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Comment by mbreedlove | Hacker News Reader

> If we were to start that ban many of Walmart's non-grocery (and some groceries) shelves would be empty for considerable time.

I always point out the price difference for the two models of the Purism Librem 5 phone. One model is manufactured traditionally and costs $749. The other model is manufactured in the USA and costs $1999.

Americans talk about bringing manufacturing back to the country, but I'm not sure anyone is ready to pay 2-3x for their goods.

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The problem isn't much about labor costs in the US, but the dismantling of the supply chain. Even Apple had problems sourcing screws when building a handful of its computers in the USA, which is well documented. To re-build a domestic supply-chain, one has to start somewhere. China started by exporting 'low-tech' products (plastic utensils, some toys) and it inexorably moved up the chain while USA and Europe eventually divested of much of their manufacturing infrastructure.

Yep this is a good answer. And it follows that if you’re serious about this issue & don’t just like to hear yourself talk, you should go do the work at the low level. It peeves me off to no end to see the lack of seriousness around this. It’s the same exact lack of seriousness that people had before the iraq invasion, and I pitched a fit then for no gain and I’ll do it again too!

It doesn’t have to be manufactured in the US. It just can’t be from a country with such horribly lopsided market policies.

Yeah, first comes assembly of parts. "Assembled in USA", frankly, USA brand has diminished so may we should do a bit of a friendly competition of branding between states. "Assembled in Texas" or "Assembled in California".

Once assembly lines are automated (even using Chinese parts), there is incentive to achieve local production of those parts.

There is nothing that China has, besides precious metals perhaps, that USA does not.

I would kill to buy an iPhone made 100% in USA. Or even in Germany or France or any EU nation.

As Elon said - "We've forgotten to build stuff. Someone's gotta do it. Might as well be us."

if china closes, we can move manufacturing to other 3rd world countries. It's not just China or US. that's a false dichotomy.

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