It isn't just the cost that's an issue, it's the fact that American workers are not as... flexible... on what constitutes an acceptable work/life balance. Would you do what these workers ( <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and...</a> ) do if you had any other opportunity at all? Labor laws aside, could they pay you enough to live and work like this and still make an affordable device?<p>Relevant quote from article:<p>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.<p>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.<p>“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”