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STEVE

And some of the things I wanted to talk about, I was reading through this and Marlo, you mentioned during the break a little bit we’re talking about Apple chargers and that kind of dovetails into one of the articles. So let’s talk about the chargers first. So, the European Union has come out with a dictate. It concerns Apple and there’s a little dark side to this that you brought up, and we’ll get into that. But, on the surface this should make a lot of Apple users happy. One of the big headaches with Apple, my wife’s an Apple user, I’m not, but every time she gets a new phone, she’s gotta get a new charging cord. Or because they change it with every phone. 

MARLO

And you could maybe say the same with Android too. Maybe not as often. USB-C‘s been around for a couple years now. 

STEVE

Yeah, once I switch to C, I’m sticking with C. That’s it.

MARLO

You can stream video through it. So, you can hook it up to your television. It’s like an HDMI in that regard. It’s very universal. So, the European Union has stated that by 2024, all smartphones and all tablets have to use USB-C. There is no other exception.

STEVE

And we’ve heard rumblings of that. Talking from the United States that it was coming. So, now that the European Union’s done it, I’m guessing it’s gonna come a little quicker in the United States.

MARLO

It’ll be interesting to see if this comes about and it could be the one caveat that we were just talking about where, 

STEVE

Cause that’s the one of my box checkoffs when I’m looking for a new device is, does it have C? 

MARLO

Right. But a lot of people don’t think about it until you bring it home and you’re like, “oh my goodness” –  it’s got another different one. The challenge that I have with this, now, I like this because I’m the same way as everybody else. I hate carrying all the different chargers. The downside to this, of course, is innovation. And the European Union is dictating that you use USB-C and they’re saying in 2024 for tablets and for phones and 2026 for laptops. So, they’re projecting four years into the future. Now, I don’t know of any USB cord that has lasted four years because there’s usually the next iteration of things. So, one would have to think that they’re gonna continue to get better. So, does this stifle innovation because all of a sudden? Now, the European Union is not gonna be using anything but USB-C for the foreseeable future.

STEVE

What happens when you take away that innovation piece and take it out of the private sector? Because, you’re subsidizing it or you’re mandating it. And that takes away the private sector’s ability… inspiration to innovate. You’ve taken that out.

MARLO

Yep. So I don’t know. On one side, I’m 50-50 on this, because I’m gonna love if the United States were to do this too. “Hey, Marlo, my phone is dead. Can I borrow your cord?” Sometimes I don’t have the right cord with me. Well, I usually do cuz I have a whole gadget bag I carry with me. 

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MARLO

I have it right here. Are you ready? We didn’t go down our usual rabbit hole. We were talking about production of products coming back to the United States chips and such and chips and such. Of course the chip shortage really brought this to light. I just saw a video of, I think Ford had rented out one of the race tracks to store their vehicles because they’re waiting for chips. It’s $2 billion worth of pickup trucks sitting there waiting to be delivered.

STEVE

GM had actually started sending out vehicles without all the chips. I ran into a guy back in August that had a brand new Yukon and it didn’t have the air conditioned seats, it didn’t have this.

MARLO

So they’re shipping them out-

STEVE

They’re like “Take it.” We’re gonna deduct that off the cost of the vehicle and then when that chip is available, you’ll get a recall notice and come in and we’ll put it in for free.

MARLO

So, Intel is building a $20 billion computer chip facility in Ohio and this thing is huge. Now, I’m just looking it up for the second time here because I know that you and I talked about this a while back. It’s