[Koblenz]

I imagine that if clothing had to be made locally, we’d soon have machines that were doing the entire process. Right now, there’s no major incentive to invest in the research to make automatic sewing machines because labor in certain third world countries is so cheap that the machines would not be able to compete. But if the third world gets its act together, and their economies expand and their wages increase, machines will become more viable.

[Alberta's Child]

It's worth noting that "near-shoring" is a definite trend in some industries. This is a term used in trade to describe the relocation of manufacturing facilities from Asia back to either the U.S. or to neighbors close by (Mexico and Central America).

Ironically, it's automation that's driving this, not labor costs. When a business of any kind becomes dominated by automation, then access to cheap/reliable power becomes far more important than access to cheap labor. In North America, a lot of this "near-shoring" has been driven by the plummeting price of natural gas in recent years.