Right, I didn't bring it up in my post but obviously the March of Technology is (we are told) supposed to bring prices on that kind of thing down
independently of the effects of offshoring.
I actually wasn't entirely fair—cotton and synthetic casual clothes are so cheap they're basically free, anything that can be made of absolutely terrible steel and stamped is cheap (really bad knives, terrible dining utensils that bend under ordinary use, that kind of thing), and so's any plastic shit without expensive IP/branding attached. I think that's all some mix of efficiency improvements (especially for the plastic shit—we put a lot less material in most plastic goods now, than we did in, say, the 1980s) and, maybe, some actually-beneficially effect of offshoring. Oh, and kitchen appliances guaranteed to break within two years because some nylon gear wears out and it can't be repaired for less than the cost of a new one. Those are cheap. Meanwhile, actually-good stuff is about as expensive as it ever was. Be rad if we could apply this alleged cost-savings effect of offshoring to, like, nice things that function well and last, but mysteriously it only seems to materialize in things that are also a level of quality so low that we didn't used to even have such a category. Or rapidly developing technology (consumer electronics). It's as if consumers aren't seeing the bulk of these supposed benefits from offshoring, and instead what price decreases/stability we do see are mostly from tech improvements and obvious quality decline....
I'd add that I think cost increases of onshoring are overblown. US-made goods in e.g. clothing often command a large premium, but that's because if you're going to use US labor instead of Vietnamese or wherever, you may as well also use better processes [EDIT: and better materials] to produce a higher-quality item, since you can't compete with poorly-made goods on price anyway (though, sure, some places try to cheat and turn out crap at US-premium prices while implying it's better than it is). For extremely price-sensitive goods like bottom-of-the-barrel T-shirts that wholesale at like $1, even a 10% increase in costs would mean you fold even if the absolute increase in costs of the article is pennies, so of course those aren't made in the US when there are other options.