Originally Posted by
tallpilot
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.
Fair enough, but you don't get those things back overnight & you certainly don't encourage American producers by enacting policies that throw the economy into recession & encourage hyperinflation. You do that with measured and thoughtful legislation that, over time, brings strategic manufacturing in certain critical sectors back home. The last administration, however flawed, was making some promising moves in this direction. The new administration had widespread bipartisan support to continue to expand sound and measured policies that would ensure we had access to things like energy infrastructure, shipbuilding, pharmaceutical production, microchips, AI, and other important industries and technologies. Instead, they have squandered that political capital and seem to have unilaterally decided that burning the whole effin' forest down and planting a few new trees that will take decades to mature is the better plan. This is buffoonery on a massive scale and our industry is about to pay dearly for it.