results could be seen from polls like: Mountain Dew's Name the dew poll resulted in "Hitler did nothing wrong" winning or Taylor Swift would've performed for "Horace Mann School for the Deaf" or the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)’s new polar research vessel would have been called the "RSS Boaty McBoatface".

Even predating current-day conflicts, if you had someone with a name in Russian- or Chinese name in an online game they were immediately branded: Cheaters, hackers or bad players and cursed out for no reason. That is just in gaming, now ask some random American and they'll blame everything on everything outside the US for every problem in the US.

It also wouldn't be 'just 20%' more expensive, that's practically impossible and you're also not looking at the health implications with factories being moved to your backyards, polluting your air and water in your neighborhoods. Meaning even more disease(cancers) and other significant health issues that comes from these factories inherently or because they cheap out by dumping chemical waste illegally like many many many companies have done before and will do.

More expensive devices = Fewer devices sold = Factories being closed to save money = People losing jobs.

You also have to take into consideration that this 20% increase will also be the case for universities, hospitals and companies purchasing hardware. A 20% increase in hardware cost means your studies will cost you more, your hospital bills will cost you more and it means your employer will likely try to take away benefits or even fire people to save money.

People make it sound so simple but there's tons of ripple effects from even the smallest of changes...

Let’s cut the nonsense.....Americans can pay more when they want to. They'll drop $1,000 on a mid range graphics card, $6 on a coffee, and thousands on the latest phone every year, but suddenly cry broke when it comes to supporting products that actually build their own economy? Give me a break.

This whole “people don’t have disposable income” excuse is tired. It's not about what they can’t afford, it's about what they choose to value. And thanks to decades of corporate brainwashing, they’ve been trained to worship cheap prices without thinking about the long term cost.....lost jobs, crumbling industries, and total dependence on foreign supply chains.

“Voting with your wallet” only works when people stop acting like short term shoppers and start thinking like long term citizens. But until people stop just saying they support something and start putting their money where their mouth is, nothing changes. You want better? Pay for it like you already do with the junk you don’t even need that you replace every year.

 

[Rudyduu]

Sure, why not? It's cheaper than tariffs and more US jobs means a stronger economy and better buying power for everyone living there.

Apple isn't paying tariffs on their laptops or devices being made in China, they got an exemption from the current administration on the 11th of April 2025.

Tariffs are a lot cheaper than building all the factories to manufacture components and put them together in the states. There aren't a bunch of modern factories full of equipment and experienced workers standing by waiting to make stuff in America. The building doesn't exist, the equipment doesn't exist, and the workers don't exist.

Passing the costs of tariffs onto the customer is a lot cheaper than spending hundreds of millions of dollars on manufacturing that might never reach any meaningful return on investment if the tariffs ever go away.

The idea that tariffs encourage manufacturing in the US just isn't true. How does taxing a company encourage them to spend millions of dollars to build manufacturing while they are already making less profits due to paying tariffs?

Tariffs are supposed to protect domestic manufacturing from cheaper imported goods, but when there isn't domestic manufacturing for a specific product it's just a tax to fill government coffers.

Let’s cut the nonsense....Americans can pay more when they want to. They'll drop $1,000 on a mid range graphics card, $6 on a coffee, and thousands on the latest phone every year, but suddenly cry broke when it comes to supporting products that actually build their own economy? Give me a break.

This whole “people don’t have disposable income” excuse is tired. It's not about what they can’t afford, it's about what they choose to value. And thanks to decades of corporate brainwashing, they’ve been trained to worship cheap prices without thinking about the long term cost.....lost jobs, crumbling industries, and total dependence on foreign supply chains.

“Voting with your wallet” only works when people stop acting like short term shoppers and start thinking like long term citizens. But until people stop just saying they support something and start putting their money where their mouth is, nothing changes. You want better? Pay for it like you already do with the junk you don’t even need that you replace every year.

You are treating Americans as if they all make the same amount of money, when that just isn't the case. The people complaining about things being expensive aren't the same people who are buying a new $1000+ phone every year.
As soon as any company moved manufacturing overseas and was able to reduce their prices or make more profit, they instantly became more competitive than any company that didn't do the same. No one did anything to encourage companies to keep manufacturing in the US and the products being made in the US at the time weren't significantly better to offset the additional cost than anything coming from overseas. Companies made more money, consumers bought more, and US manufacturing faded away.

