American-made products are not impossible. Stories about iPhones costing $37,000 or laptops costing $100,000 are psy-ops, sometimes pushed by foreign adversaries but more commonly by American corporations that want anything but an upset to the status quo.
Palmer Luckey says companies are exaggerating the cost of American manufacturing to justify staying in China: “They don’t want to admit that it is a choice.” 🇺🇸🇨🇳 “I don’t have a lot of sympathy for people who pretend that manufacturing in the U.S. is this impossible, order-of-magnitude problem. A lot of it is very self-serving. They want to justify why they’re in China. They want to justify why it’s OK for them to stay in China. They know that when sanctions hit as a result of a potential Taiwan conflict, they want to say, ‘Nobody could’ve predicted this, and I had no choice anyway.’ They don’t want to admit that it is a choice. If Chinese subsidized steel is a third of the price of American unsubsidized steel, a tariff isn’t going to work. But if the price difference really is 30%, then a tariff could bring the American steel industry back. It’s critically important to get this question right, and there aren’t enough people talking about it.”

Oct 17, 2026 · 7:30 AM UTC

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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
Goat … thanks for the repost.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
Compare the price you charge (scam) your own government for your vaporware drones and its rough analog in Chyna.
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What product do you have in mind?
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
As a US manufacturer this is spot on…Landed costs of Chinese goods isn’t killing our pricing, it’s typically 10-20-30% cheaper made containing god knows what chemicals, defects and slave labor. Wish more would choose to be more manufacturing conscious, me included 😂
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
Yep Same lie as Americans can’t do that kind of work. They stole everything from us and our politicians let it happen.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
Thank you. I've been saying this for years and broke it down in Death by China (Pearson 2010). Labor is a small portion of the iPhone. If assembly labor cost tripled it might add $90 onto a $1,200 phone. The real problem is that most firms are too lazy to rebuild their supply chain. They pretend it is "impossible to do in America", which is pretty ironic as those US firms actually funded and showed China how to create all that in the 90s and 2000's when China was undeveloped.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
If robots like Optimus will have general capabilities equivalent or better than a human then the cost debate becomes moot.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
i think most things can be made here although i’m not 100% sure on computer chips we do make some here but to increase the output that we would need would cost billions in just infra. but a lot of other things for sure we can do. i think we probably should just bite the bullet and become a semiconductor powerhouse that way we can have a bunch of young people study physics and mathematics so we have a smarter population of people.
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Lawyers and regulations have made having employees in the US a liability.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
I never got it. When say they producing clothes or sneakers would be 3 times the production cost than in asia. So 15$ instead of 5$? But you are selling them to retail for 90-150$, right?
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
I'd buy a Palmer/Anduril phone the moment it came out. Destroy them
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
This is the TRUTH!! We have the labor and resources in the United States. There’s no reason to continue this practice!
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
I don’t disagree, but I think a big hurdle is a generation of white collar workers…earned (aka paid for) a $100k education to work behind a laptop. We discouraged blue collar trades and manufacturing jobs as a lower caste in this country, lower earning potential. You don’t see viral vids of kids opening an acceptance letter into an electrician apprenticeship. Working on a factory line has been for decades associated with hard, even dangerous, labor and downright exploitation.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
I don’t think anyone honestly believes that the cause is anything but corporate greed. It’s always been a choice and it will keep being a choice under capitalism.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
Not just wages, but working conditions, workers comp, insurances, pollution, etc etc. they can ignore all those rules outside the US
Replying to @PalmerLuckey
Zero capital gains tax plus higher import tariffs is the way. American workers receive higher salaries, and are encouraged to invest their money back into America (because doing so means FREE MONEY - i.e. no tax). When people realize how literally EVERYONE benefits, they will be happy to pay the slightly higher prices. Just copy Switzerland.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
Automation is a thing. The current leadership at these large companies is not competent enough to design systems that keep their margins close to what they are now and reshore manufacturing. And they don't want to lose their jobs because they cannot manage that problem.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
the main driver of overseas manufacturing is cheap labor. now that anything can be automated by anyone with a little dedication and physical space can manufacture many new things
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
We do need to gut the regulatory state and rip up the red tape to be competitive.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
So companies are selling out American factory workers for only marginal gains that could probably be absorbed by the consumer? (Offset by the preference/loyalty they'd get from naturally pro-Made in America sentiment)
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God bless you Palmer. Modretro phone?
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
The dooming on this subject is often a cover for a guilty conscience. There’s no law of physics that says “Made in America” can’t work at far greater scale than we see today. Let’s all dream a little bigger.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
But how else will they keep profit margins at 50% per unit? Please consider how this would impact the CEO’s bonus
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
WSJ had a good article about making a monopoly game in USA, it is challenging. Appreciate what you are doing to improve our country. No quick fixes.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
Bingo. Not quite the same, but when I started off a small coffee house and roastery, if I had someone else roasting for me, I'd need to charge Starbuck prices. So, I did what I thought was right: cut out as much of the middle man as possible. This allowed me to offer premium, freshly roasted coffee at reasonable (and profitable) prices.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
How much cost is added by our governments via regulations. Seems like single term limits would give legislators the time and hopefully balls to simplify regulations and sunset old complicated rules.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
Who owns many of those shares or is outright above American CEOs as well.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
Team up with @dhh and build an American omarchy phone.
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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
Even if partially true, what are we trading in exchange for a lower sticker price?

ALT Lloyd Austin GIF by GIPHY News

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Replying to @PalmerLuckey
I thought you also said Anduril could not compete with low cost Ukrainian munitions — surely there are a wide number of products we cannot produce competitively barring some major technological / process improvement (eg shoes)
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