It’s also government regulation. If it was merely the cost of labor, it would be solved with automation, without taking the risks of operating in alien legal systems.
Regulation also drives up the cost of labor, as does the payroll tax, but the alphabet soup of federal, state, and local regulatory agencies are driving business away. Having had to get my office past local and state regulations about 25 years ago, it’s discouraging.
then there’s NIMBY. Who wants a noisy, smelly factory near their home, but that’s the best place to build one, near where their workers could live. That factory in China that assembles smart phones has its own dormatory. Who in the US would put up with that?
Then there is the American worker. From the baby boomers on, we were told to get an education so that we don’t have to get a dirty job in a factory. I remember one of my fellow pupils in sixth grade, in 1961, asking our teacher, “If everyone’s smart, who’s going to do the dirty work?” Who, indeed?
That is not true, there are moribund towns in the R-T-W south that would love to have manufacturing in their "their backyard". Large caps love all these regulations because it keeps the riff raff out while the close and move off shore.