The only way we can bring the work back to the US is to beat the competition on price, and the only way we can do that is with technology. You can turn a profit with cheap labor, but if I can develop automation that will drive the overhead far below the cost of foreign labor, the work will come back.
The only downside to that is that in the process of moving manufacturing to china, we basically handed all of our technology over to them on a silver platter. Now we have to compete with them on a higher level, because they now they not only have the cheap labor, they have the high end machinery and a cheap labor force. Oh, and IP rights are nonexistent in china, so if you make things there, expect to have your product copied and marketed elsewhere.
“The only way we can bring the work back to the US is to beat the competition on price, and the only way we can do that is with technology. “
Only partially true.
We also need fewer onerous Govt. regulations and interference.
Regardless of labor costs, there is no way I would want to start any kind of manufacturing company here in the U.S.
Actually, there is no way I would want to employ any one at all the way things are currently. Too much Govt. interference in the form of 3 and 4 letter agencies, plus the uncertainty of Obamacare regulations, etc. etc. etc.