We've previously reported on the Foxconn manufacturng facility in China that produces Apple products like the iPad.

Foxconn's work for Apple has proven so lucrative that the company will invest $210 million to build a new facility in east China's Jiangsu province designed specifically to serve Apple.

What a shame that Apple will expand its production in factory, no matter the troubling labor conditions at Foxconn.

Instead, why couldn't Apple follow the lead of other firms that are bringing production back to the U.S.?  A recent Boston Globe op-ed by U.S. manufacturing advocates Michele Nash-Hoff, President of ElectroFab, and Curtis Ellis of the American Jobs Alliance, argued that now would be an ideal time for Apple to bring jobs back to the U.S.

Nash-Hoff and Ellis believe that Apple could easily profit from manufacturing in the U.S.:

“Apple is in a unique position to manufacture in the US. In a sector driven by price, Apple does not compete on price — it competes on quality. Apple products cost more and command a premium price because they’re better. Sound familiar? This has traditionally been the hallmark of American goods. Buyers pay more for products made in the US, because they are superior.”

As for labor Costs, Nash-Hoff and Ellis argue that Apple should have no problems paying American workers fair wages to manufacture their goods domestically:

“But Apple can well afford American labor…In the final analysis, labor is a small part (probably less than 10 percent) of Apple’s cost of manufacturing, far less than capital equipment and components.”

Apple, a prime example of American innovation at its best, has long prided itself on its ability to design groundbreaking consumer electronic devices that set the tone for the rest of the industry. Couldn't such an American success story break new ground yet again by shifting produciton back to the country that houses its epicenter of innovation?