纽约时报头条深度分析：苹果为何不救美国

How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work
美国如何错失iPhone订单

When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley’s top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president.

去年二月份，奥巴马在加州与硅谷顶级名流会餐，出席嘉宾每人须向总统提一个问题。

But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?

轮到苹果老总乔布斯发言时，奥巴马用自己的问题打断他的话：如何才能让苹果在美国生产手机？

Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.

不久前，苹果号称其产品产自美国，如今，几乎没有。苹果公司去年共售出七千万台手机、三千万台平板电脑及五千九百万件其它产品，几乎全部产自海外。

Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.

奥巴马问到，为什么这些工作不能回到美国？

Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” he said, according to another dinner guest.

据另一位在场嘉宾讲，乔布斯直截了当地答到：＂这些工作不会回来了。＂

The president’s question touched upon a central conviction at Apple. It isn’t just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products.

总统的提问触及苹果的中心信念。不仅仅是海外员工更廉价，苹果执行官们相信海外工厂的庞大规模及外国工人的灵活性、敬业精神及工业技能远远超过美国，以至于对大多数苹果产品来说＂美国制造＂不再是一个可行的选项。

Apple has become one of the best-known, most admired and most imitated companies on earth, in part through an unrelenting mastery of global operations. Last year, it earned over $400,000 in profit per employee, more than Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil or Google.

苹果已经成为地球上最著名、最受崇敬、最被他人模仿的公司之一，如此成就部分归功于苹果将全球运作发挥得淋漓尽致。去年，苹果员工人均盈利四十万美元，超过高盛、埃克森美孚和谷歌。

However, what has vexed Mr. Obama as well as economists and policy makers is that Apple — and many of its high-technology peers — are not nearly as avid in creating American jobs as other famous companies were in their heydays.

但最令奥巴马、经济学家、决策者及许多高科技同行沮丧的是：苹果远不如其它著名公司那样热衷于在它们的鼎盛时期创造美国工作。

Apple employs 43,000 people in the United States and 20,000 overseas, a small fraction of the over 400,000 American workers at General Motors in the 1950s, or the hundreds of thousands at General Electric in the 1980s. Many more people work for Apple’s contractors: an additional 700,000 people engineer, build and assemble iPads, iPhones and Apple’s other products. But almost none of them work in the United States. Instead, they work for foreign companies in Asia, Europe and elsewhere, at factories that almost every electronics designer relies upon to build their wares.

苹果在美国雇佣四万三千人，海外员工为两万，仅为通用汽车在上世纪五十年代四十万美国职工的零头，通用电气在八十年代的美国雇员也高达数十万。更多的人则为苹果的供应商工作：约七十万人设计、制造、组装iPads、iPhones及其它苹果产品。这些人几乎都不在美国工作，而是受雇于位于亚洲、欧洲及其它地区的外国公司，几乎每一个的电子工程师都依靠这些厂家生产产品。

“Apple’s an example of why it’s so hard to create middle-class jobs in the U.S. now. If it’s the pinnacle of capitalism, we should be worried. ” said Jared Bernstein, who until last year was an economic adviser to the White House.

直到去年一直担任白宫经济顾问的Jared Bernstein表示：＂为什么在美国创造中产阶级职位这么难，苹果就是一个例子。如果这就是资本主义的巅峰，我们应当担忧。＂

Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.

苹果执行官称在目前，走向海外是他们唯一的出路。一位前执行官描述了苹果如何依靠一家中国公司在发售前仅仅数周对苹果手机的生产进行调整。苹果在最后一分钟改变了手机屏幕的设计，生产线被迫全面调整。新屏幕于深夜陆续运抵厂房。

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

据这位前执行官介绍，一位工头立刻在公司宿舍内唤醒八千名员工。每位员工派发一块饼干和一杯茶，分别指派到各个工作岗位，不到半小时就开始了给斜面框架安装玻璃屏幕的长达12个小时的班次。96小时之内，这家工厂就以每日过万台的速度生产手机。

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

该执行官称：＂这个速度和灵活性令人目瞪口呆，没有美国工厂可与之匹敌。＂

Similar stories could be told about almost any electronics company — and outsourcing has also become common in hundreds of industries, including accounting, legal services, banking, auto manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.

几乎所有的电子公司都有类似的故事，＂外包＂在数百个行业已司空见惯，其中包括会计、法律服务、金融、汽车制造和制药。

But while Apple is far from alone, it offers a window into why the success of some prominent companies has not translated into large numbers of domestic jobs. What’s more, the company’s decisions pose broader questions about what corporate America owes Americans as the global and national economies are increasingly intertwined.

苹果虽不孤单，但它提供了探究如下问题的窗口：为什么一些优势企业的成功未能转化成大量的国内工作岗位？此外，苹果的决策还提出了一些更广的问题，如在全球经济与国内经济日益融合的今天，美国企业对美国人有什么责任？

“Companies once felt an obligation to support American workers, even when it wasn’t the best financial choice,” said Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the Labor Department until last September. “That’s disappeared. Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity.”

