I absolutely want to reduce idiotic regulations and domestic taxes that make our goods expensive for domestic as well as foreign markets.
All while wanting to build a wall and deport the illegals.
We both agree then. But when US environmental regulations, and employee safety regulations, and unemployment and training costs, and child labor laws, and more, are not part of the cost structure of foreign manufactured goods, then we start out in a tremendous hole when manufacturing similar goods domestically. And I'm not advocating the elimination of all of these environmental and safety laws - we're a rich country and as countries get richer, their citizens start to appreciate clean air and water and such things.
But the labor/environmental arbitrage that goes on now - essentially permitting US corporations to avoid complying with US regulations by contracting with polluters and sweat-shops - it too has to be accounted for in the lost opportunity for American workers. Now too, Silicon Valley is importing bright workers, whose cheap local education hasn't saddled them with hundreds of thousand of dollars in school debt. These foreign workers come from economies with a lower per capita living costs so they are willing - and able - to work for substantially less than most US graduates.