What possible motivation would the remaining companies have for moving engineering jobs to Singapore or Japan if the cost here is the same as there?
Actually, some manufacturing of items that are costly to ship is moving back. I think we could compete if we set our mind to it.
The key would be to cut needless regulation and bureacracy. Nobody wants to live in a cesspool. We need some safety and environmental regulation to prevent another "Love Canal." Yet I have to keep a syringe & needle inventory in the lab when any addict can go to a free clinic and get a free one. Why hasn't the legislature removed this waste? In NY we have school boards, towns, cities, counties, and the state - all with bureacracy and taxing ability. We need no more than state and county government. When growing up I lived through "consolidation" of the Duval County and city of Jacksonville Fla governments. The savings were substantial and there was no loss in quality of essential services. We need to eliminate waste and stop subsidizing able-bodied, unproductive people. The "wolf at the door" is a powerful motivator.
To summarize, the solution is to cut the waste and get competitive.
>To summarize, the solution is to cut the waste and get competitive.<
No.
If you look at the actual costs of manufactured goods as priced when they were made here 10 or fewer years ago compared to what they are sold for now, the price difference is minute. [& not infrequently, the quality has suffered]
Part of the solution is something nobody wants to think about: tariffs.
Slave and semi-slave labor will always be cheaper. Look at the goods made in our own prisons. However, we don't have to put up with slave-labor advantages...or turning much of the far east into a vast toxic dump.