在去年九月前一直担任劳工部首席经济学家的Betsey Stevenson表示：＂公司过去感到有义务支持美国工人，即使这并非最佳经济选择。这些已经消失了，利润与效率击败了慷慨大方。＂

Companies and other economists say that notion is naïve. Though Americans are among the most educated workers in the world, the nation has stopped training enough people in the mid-level skills that factories need, executives say.

公司们及其他经济学家认为这一观点太天真。执行官们说，尽管美国人是世界上受过最好教育的工人之一，但美国未能培训出足够多的为工厂所需的拥有中等技能的人员。

To thrive, companies argue they need to move work where it can generate enough profits to keep paying for innovation. Doing otherwise risks losing even more American jobs over time, as evidenced by the legions of once-proud domestic manufacturers — including G.M. and others — that have shrunk as nimble competitors have emerged.

公司们称，为了发展，它们必须将工作搬移到能够创造出足够利润以支付研发费用的地区。若非如此则面临着今后流失更多美国工作的风险，这一点已被通用汽车等那些曾经豪迈的国内制造商所证实，随着灵活竞争者的崛起，这些老公司已经收缩。

Apple was provided with extensive summaries of The New York Times’s reporting for this article, but the company, which has a reputation for secrecy, declined to comment.

纽约时报向苹果提供了关于本篇报道的大量信息，但一如该公司的神秘名声，苹果未予置评。

This article is based on interviews with more than three dozen current and former Apple employees and contractors — many of whom requested anonymity to protect their jobs — as well as economists, manufacturing experts, international trade specialists, technology analysts, academic researchers, employees at Apple’s suppliers, competitors and corporate partners, and government officials.

本文基于对数十位苹果现任或前任员工与承包商的采访，许多受访者要求对其身份进行保密以求不危及他们的工作。纽约时报还采访了经济学家、制造业专家、国际贸易专业人士、技术分析家、学者、苹果供应商员工、竞争对手、公司伙伴及政府官员。

Privately, Apple executives say the world is now such a changed place that it is a mistake to measure a company’s contribution simply by tallying its employees — though they note that Apple employs more workers in the United States than ever before.

苹果执行官们私下称世界变化如此之大，难以用员工人数来衡量企业的贡献，尽管他们同时也指出苹果在美雇员比过去任何时候都多。

They say Apple’s success has benefited the economy by empowering entrepreneurs and creating jobs at companies like cellular providers and businesses shipping Apple products. And, ultimately, they say curing unemployment is not their job.

他们认为苹果的成功通过如下方式造福经济：加强手机运营商和产品运送公司，并在这些方面创造了就业机会。他们最终认为，减少失业率不是他们的责任。

“We sell iPhones in over a hundred countries,” a current Apple executive said. “We don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems. Our only obligation is making the best product possible.”

苹果一位现任执行官称：＂我们在一百多个国家销售手机，我们没有义务解决美国的问题。我们唯一的责任就是生产出最好的产品。＂

‘I Want a Glass Screen’

＂我想要个玻璃屏幕＂

In 2007, a little over a month before the iPhone was scheduled to appear in stores, Mr. Jobs beckoned a handful of lieutenants into an office. For weeks, he had been carrying a prototype of the device in his pocket.

2007年，在苹果手机正式发售前一个月多一点，乔布斯将数名副手召入办公室。此前几周，他一直随身携带着一款苹果手机原型。

Mr. Jobs angrily held up his iPhone, angling it so everyone could see the dozens of tiny scratches marring its plastic screen, according to someone who attended the meeting. He then pulled his keys from his jeans.

据当时一位在场人讲，乔布斯恼怒地举起他的iPhone，不断变动角度让所有的人看清塑料屏幕上的数十道小划痕，接着，他从口袋里掏出一串钥匙。

People will carry this phone in their pocket, he said. People also carry their keys in their pocket. “I won’t sell a product that gets scratched,” he said tensely. The only solution was using unscratchable glass instead. “I want a glass screen, and I want it perfect in six weeks.”

乔布斯说，人们会把手机装在他们的口袋里，他严肃地表示：＂我不会卖一只会划花的产品。＂唯一的解决方案就是采用不会划花的玻璃屏。乔布斯说：＂我想要玻璃屏，在六个星期内给我搞定。＂

After one executive left that meeting, he booked a flight to Shenzhen, China. If Mr. Jobs wanted perfect, there was nowhere else to go.

一位执行官在离开办公室之后，订了一张飞往中国深圳的机票。如果乔布斯想要完美，除了深圳无路可走。

For over two years, the company 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?

在长达两年多的时间里，苹果一直忙于一个代号为＂紫二＂的项目，每行一步都会碰到同样的问题：如何将手机的形象推倒重来？如何按照最高的质量标准进行设计——譬如不会划花的屏幕——同时确保数百万台手机能够快速地、利润丰厚地制造出来？

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.

几乎毎一次，答案都在美国之外。尽管各个版本有所不同，但每台iPhone都包含着数百个零部件，其中约90%以上产自海外。先进的半导体来自德国和台湾，内存来自韩国和日本，显示屏和电路板来自韩国和台湾，芯片来自欧洲，原材料来自非洲和亚洲，然后在中国组装。

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 iMac plant in Elk Grove, Calif.

