Tornado Alley (PROG)

[dukeb]

We can aim all we want but that's not going to change the fact that we are now part of a global economy.

You can pick just about any industry where America dominated and watch how it moved. First from the rustbelt to the south. Then from the south to Asia. As wages have risen in China there is movement to even lower wage countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh.

Why? Because the economics dictate, with few exceptions, that it is "best" for goods to be produced where costs are lowest. It's true that in some nations the cost to manufacture a product is artificially low because environmental and labor regulations are much more lax than they are in first world countries. Hell, in some places they still use slave and child labor to produce stuff. America can't compete with that. And we shouldn't significantly relax our laws to do so despite what the current administration would prefer.

There has been some on-shoring over the years...in some cases because product quality isn't great in many Asian factories. and lead times mean that orders have to be placed many months in advance. Let's not forget how fragile the supply chain was when COVID hit. PPE was difficult to find because a lot of that stuff is brought in from Asia. You may recall that the demand and price increases for PPE allowed a limited number of factories to profitably open in the USA. I wonder how many of those factories are still open today. Few, if any I suspect.

Even service jobs that were exclusively given to Americans have been sent overseas where costs are lower. Jobs in accounting, IT and the legal field - all areas that paid a decent wage - have been sent overseas in huge numbers. And the threat of A.I. makes those jobs even more perilous in the decades to come.

I subscribe to YouTube channel that chronicles shoplifters in various convenience stores (it's more entertaining than it sounds...the owner of the channel is a hoot). One of the stores has cameras that are monitored by security personnel in India. When a shoplifter puts something in their pocket there is a "voice of god" that comes over the loudspeakers saying "Sir, please take that candy bar out of your pocket." Those used to be American jobs.

So, are Americans prepared to accept a lower standard of living to achieve cost parity with other countries? Clearly Musk, Bezos and their ilk are fine with that idea as long as they are the ones on top reaping the rewards and calling the shots.

we should aim to return to what we were in the pre-1980s period: a major industrial power.