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Comment by nostrademons | Hacker News Reader

That goes on up the chain, though. The reason manufacturing left the U.S. was because it was no longer cost-effective to pay American wages at the prices prevalent in consumer goods industries. Had we kept manufacturing on-shore, the price of goods would've mimicked services like health care, law, and education, all of which have undergone very significant inflation, much more than the economy-wide average.

The result of this on-shoring craze (modulo automation) is that we're likely to see very significant inflation, basically taking us back to the cost structures we saw in the 1980s. No more cheap Chinese or Vietnamese goods at Amazon or Walmart; if we have to Buy American, expect to pay the differential between Vietnamese and American wages, roughly a 30-40x increase.

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“No more cheap Chinese or Vietnamese goods at Amazon or Walmart; “

Sounds like paradise to me.

And hell for all the people that aren't rich and have middle or low income.

those people can have a higher income because they can get a domestic manufacturing job; its the people who aren't working and rely on subsidized social programs and welfare who would have to take the hit.

I think they’d have more money not spending it on useless junk ?

Being too poor to save for high quality things that don't need to be replaced as often is a tax within itself. That's part of why poverty is considered "cyclical".

There's a lot of good second hand things for very cheap available. See my other comment about coffee makers, for example.

What screws people without money is the expensive once off things that just always crop up. I have a decent job and I feel the burn, especially now with inflation, a once off surprise expensive can be deadly lately.

The accidental parking fines, the expensive medical bill, the new car tyre, the more expensive electricity etc. This IMO is more likely to create cyclical poverty than the ability to buy cheap things from Walmart(TM).

"Useless junk" like food? I don't think you have a clear picture of what people buy at Wal-mart.

Food is not useless junk though

Asian produced goods aren't cheap plastic junk; they're better than American made because they're better at doing it and have all the support and supply chains there.

You can't get something the quality of a smartphone or mirrorless camera assembled in the US for the quality you can in Thailand for any amount of money. Shenzhen is just better at electronics than we are.

Of course, America does produce some of the components going into them, just like Japan and Korea and the UK do.

People who buy a new $10 coffee maker every 6-12 months when the last one clogs up would have to learn to clean them.

It's expensive to be cheap

This

A bigger concern is that it's expensive to be poor.

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2015/09/03/its-expen...

That article is about financial exploitation (a very real problem for which Bernie had a great solution - offer basic retail banking at the post office), not about inexpensive, sh*tty consumer goods.

The problem is, the poor can only afford the inexpensive goods, so they are "cheap" (i.e. they make cost-inefficient purchases) through lack of choice.

The coffee makers are now $30.

You just adapt, I can make great coffee with a 40 year old Italian Moka Pot that I can get for $5 at a second hand store and will last 200 years or more.

Do people still use drip coffee makers? I don't think any of the ways I make coffee are capable of clogging, and I have like four different ones.

Should descale the Nespresso though…

Do people still use one of the cheapest and lowest time and energy investment ways to make coffee in an era of increasing pressure on time, money, and energy?

Yes.

Well they should get a Zojirushi water boiler and an Aeropress.

That's a lot of trouble for a single cup of coffee. I think you imagine a different circumstance from those a drip coffee maker serves. It's not for making a nice cup of coffee for yourself while you relax before work. It's for making enough coffee for everyone as they rush around in the morning getting ready for the day, or for a whole office.

The way I mentioned is the fastest one I know of! It’s definitely faster than waiting for a drip machine to heat up cold water.

One cup. The point is you can make 12 (or more) while you do other things for the 10 minutes it takes.

That boiler comes up as over $100 minimum when I google it. I think you missed the part about cost. You can get a 40-cup coffee maker for less than that and still save more time than your Aeropress.

Not if you are paying 10x for the same quality.

> The result of this on-shoring craze (modulo automation) is that we're likely to see very significant inflation, basically taking us back to the cost structures we saw in the 1980s. No more cheap Chinese or Vietnamese goods at Amazon or Walmart; if we have to Buy American, expect to pay the differential between Vietnamese and American wages, roughly a 30-40x increase.

I theorise that it might also lead to a reversal of planned obsolescence and products with a short lifespan. Companies might compete by designing goods based around longevity to justify the higher cost. Household appliances, for example, might be a once in a decade (or longer) purchase as opposed to the throwaway approach.

I have serious doubts that American companies can change their mindset and adopt this approach in any kind of timely fashion.

Companies don't really have a choice. Employees retire and are trained up. Companies die and new companies are created. Foreign companies can expand into new markets. If there is a change of circumstance that leads to new avenues of profit, they will be taken up.

It will probably include higher prices with loans and interest and warranty obligations

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