早年间，苹果经常只在后院寻求制造解决方案。1983年，苹果机开始投产，乔布斯自豪地宣称＂这是一部产于美国的机器＂。1990年，乔布斯执掌NeXT电脑公司（后被苹果收购）他告诉一名记者：＂就我为这台电脑感到骄傲那样，我为这家工厂感到骄傲。＂直到2002年，苹果高层还不时从总部往东北驱车两小时视察公司位于加州Elk Grove的iMac生产基地。

But by 2004, Apple had largely turned to foreign manufacturing. Guiding that decision was Apple’s operations expert, Timothy D. Cook, who replaced Mr. Jobs as chief executive last August, six weeks before Mr. Jobs’s death. Most other American electronics companies had already gone abroad, and Apple, which at the time was struggling, felt it had to grasp every advantage.

到了2004年，苹果已基本上转向海外工厂。这一决定的倡导者是苹果运营专家Timothy D. Cook，他在乔布斯去世前六个星期，即去年八月接替乔布斯成为苹果首席执行官。大多数美国电子公司早已移师海外，在当时处于困境之中的苹果感到它必须抓住任何一点优势。

In part, Asia was attractive because the semiskilled workers there were cheaper. But that wasn’t driving Apple. For technology companies, the cost of labor is minimal compared with the expense of buying parts and managing supply chains that bring together components and services from hundreds of companies.

亚洲的吸引力部分地在于廉价的半熟练工人。但苹果并不看重这一点，作为科技公司，劳工成本在购买零部件、整合来自数百个公司的零部件与服务的＂供应链管理＂等开销面前显得微不足道。

For Mr. Cook, the focus on Asia “came down to two things,” said one former high-ranking Apple executive. Factories in Asia “can scale up and down faster” and “Asian supply chains have surpassed what’s in the U.S.” The result is that “we can’t compete at this point,” the executive said.

据一名苹果前任高管称，对于Cook先生来说，聚焦亚洲归根结底在于两点：第一，亚洲工厂可以＂快速扩张或缩编＂；第二，＂亚洲供应链超过了美国＂。结果就是＂我们现在无法竞争＂。

The impact of such advantages became obvious as soon as Mr. Jobs demanded glass screens in 2007.

这一优势的影响力在07年乔布斯要求玻璃屏时立即显现。

For years, cellphone makers had avoided using glass because it required precision in cutting and grinding that was extremely difficult to achieve. Apple had already selected an American company, Corning Inc., to manufacture large panes of strengthened glass. But figuring out how to cut those panes into millions of iPhone screens required finding an empty cutting plant, hundreds of pieces of glass to use in experiments and an army of midlevel engineers. It would cost a fortune simply to prepare.

许多年来，手机制造商们尽量避免使用玻璃屏，因为它要求精确切割和打磨，非常难以实现。苹果已选用美国公司Corning来生产大幅强化玻璃板。但要将这些玻璃板切割成数百万片手机屏幕，需要找一家空置的切割工厂、数百片用于试验的玻璃及一支中等水平的工程师大军。光是准备工作就要花费巨资。

Then a bid for the work arrived from a Chinese factory.

此时，中国一家工厂前来投标。

When an Apple team visited, the Chinese plant’s owners were already constructing a new wing. “This is in case you give us the contract,” the manager said, according to a former Apple executive. The Chinese government had agreed to underwrite costs for numerous industries, and those subsidies had trickled down to the glass-cutting factory. It had a warehouse filled with glass samples available to Apple, free of charge. The owners made engineers available at almost no cost. They had built on-site dormitories so employees would be available 24 hours a day.

当一支苹果团队前来考察时，这家中国工厂的股东们已经在建设新的厂房。据一名前苹果执行官称，中国经理解释道：＂这是为了万一苹果给我们订单。＂中国政府已同意为多项产业提供成本补贴，这些补贴层层下拨至这家玻璃切割厂。向苹果免费提供的玻璃样品堆满了一个仓库，甚至连工程师都几乎是免费服务。厂内建有宿舍，职工24小时待命。

The Chinese plant got the job.

中国工厂赢得了订单。

“The entire supply chain is in China now,” said another former high-ranking Apple executive. “You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That’s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours.”

另一名前苹果高管表示：＂现在所有的供应链都在中国了，需要一千片橡胶衬垫？隔壁工厂就有。需要一百万枚螺丝钉？下一个街区就一家厂。想对螺钉做些改动？三个小时搞定。＂

In Foxconn City

富士康城内

An eight-hour drive from that glass factory is a complex, known informally as Foxconn City, where the iPhone is assembled. To Apple executives, Foxconn City was further evidence that China could deliver workers — and diligence — that outpaced their American counterparts.

离玻璃厂八小时车程的地方是被称为＂富士康城＂的镇落，苹果手机在此生产。对于苹果老总们来说，富士康是中国比美国更勤快、能提供更多劳工的进一步证明。

That’s because nothing like Foxconn City exists in the United States.

这是因为美国根本没有富士康城这样的东西。

The facility has 230,000 employees, many working six days a week, often spending up to 12 hours a day at the plant. Over a quarter of Foxconn’s work force lives in company barracks and many workers earn less than $17 a day. When one Apple executive arrived during a shift change, his car was stuck in a river of employees streaming past. “The scale is unimaginable,” he said.

