[jboot]

There were three shoe factories and four garment factories in my small hometown. All the shoe factories are long gone (the names I recall are Kessler and Mother Goose...can't think of the third one). Three of the four garment makers are still there, but only one actually makes anything (boutique high dollar suits and shirtings). The other two are now merely distributers of "quality" Chinese clothing.

I've talked to several well-connected folks at the remaining clothing factories to see what stands between them and reverting to US production. They all say the same thing: at the current price point and volume of mass-market clothing they could not afford to pay a US workforce, even with extensive automation. Moreover, the work force a the boutique plant is all Latino (read illegal), so they are really not on the same playing field. It is really frustrating. Unless you sell a product that you can make quickly in high volume with a small work force and can sell for many times what it costs to make it, you can't make it in the USA.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I talked to a guy years ago who was a buyer of men’s clothing for Sears. He said that Sears bought a dress shirt for $2 and sold them for $30. I have no idea what the overhead was for the store at the mall. A lot, I’ll bet.