Exactly what I was going to say. US and many Western countries are idea machines, but they are all built in Asia.
As someone said, Japan takes something and makes it better, China takes something and makes it cheaper.
As someone said, Japan takes something and makes it better, China takes something and makes it cheaper.
They won't be founding startups, but I'm sure many would love to learn the skills to work in a factory if it was even an option here anymore.
What do companies save by outsourcing to countries where they don't pay taxes, health care, benefits, vacation, and price per hour is dirt cheap? I heard 20% somewhere a while back. If an iPad cost 20% more would it still sell? Or a pair of Nike shoes? While it has been victim of some about of fraud, Product(RED) got people to pay a bit extra for something they would have bought anyway knowing that money was going to a good cause.
The middle class is under attack, but the bottom is really struggling and things are only going to get worse. Some people depend on being a cashier. If we can stabilize the bottom workers we can rebuild from there.
I actually have some hardware projects I want to build over the next decade, and I'd prefer to produce them in the US or UK if at all possible (they're security devices). Should be interesting seeing exactly what can be done. I believe if you can solve the subcontractor/parts problem, modern automation should make US production competitive, as long as your production process isn't terribly polluting or regulated (which I wouldn't want to be responsible for even if it happened in China). Some place like eastern WA or TN or something might be a great place to manufacture high value products again.