畗士康城内拥有23万员工，许多人一周上六天班，每天12小时。超过四分之一的员工住在公司宿舍，许多人一天所获不足17美元。一位苹果执行官到达富士康时正逢换班，他的车被堵在人流中，他说：＂难以想象的规模。＂

Foxconn employs nearly 300 guards to direct foot traffic so workers are not crushed in doorway bottlenecks. The facility’s central kitchen cooks an average of three tons of pork and 13 tons of rice a day. While factories are spotless, the air inside nearby teahouses is hazy with the smoke and stench of cigarettes.

富士康雇佣近300名保安指挥来往人流，以避免在楼道拥挤所发生挤踏。城内的中心厨房日均消耗三吨猪肉、十三吨大米。城内虽然整洁无睱，但附近茶馆乌烟瘴气，烟草味道直冲脑门。

Foxconn Technology has dozens of facilities in Asia and Eastern Europe, and in Mexico and Brazil, and it assembles an estimated 40 percent of the world’s consumer electronics for customers like Amazon, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Nintendo, Nokia, Samsung and Sony.

富士康在亚洲、东欧、墨西哥和巴西设有数十家工厂，组装全球百分之四十的电子产品，客户包括亚马逊、戴尔、惠普、摩托罗拉、任天堂、尼康、三星和索尼。

“They could hire 3,000 people overnight,” said Jennifer Rigoni, who was Apple’s worldwide supply demand manager until 2010, but declined to discuss specifics of her work. “What U.S. plant can find 3,000 people overnight and convince them to live in dorms?”

直到2010年一直担任苹果全球供应经理的Jennifer Rigoni称：＂他们可在一夜之间招聘三千人，美国有哪家工厂可以一夜招三千员工并说服他们搬进宿舍？＂

In mid-2007, after a month of experimentation, Apple’s engineers finally perfected a method for cutting strengthened glass so it could be used in the iPhone’s screen. The first truckloads of cut glass arrived at Foxconn City in the dead of night, according to the former Apple executive. That’s when managers woke thousands of workers, who crawled into their uniforms — white and black shirts for men, red for women — and quickly lined up to assemble, by hand, the phones. Within three months, Apple had sold one million iPhones. Since then, Foxconn has assembled over 200 million more.

2007年中，经过一个月的试验，苹果工程师们终于完善了为手机屏幕切割强化玻璃的工艺。据前苹果执行官称数车首批玻璃片于深夜运抵富士康，经理们唤醒数千员工，他们爬入公司制服——男的黑白衬衫、女的红衬衫——然后迅速手工组装手机。在三个月之内，苹果已售出一百万台手机。自那以后，富士康另组装了超过二亿部。

Foxconn, in statements, declined to speak about specific clients.

富士康在声明中拒绝对具体客户进行评论。

“Any worker recruited by our firm is covered by a clear contract outlining terms and conditions and by Chinese government law that protects their rights,” the company wrote. Foxconn “takes our responsibility to our employees very seriously and we work hard to give our more than one million employees a safe and positive environment.”

富士康在书面声明中称：＂所有受雇于本公司的员工均签有列明工作条款与条件的劳动合同，并受中国法律保护。富士康高度重视公司对员工的责任，我们努力为百万余名员工创造一个安全与积极的工作环境。＂

The company disputed some details of the former Apple executive’s account, and wrote that a midnight shift, such as the one described, was impossible “because we have strict regulations regarding the working hours of our employees based on their designated shifts, and every employee has computerized timecards that would bar them from working at any facility at a time outside of their approved shift.” The company said that all shifts began at either 7 a.m. or 7 p.m., and that employees receive at least 12 hours’ notice of any schedule changes.

富士康否认前苹果执行官的某些描述，书面指出上文提到的半夜倒班不可能发生，因为＂我们对员工的工作时间有着严格的管理，每个员工都有固定的班次并执有一张电脑卡，非正常上班时段不得进入厂区。＂富士康还称所有的班次均在上午七点或下午七点开始，若有班次调整，员工应在12小时前得到通知。

Foxconn employees, in interviews, have challenged those assertions.

富士康员工在采访中质疑公司的说法。

Another critical advantage for Apple was that China provided engineers at a scale the United States could not match. Apple’s executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States.

对于苹果来说，中国的另一个重大优势是它能够以美国不可企及的规模大量供应工程师。苹果执行官们估计生产iPhone大约需要8700名产业工程师来监管与指导组装线上的二十万工人。苹果分析师们预计在美国找到这么多合格工程师约需9个月。

In China, it took 15 days.

而在中国，苹果只花了15天。

Companies like Apple “say the challenge in setting up U.S. plants is finding a technical work force,” said Martin Schmidt, associate provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In particular, companies say they need engineers with more than high school, but not necessarily a bachelor’s degree. Americans at that skill level are hard to find, executives contend. “They’re good jobs, but the country doesn’t have enough to feed the demand,” Mr. Schmidt said.

