DIRECTIONS: "Made in" on the back is only where the last step happened. Trace where the parts come from.
A part of it
Why it comes from where it comes from
Which country would you guess?
1. The glass on the front
a furnace hot enough to melt sand, and one factory that got very good at it
2. The chip that does the thinking
the hardest thing on the list to make anywhere
3. The battery
needs particular metals, which are only in a few places
4. The metals in that battery
dug out of the ground, and the ground decides where
5. Putting it all together
wherever it is cheapest to do carefully and at speed
6. The software on it
written by people who never touched any of the above
Nobody planned this. No government drew this up and no company decided it alone. Each step ended up where it did because that was the cheapest or the only place to do it — and once enough steps landed in enough places, the object could not be made anywhere else without starting over.
That is worth holding on to: a thing this complicated is the result of a great many small decisions and no large one.
Nothing Is Made in One Place — Following It Back
Where things come from · Page 2 of 2
Find something in the room with a country on it. Write down what it is and where it says. Then say what that label actually tells you — and one thing it does not.
A country announces it will make phones entirely by itself. Using the table, say which step would be the hardest to start from nothing, and why.
Every step being in a different country makes each one cheaper. Say what it makes worse at the same time.