How many people blamed Walmart for killing small businesses when it's the consumers who stopped shopping at those small stores that caused them to close? But why would you expect people to spend more on the same stuff, that's the purpose of tariffs: to increase the prices of imported goods to save domestic manufacturing. Tariffs do not bring manufacturing back.

 

[mojoxer]

The results of the poll seem inauthentic to me, in that so many people currently complain about the costs of Apple laptops, yet SAY they would be willing to pay 1/5 more for a similar (not better) laptop that is made in America, that will presumably run Windows (likely version 11 and beyond going forward), which we know everybody deeply loves.

 

[Hassanabi]

Let’s cut the nonsense.....Americans can pay more when they want to. They'll drop $1,000 on a mid range graphics card, $6 on a coffee, and thousands on the latest phone every year, but suddenly cry broke when it comes to supporting products that actually build their own economy? Give me a break.

This whole “people don’t have disposable income” excuse is tired. It's not about what they can’t afford, it's about what they choose to value. And thanks to decades of corporate brainwashing, they’ve been trained to worship cheap prices without thinking about the long term cost.....lost jobs, crumbling industries, and total dependence on foreign supply chains.

“Voting with your wallet” only works when people stop acting like short term shoppers and start thinking like long term citizens. But until people stop just saying they support something and start putting their money where their mouth is, nothing changes. You want better? Pay for it like you already do with the junk you don’t even need that you replace every year.

When these Americans go to the store, they pick the cheapest option that performs the function they need it to do. They don't look at the description to see if it's 100% US-made, they will however cry out that everything needs to be 100% American made and "No Chinese crap" when asked about it.

Even though the majority of everything they use is loaded with "Chinese crap".

I bet the majority that voted for 100% US made in the polls would buy the NOT 100% US made option if it's cheaper and functions just the same.

Like always, including your post it's a lot of grandstanding, extremely dogmatic approach whereas most people are far more pragmatic when faced with it in reality.

 

[Rudyduu]

The results of the poll seem inauthentic to me, in that so many people currently complain about the costs of Apple laptops, yet SAY they would be willing to pay 1/5 more for a similar (not better) laptop that is made in America, that will presumably run Windows (likely version 11 and beyond going forward), which we know everybody deeply loves.

Totally agree. This is like a poll asking people to choose between a Ferrari and a Toyota, way more people would vote Ferrari than would actually buy one.

 

[Loadedaxe]

When these Americans go to the store, they pick the cheapest option that performs the function they need it to do. They don't look at the description to see if it's 100% US-made, they will however cry out that everything needs to be 100% American made and "No Chinese crap" when asked about it.

Even though the majority of everything they use is loaded with "Chinese crap".

I bet the majority that voted for 100% US made in the polls would buy the NOT 100% US made option if it's cheaper and functions just the same.

Like always, including your post it's a lot of grandstanding, extremely dogmatic approach whereas most people are far more pragmatic when faced with it in reality.

You're not wrong that a lot of Americans say one thing and do another ...... but let’s not kid ourselves like this is some uniquely American trait. This kind of cognitive dissonance is global.

People everywhere love to talk values until it costs them a little more. Europeans wave flags about sustainability, but fast fashion from Bangladesh is still flying off the racks. Canadians complain about foreign ownership but line up for the cheapest electronics made overseas. It’s human nature .... comfort first, principles second.

The hypocrisy isn’t uniquely American, it’s just louder because the slogans are bigger. People everywhere say they want ethical sourcing, local jobs, and quality manufacturing... right up until they see a $20 cheaper option on Amazon with free shipping.

So yeah, when folks rant about “100% American-made” and then buy the lowest-cost, imported version, call it what it is. But don’t pretend it’s grandstanding to point out the contradiction. That’s not dogma, that’s just pulling the mask off some very selective logic that people of all nations are guilty of.

 

[Robby-san]

I wouldn't mind paying 20% more than regular PCs for made in America, but I don't want to pay 20% more that the Apple equivalent, as the article states. That's like 100% more than a Windows machine.

 

[monkeylove]

Not surprising that the poll result is like this on X(Twitter) a site filled with mostly right-wing nationalists of any country.

It's also not a surprise since he added "Chinese" a word like "Muslim", "Russia", "North Korea" and several others that has a heavily negative implication in the American mind and most of the rest of the world for whatever reason.

If you changed the question to "Would you buy a Made In America computer if it cost you 20% more?" the results might be wildly different. But even so this is an internet poll, like any random poll people just give random answers anyways.