麻省理工副校长Martin Schmidt认为：＂苹果一类的公司称在美国开设工厂所遇到的挑战是难以找到技术性劳力大军。＂这些公司需要介于高中学历和学士学位之间的工程师，处在这个技术水平的美国人很少。Schmidt说：＂这些是好工作，但美国没有足够的人手。＂

Some aspects of the iPhone are uniquely American. The device’s software, for instance, and its innovative marketing campaigns were largely created in the United States. Apple recently built a $500 million data center in North Carolina. Crucial semiconductors inside the iPhone 4 and 4S are manufactured in an Austin, Tex., factory by Samsung, of South Korea.

苹果手机的一些方面是美国独有的。比如说手机软件、创新性的巿场营销等。苹果最近在北卡罗来纳州修建了价值5亿美元的数据中心。iPhone4和4S內关键性的半导体产自位于德州奥斯汀的一家韩国三星厂。

But even those facilities are not enormous sources of jobs. Apple’s North Carolina center, for instance, has only 100 full-time employees. The Samsung plant has an estimated 2,400 workers.

但这些基地并不是大规模的就业机会来源。比方说苹果数据中心仅雇佣了一百名全职员工。三星工厂约有二千四百名工人。

“If you scale up from selling one million phones to 30 million phones, you don’t really need more programmers,” said Jean-Louis Gassée, who oversaw product development and marketing for Apple until he left in 1990. “All these new companies — Facebook, Google, Twitter — benefit from this. They grow, but they don’t really need to hire much.”

在1990年前主管苹果产品开发与巿场营销的Jean-Louis Gassée表示：＂如果你将手机产量从一百万台提高到三千万台，你真的不需要增加程度员。脸谱、谷歌、推特等新公司因此获利，它们在成长，但又不用招新人。＂

It is hard to estimate how much more it would cost to build iPhones in the United States. However, various academics and manufacturing analysts estimate that because labor is such a small part of technology manufacturing, paying American wages would add up to $65 to each iPhone’s expense. Since Apple’s profits are often hundreds of dollars per phone, building domestically, in theory, would still give the company a healthy reward.

很难说在美国生产苹果手机会增加多少成本。但多个学者和制造业分析师估计，由于人工在科技制造业中所占成本比例极低，以美国工资标准估算的话，每个iPhone至多增加65美元成本。因为苹果在每台手机上的盈利达数百美元，所以在理论上讲，苹果如果在本土生产手机依然会获利颇丰。

But such calculations are, in many respects, meaningless because building the iPhone in the United States would demand much more than hiring Americans — it would require transforming the national and global economies. Apple executives believe there simply aren’t enough American workers with the skills the company needs or factories with sufficient speed and flexibility. Other companies that work with Apple, like Corning, also say they must go abroad.

但在很多方面，这样的估算毫无意义，因为在美国生产苹果手机不仅仅需要美国员工，更要对全国、全球经济进行改造。苹果执行官们相信美国根本无法提供足够多的拥有苹果所需技能的工人，也没有足够快速高效的工厂。其它与苹果合作的工厂，如Corning也说他们必须走向海外。

Manufacturing glass for the iPhone revived a Corning factory in Kentucky, and today, much of the glass in iPhones is still made there. After the iPhone became a success, Corning received a flood of orders from other companies hoping to imitate Apple’s designs. Its strengthened glass sales have grown to more than $700 million a year, and it has hired or continued employing about 1,000 Americans to support the emerging market.

为iPhone生产玻璃片重振了Corning位于肯塔基州的一家工厂，iPhone所需的大部分玻璃仍产自该厂。iPhone获得成功之后，想模仿苹果的厂商纷纷向Corning发出订单。Corning的强化玻璃销售额增至每年七亿美元，该厂雇有一千名美国员工以支撑这一上升中的市场。

But as that market has expanded, the bulk of Corning’s strengthened glass manufacturing has occurred at plants in Japan and Taiwan.

但随着市场的扩张，Corning的玻璃片很大一部分开始在日本和台湾生产。

“Our customers are in Taiwan, Korea, Japan and China,” said James B. Flaws, Corning’s vice chairman and chief financial officer. “We could make the glass here, and then ship it by boat, but that takes 35 days. Or, we could ship it by air, but that’s 10 times as expensive. So we build our glass factories next door to assembly factories, and those are overseas.”

Corning副总及首席财务官James B. Flaws表示：＂我们的客户位于台湾、韩国、日本和中国。我们可以在美国生产玻璃片再用船运过去，但需要35天，如空运则要花十倍的运费。因此我们在客户的隔壁开厂，这些都位于海外。＂

Corning was founded in America 161 years ago and its headquarters are still in upstate New York. Theoretically, the company could manufacture all its glass domestically. But it would “require a total overhaul in how the industry is structured,” Mr. Flaws said. “The consumer electronics business has become an Asian business. As an American, I worry about that, but there’s nothing I can do to stop it. Asia has become what the U.S. was for the last 40 years.”

Corning于161年前成立于美国，其总部仍位于纽约州北部。理论上讲，Corning可以在国内生产所有的玻璃，但Flaws先生称：＂这需要重构整个产业，消费电子产业已成为亚洲产业，作为一个美国人我很担心，但我无能为力，亚洲已成为在过去40年的美国。＂

Middle-Class Jobs Fade

中产阶级工作消失

The first time Eric Saragoza stepped into Apple’s manufacturing plant in Elk Grove, Calif., he felt as if he were entering an engineering wonderland.

