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America is a top innovator. That includes short run, limited, prototype, and some complex and defense related manufacturing. Basic technology manufacturing has become commodity based and is out to the lowest bidder.
Bringing additional manufacturing back is about more than just personnel costs. Taxes as well as access to the supply chain are major factors in this. Supply chain is always in flux due to import/export laws and port of entry regulations.
Third world countries supply cheap labor and use sweatshop tactics. European country's such as Germany use a system where the highly intelligent go to a university, and others are funneled into an apprenticeship for skilled labor. We utilize our large military complex, the large prison system complex, prisoners and guards plus the supply chain, our police force/ local sheriffs, plus transportation/warehousing to solve the under-educated untrained workforce problems. So no, manufacturing for unskilled labor will not return to the US.
Evolve. America is still a top manufacturer. Just requires less people.
That means less good paying jobs. Your argument is like saying "there's less oxygen. Learn how to not breathe." Prove I'm wrong - show me where the big rush of good paying jobs is coming from. No speculations. Show me where it is happening. Give me proven numbers. Proven. Numbers.
IMO, they aren't coming from anywhere. The good ones that are left are simply that, jobs that haven't left. Automotive, aircraft, defense, protoype and short run work that are too complex for lowest bidder countries.
There's no shortage of robots and automation in China. They own Kuka, among other companies that are in the automation industry. There's also an ample supply of skilled and semi skilled labor available to build the robots, machinery, etc, as well as operate and keep it all running smoothly. Will the USA be any better at competing in the future with crippling skilled labor shortages, much higher labor costs, much higher overall manufacturing costs, among the many other challenges?
Most Americans tell their kids to go to college so they don't have to work a manufacturing job. So long as that is the case, why would corporations who put profits ahead of all else choose to manufacture here when China has everything they want, at a fraction of the cost?
Something far more drastic would have to take place in order for manufacturing to return to the USA, and most people wouldn't like it. One thing is clear though... Sitting back and waiting patiently for manufacturing jobs to flow back to the USA has proven to be a failed strategy. If there is a problem, ignoring it doesn't solve it. You actually have to work to solve the problem. And that's why the problem still exists to this day, and will not improve without real effort and commitment to solving the problem (if you believe it is a problem). Americans can't seem to agree on anything anymore, and quite a few Americans believe that as long as they can buy cheap, poor quality imported goods from Walmart, there is no problem at all.
This post is worth re-reading and the following post by Johnhw2.
The economic boom in the US was caused by deregulation of industry from 2016 to 2020. That and a official government policy to force American corporations to return jobs to the US and a self-sufficient energy policy.
Those years are going to be just a blip in America's decline.
Just because a company is currently based in the US, does not mean that they are a American company.
Almost all of America's largest corporations are globalist in outlook. Their ties to the US are basically historically. A companies manufacturing base means that over time the company will end up moving there. Apple's slogan.....Designed in California and built in China, will soon be replaced by Designed and Built in China.
We are going back to the regulations and governmental policies from 1988-2016. Worse yet, several articles in the Wall Street Journal about Wall Street banks defunding energy and other politically incorrect companies. That policy does not bode well for economic growth in the future!!!
NJ Brazen's quote....."It appears what is being made overseas are the cheap perishable, and small items like kids toys or remote controls, and even textiles and or plastic boxes etc etc".
is totally incorrect. China has a high tech manufacturing capacity that exceeds that of the United States. In case, you haven't noticed they just sent a lunar lander to retrieve rocks from the moon.
NASA still does not have the capability to even put a man in low earth orbit.
People in the US think Facebook, Google, Amazon and MicroSoft are "high tech". Facebook and Google are primarily advertising agencies. Selling private information to corporations about their users. Amazon is the Sears and Roebuck of the 21st century. Still a store, granted one that uses high tech effectively. The so-called tech companies in the US are consumer oriented, not driven by state of the art technology in most cases.
On the other hand, China designs and manufactures REAL technology. Yes, they might have stolen it from the US, but currently they are in the process of surpassing the US as the premier technology country in the world.
In a previous job, China was the largest consumer of our machines. We knew their buying of equipment was to meet the initial ramp of production and they would copy our designs for future generations of production. Our goal was to simple keep the design cycle ahead of them for customers that demanded the most current capabilities. Once the Chinese adapted our designs and took them to market, we had to reply on our MTBF record and design capability to migrate customers to newer products. I doubt that cycle has changed much.
Of course, doing the above has given the Chinese greater manufacturing capability and improved their products. My involvement with automotive hobbies has shown that Chinese companies are capable of producing a variety of hard parts for the hobby that more than adequate for the hobbiest and casual competitive enthusiasts. However, at the semi-pro or professional level, the go to manufacturers are still American based. The highest level forgings, machining, and quality control in these arenas are still a hold out for American manufacturers although Australian, European, and Japanese manufacturers are right there with us these days.
Will China's capability continue to increase, absolutely.
That means less good paying jobs. Your argument is like saying "there's less oxygen. Learn how to not breathe." Prove I'm wrong - show me where the big rush of good paying jobs is coming from. No speculations. Show me where it is happening. Give me proven numbers. Proven. Numbers.
Betcha can't do that, can you?
You’ll need to put it a deposit down before I educate you. It isn’t free.
...is there going to be more, or less emphasis on domestic manufacturing/production?
The mostly sensible economic and political reasons to have off-shored much of our low tech
consumer good manufacturing in the first place pretty much all still hold.
The problem, the only real problem (said here yet again) was in continuing to support
the overproduction of replacement workers for jobs that would no longer exist.
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