Such results could be seen from polls like: Mountain Dew's Name the dew poll resulted in "Hitler did nothing wrong" winning or Taylor Swift would've performed for "Horace Mann School for the Deaf" or the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)’s new polar research vessel would have been called the "RSS Boaty McBoatface".

Even predating current-day conflicts, if you had someone with a name in Russian- or Chinese name in an online game they were immediately branded: Cheaters, hackers or bad players and cursed out for no reason. That is just in gaming, now ask some random American and they'll blame everything on everything outside the US for every problem in the US.

It also wouldn't be 'just 20%' more expensive, that's practically impossible and you're also not looking at the health implications with factories being moved to your backyards, polluting your air and water in your neighborhoods. Meaning even more disease(cancers) and other significant health issues that comes from these factories inherently or because they cheap out by dumping chemical waste illegally like many many many companies have done before and will do.

More expensive devices = Fewer devices sold = Factories being closed to save money = People losing jobs.

You also have to take into consideration that this 20% increase will also be the case for universities, hospitals and companies purchasing hardware. A 20% increase in hardware cost means your studies will cost you more, your hospital bills will cost you more and it means your employer will likely try to take away benefits or even fire people to save money.

People make it sound so simple but there's tons of ripple effects from even the smallest of changes...

That reminds me of that news report about contractors warning that with current immigration policies building costs would go up.

Apparently, they had been relying on cheap labor all along, especially undocumented workers.

 

[BadThad]

I buy American at every single chance and I'm generally willing to pay slightly more.

 

[jmz0p]

Okay so for the people that don't do math. Going with the 20% asked about. That's going to be $100.00 for every $500.00 of cost. So a laptop that costs $1000.00 will cost $1200.00. A $2000.00 one will be $2400.00. qhich are you going to choose now?

 

[Hassanabi]

You're not wrong that a lot of Americans say one thing and do another ...... but let’s not kid ourselves like this is some uniquely American trait. This kind of cognitive dissonance is global.

People everywhere love to talk values until it costs them a little more. Europeans wave flags about sustainability, but fast fashion from Bangladesh is still flying off the racks. Canadians complain about foreign ownership but line up for the cheapest electronics made overseas. It’s human nature .... comfort first, principles second.

The hypocrisy isn’t uniquely American, it’s just louder because the slogans are bigger. People everywhere say they want ethical sourcing, local jobs, and quality manufacturing... right up until they see a $20 cheaper option on Amazon with free shipping.

So yeah, when folks rant about “100% American-made” and then buy the lowest-cost, imported version, call it what it is. But don’t pretend it’s grandstanding to point out the contradiction. That’s not dogma, that’s just pulling the mask off some very selective logic that people of all nations are guilty of.

Of course it's something that can be seen everywhere in the west, people use all sorts of products without worrying about a thing, but then tell them it's made in China, Russia or any other country that 'irks' them and it's suddenly a bad product or dangerous even if there's zero reason to feel that way.

Personally I don't care if a product is 100% created in my country or not, if anything it wouldn't want to spend more money on things if I don't need to. That doesn't mean I always pick the absolute cheapest option available, but I don't want to overspend just because a label says it's created in my country.

First of all how do I know it's actually created in my country, it wouldn't be the first time a company lied about where it was manufactured:

Falsely Labeling Goods as Made in USA Yields Penalty | Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A.

Our daily publication covering trade and customs news in the U.S. and worldwide.

www.strtrade.com

Second of all, if something from China or whatever other country is just as good but costs me 20-50% less, why would I spend more? In my country people are already taxed excessively for everything, and everything is excessively expensive. If you go to surrounding countries groceries are like HALF the price it is here. Gas for driving? Same. Electricity/Water/Gas? All FAR cheaper in the surrounding countries.

What makes it even more ridiculous is that you can find products MADE in my country FAR CHEAPER in the surrounding countries.

One of the reasons China has polluted as much as it did for decades, is also because we have factories there creating stuff for us with far less regulations and thus cheaper than if it was done at home. Do you want to see those factories being moved in your backyard polluting the air your family breathes in and polluting the water that you drink or bathe in just so a bunch of people from your country can create stuff with a label saying "Made in xx"? Personally I want to see that far removed from any living area as possible.

I would not want to see my family live shorter because of some obsession with some nationalist idea that does more bad than good.