当Eric Saragoza首次步入苹果位于加州Elk Grove的生产基地时，他感觉像是迈进了工程师乐园。

It was 1995, and the facility near Sacramento employed more than 1,500 workers. It was a kaleidoscope of robotic arms, conveyor belts ferrying circuit boards and, eventually, candy-colored iMacs in various stages of assembly. Mr. Saragoza, an engineer, quickly moved up the plant’s ranks and joined an elite diagnostic team. His salary climbed to $50,000. He and his wife had three children. They bought a home with a pool.

时为1995年，这一位于Sacramento附近的生产基地共雇佣1500多名员工，简直是机器臂的万花筒，传送带运送着电路板以及更个完工程度的花花绿绿的iMac。工程师Saragoza很快就在该厂得到晋升并加入了处理疑难杂症的精英团队。他的年薪提到了五万美元，他有老婆和三个小孩，他们买了带泳池的房子。

“It felt like, finally, school was paying off,” he said. “I knew the world needed people who can build things.”

Saragoza说：＂当时感觉这么多年的学没有白上，世上总需要能够建造东西的人。＂

At the same time, however, the electronics industry was changing, and Apple — with products that were declining in popularity — was struggling to remake itself. One focus was improving manufacturing. A few years after Mr. Saragoza started his job, his bosses explained how the California plant stacked up against overseas factories: the cost, excluding the materials, of building a $1,500 computer in Elk Grove was $22 a machine. In Singapore, it was $6. In Taiwan, $4.85. Wages weren’t the major reason for the disparities. Rather it was costs like inventory and how long it took workers to finish a task.

但电子产业发生了变化，苹果产品失势，公司举步维艰。当时的焦点之一就是改进制造过程。Saragoza先生工作几年之后，他的老板们跟他解释加州厂与海外工厂的对比：在加州制造一台售价1500美元的电脑，除了材料之外的成本为22美元，在新加坡6美元，在台湾4.85美元。工资不是这些差距的主要原因，占大头的是仓储备料与完工速度等。

“We were told we would have to do 12-hour days, and come in on Saturdays,” Mr. Saragoza said. “I had a family. I wanted to see my kids play soccer.”

Saragoza说：＂我们被告之一天上12小时班，周六也得加班。我已成家，我想看我的小孩踢足球。＂

Modernization has always caused some kinds of jobs to change or disappear. As the American economy transitioned from agriculture to manufacturing and then to other industries, farmers became steelworkers, and then salesmen and middle managers. These shifts have carried many economic benefits, and in general, with each progression, even unskilled workers received better wages and greater chances at upward mobility.

现代化总是导致一些工作变化或消失。当美国经济从农耕到制造业再到其它产业转移时，农民变成钢铁工人，再到销售和中层管理。这些变动带来了很多经济利益，总体而言，在毎次变动中，即使是不熟练的工人也可获得更好的报酬和更多向上攀登的机会。

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.

但据经济学家介绍，过去二十年发生了一些根本性的变化。中等收入水平的工作开始消失。尤其是那些没有大学学位的美国人，如今的新工作不成比例地集中在服务行业，如餐馆、接线员、医护或临时工，这些职业很难让人步入中产阶级。

Even Mr. Saragoza, with his college degree, was vulnerable to these trends. First, some of Elk Grove’s routine tasks were sent overseas. Mr. Saragoza didn’t mind. Then the robotics that made Apple a futuristic playground allowed executives to replace workers with machines. Some diagnostic engineering went to Singapore. Middle managers who oversaw the plant’s inventory were laid off because, suddenly, a few people with Internet connections were all that were needed.

就算是拥有大学学位的Saragoza先生也受到这些趋势的威胁。首先，Elk Grove基地的一些日常任务被发往海外，Saragoza不以为然。接着那些取代工人的让苹果成为未来乐园的机器人也送到海外，一些诊断专家也远赴新加坡。曾经掌管仓储的中层经理下岗，因为一夜之间，几个能上网的人就够用了。

Mr. Saragoza was too expensive for an unskilled position. He was also insufficiently credentialed for upper management. He was called into a small office in 2002 after a night shift, laid off and then escorted from the plant. He taught high school for a while, and then tried a return to technology. But Apple, which had helped anoint the region as “Silicon Valley North,” had by then converted much of the Elk Grove plant into an AppleCare call center, where new employees often earn $12 an hour.

对于低技能职位来说，Saragoza太昂贵了，但他的资历又不足以进入上层管理。2002年，Saragoza刚下夜班就被叫入一间小办公室，被告之下岗并护送出厂。他在高中教了一段时间的书，然后又想回到lT业。但曾经参与将该地区打造成＂硅谷＂的苹果已经把Elk Grove基地的大部分改造成售后服务电话中心，新招接线员时薪12美元。

There were employment prospects in Silicon Valley, but none of them panned out. “What they really want are 30-year-olds without children,” said Mr. Saragoza, who today is 48, and whose family now includes five of his own.

在硅谷里也有些工作机会，但最终均未成功，现年48岁的Saragoza说：＂他们真正想要的是那些30多岁而且没有小孩的。＂Saragoza家里有五个小孩。

After a few months of looking for work, he started feeling desperate. Even teaching jobs had dried up. So he took a position with an electronics temp agency that had been hired by Apple to check returned iPhones and iPads before they were sent back to customers. Every day, Mr. Saragoza would drive to the building where he had once worked as an engineer, and for $10 an hour with no benefits, wipe thousands of glass screens and test audio ports by plugging in headphones.

