Originally Posted by
terks43
It’s hilarious that people think manufacturing would ever return to this county. We are paid way to much as a whole for a product made in America to ever be competitive on the global stage when it could just be made somewhere else. To believe manufacturing could return to this country is delusional and detached from reality. It’s never going to happen. This is Econ class 101 stuff that a subset of people just can’t seem to wrap their heads around. Literally the most basic concept in all of free market economics.
50s style manufacturing? Yes. Nobody is going to pack 2,000 people in a textile mill and pay for their health insurance which would exceed their wage costs.
But a modern automated factory could work. It would only employ a fraction of that number (our population is declining, especially if you stop illegal migration) at livable wages.
Ultimately, I don't really care that much about T-shirts. We can keep getting those from Indonesia. I care about things we need for war. I don't want war but I also can't abide a pacing adversary country having leverage over us. Didn't some smart guy say if you want peace prepare for war?
I'd also love to pay a little bit more for quality stuff that lasts instead of disposable junk. The shock and awe phase is over. Let's see what deals get made before we judge the results of the policy. A 20% stock market swoon and Canadians not booking flights to Miami isn't enough evidence to presume a 2001 or 2008 style airline cataclysm.