But there’s a reason why it costs so little for labor. Skilled laborers in China and India aren’t living in crowded huts with no electricity or running water. The cost of living is simply lower there. Why? Because if you don’t have to deal with so much government, then you can build a house cheaper, and live in it cheaper, and eat cheaper, etc. etc.
The cost is that they don’t have government protecting them from bad working conditions, shoddy construction, pollutants down to single digit ppm, emergency room care, payoffs at old age, unemployment, etc.
Obviously, the greater regulation and government interference in the US is a cost. But no one who wants to state that as the main reason for moving production to cheap labor nations ever quantifies that cost. Labor costs can be quantified, and the savings are immense.
Some are just so anti-government, or so unwilling to admit the role of cheap labor, that they choose to mention government regulations as if those are the main, or only reasons for the decisions to export US jobs.;
And do you really want the US to have the same environmental conditions as China? Did you see that they had to shut down plants for a few weeks prior to the Olympics so the air could clear somewhat? Did you see how they had thousands of workers filtering filth out of their rivers with small nets? Did you know that 2,000+ Chinese miners die each year in accidents? Do you really want the US to have the same environmental and work place conditions as China?