在找了几个月工作之后，Saragoza开始慌了，连教书的工作也消失了。后来他在一家临时工中介那找到一份工，专为苹果修理用户退回的iPhones和iPads。每一天，Saragoza开车到几年前曾经担任工程师的地方，为了每小时十块钱（无福利）的工钱，擦拭数千个玻璃屏，不停地摘插耳机以检测声音接口。

Paydays for Apple

苹果发财之日

As Apple’s overseas operations and sales have expanded, its top employees have thrived. Last fiscal year, Apple’s revenue topped $108 billion, a sum larger than the combined state budgets of Michigan, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Since 2005, when the company’s stock split, share prices have risen from about $45 to more than $427.

随着苹果海外运作和销售的扩张，高层雇员的日子越发滋润。上个财政年度，苹果销售额超过1080亿美元，比密歇根、新泽西、麻省三州的预算之和还高。自公司2005年拆股以来，苹果股价从45美元飙升至427美元。

Some of that wealth has gone to shareholders. Apple is among the most widely held stocks, and the rising share price has benefited millions of individual investors, 401(k)’s and pension plans. The bounty has also enriched Apple workers. Last fiscal year, in addition to their salaries, Apple’s employees and directors received stock worth $2 billion and exercised or vested stock and options worth an added $1.4 billion.

这些财富的一部分流入了股东的腰包。苹果是世界上最为广泛持有的股票，不断攀升的股价让数百万个人股东、养老基金、退休基金获利。收益也肥了苹果员工。在上个财年，苹果员工和董事除工资外还获得了价值20亿美元的股票，另外行使价值14亿美元股票期权。

The biggest rewards, however, have often gone to Apple’s top employees. Mr. Cook, Apple’s chief, last year received stock grants — which vest over a 10-year period — that, at today’s share price, would be worth $427 million, and his salary was raised to $1.4 million. In 2010, Mr. Cook’s compensation package was valued at $59 million, according to Apple’s security filings.

最大的回报则落入苹果最高层的囊中，比如苹果老总Cook先生去年获得的股票期权（十年期）以今天的股价计高达4亿2千7百万美元，工资则提高到一百四十万美元。据苹果的证券资料，Cook先生去年的补偿计划高达5千9百万美元。

A person close to Apple argued that the compensation received by Apple’s employees was fair, in part because the company had brought so much value to the nation and world. As the company has grown, it has expanded its domestic work force, including manufacturing jobs. Last year, Apple’s American work force grew by 8,000 people.

一位接近苹果的人士认为苹果员工所获补偿是公平的，部分地由于苹果给美国和整个世界创造了大量财富。随着苹果成长，它扩展了国内就业，包括制造业工作。去年，苹果的美国雇员增长了八千人。

While other companies have sent call centers abroad, Apple has kept its centers in the United States. One source estimated that sales of Apple’s products have caused other companies to hire tens of thousands of Americans. FedEx and United Parcel Service, for instance, both say they have created American jobs because of the volume of Apple’s shipments, though neither would provide specific figures without permission from Apple, which the company declined to provide.

当其它公司将电话中心移到海外，苹果仍然将其电话中心保留在国内。一名消息人士估计苹果的销售让其它公司得以扩招数以万计的美国员工。比方说，联盟快递和UPS等均表示，因为苹果的货流量公司在美国招新。至于具体数字由于没有苹果授权不便透露。

“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.”

一位现任苹果执行官表示：＂不要怪我们使用中国工人，美国已停止供应我们所需的员工。＂

What’s more, Apple sources say the company has created plenty of good American jobs inside its retail stores and among entrepreneurs selling iPhone and iPad applications.

此外，苹果消息来源还称苹果产品为零售店和应用软件厂商创造了不少好工作。

After two months of testing iPads, Mr. Saragoza quit. The pay was so low that he was better off, he figured, spending those hours applying for other jobs. On a recent October evening, while Mr. Saragoza sat at his MacBook and submitted another round of résumés online, halfway around the world a woman arrived at her office. The worker, Lina Lin, is a project manager in Shenzhen, China, at PCH International, which contracts with Apple and other electronics companies to coordinate production of accessories, like the cases that protect the iPad’s glass screens. She is not an Apple employee. But Mrs. Lin is integral to Apple’s ability to deliver its products.

在检测iPad两个月之后，Saragoza辞职了，工资实在太低，还不如花点时间找其它工作。十月的一个夜晚，Saragoza用他的苹果电脑在网上发简历，地球的另一边，一名女子正步入她的办公室。林女士是中国深圳一家苹果配件生产管理商的项目经理。她不是苹果雇员，但她对苹果的供货能力起到不可或缺的作用。

Mrs. Lin earns a bit less than what Mr. Saragoza was paid by Apple. She speaks fluent English, learned from watching television and in a Chinese university. She and her husband put a quarter of their salaries in the bank every month. They live in a 1,080-square-foot apartment, which they share with their in-laws and son.

林女士的薪水比Saragoza原先在苹果的工资稍低，她能说流利的英语，在中国一家大学学的再加上看电视。她和她的丈夫毎月将工资的四分之一存银行，带上儿子及亲友住在一个面积一百平米的公寓。

“There are lots of jobs,” Mrs. Lin said. “Especially in Shenzhen.”

林女士说：＂工作很多，尤其在深圳。＂

Innovation’s Losers

创新中的失败者

Toward the end of Mr. Obama’s dinner last year with Mr. Jobs and other Silicon Valley executives, as everyone stood to leave, a crowd of photo seekers formed around the president. A slightly smaller scrum gathered around Mr. Jobs. Rumors had spread that his illness had worsened, and some hoped for a photograph with him, perhaps for the last time.

和奥巴马的晩餐接近尾声，人们开始起身离场，一群人挤在总统身边要求合影。而稍少的一群人围在乔布斯身旁，关于他病重的传言四起，一些人希望能与他合影，也许这是最后一次。

Eventually, the orbits of the men overlapped. “I’m not worried about the country’s long-term future,” Mr. Jobs told Mr. Obama, according to one observer. “This country is insanely great. What I’m worried about is that we don’t talk enough about solutions.”

最终，两群人交织在一起。乔布斯对奥巴马说：＂我不担心美国的长远未来，这个国家极其伟大。我所担心的是我们对解决方案讨论不足。＂

At dinner, for instance, the executives had suggested that the government should reform visa programs to help companies hire foreign engineers. Some had urged the president to give companies a “tax holiday” so they could bring back overseas profits which, they argued, would be used to create work. Mr. Jobs even suggested it might be possible, someday, to locate some of Apple’s skilled manufacturing in the United States if the government helped train more American engineers.

在宴会上，一些执行官建议总统改革签证系统，让公司更方便地雇佣外国工程师。有些促请总统给予公司们一个＂税收假日＂，让它们能够收回海外利润以创造本土工作。乔布斯甚至暗示如果政府帮助培养美国工程师，苹果有可能将部分精加工搬回美国。

Economists debate the usefulness of those and other efforts, and note that a struggling economy is sometimes transformed by unexpected developments. The last time analysts wrung their hands about prolonged American unemployment, for instance, in the early 1980s, the Internet hardly existed. Few at the time would have guessed that a degree in graphic design was rapidly becoming a smart bet, while studying telephone repair a dead end.

经济学家们对这些及其它措施的用处进行了辩论，并提出挣扎中的经济有时会因意料之外的事件而发生改变。比方说，上一回分析师们为美国失业率长期高居不下而纠心时是在上世纪八十年代初，当时因特网几乎还不存在。当时的人们少有能想见学习图像设计会吃香而修理电话行将走向末路。

What remains unknown, however, is whether the United States will be able to leverage tomorrow’s innovations into millions of jobs.

然而尚不清楚美国是否能将明天的创新转化成数百万计的工作。

In the last decade, technological leaps in solar and wind energy, semiconductor fabrication and display technologies have created thousands of jobs. But while many of those industries started in America, much of the employment has occurred abroad. Companies have closed major facilities in the United States to reopen in China. By way of explanation, executives say they are competing with Apple for shareholders. If they cannot rival Apple’s growth and profit margins, they won’t survive.

在过去十年，太阳能与风力发电技术、半导体制造、显示技术等突飞猛进，创造了数千个就业机会。虽然很多这方面的产业源自美国，该领域的工作却在海外开花结果。美国大规模生产基地关门，转而在中国重新开张。执行官们解释道，他们在与苹果争夺投资者。如果他们不能与苹果的增速与利润率相抗衡，他们将无法生存。

“New middle-class jobs will eventually emerge,” said Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist. “But will someone in his 40s have the skills for them? Or will he be bypassed for a new graduate and never find his way back into the middle class?”

哈佛经济学家Lawrence Katz说：＂新的中产阶级工作最终会出现，但到时40多岁的人是否能够胜任？或者一整代人被直接跨过，从此与中产无缘？＂

The pace of innovation, say executives from a variety of industries, has been quickened by businessmen like Mr. Jobs. G.M. went as long as half a decade between major automobile redesigns. Apple, by comparison, has released five iPhones in four years, doubling the devices’ speed and memory while dropping the price that some consumers pay.

多个产业的执行官认为乔布斯一类的商人加快了创新速度。通用汽车曾经五六年才对车辆设计进行大改。相比之下，苹果在四年内推出了五款手机，在降低售价的同时将速度和内存提高了两倍。

Before Mr. Obama and Mr. Jobs said goodbye, the Apple executive pulled an iPhone from his pocket to show off a new application — a driving game — with incredibly detailed graphics. The device reflected the soft glow of the room’s lights. The other executives, whose combined worth exceeded $69 billion, jostled for position to glance over his shoulder. The game, everyone agreed, was wonderful.

在奥巴马和乔布斯作別前，这位苹果老总从口袋里掏出iPhone以炫耀一个新应用软件，一个画面细节惊人的驾车游戏。手机反射着大厅内缓和的光。身价总和超过690亿美元的其他老总们争抢观赏最佳位置。众人交口称赞，游戏果然神奇。