Well, actually, there have been many scandals about offshored pharmaceuticals, such as the heparin scandal. Do an internet search for most vitamins like Niacin or Citric Acid and you will see many ads for "Trustful source for your needs: The Red Dragon Noodle & Chemical pty, Ltd."
Software? AVG? Avast!? Czech republic.
Hi-Tech cars? Mine is made in Coventry.
Not being an economist,and therefore stupid, I do not understand how one makes a rich country by eliminating its middle class.
I have posted many times the story about what automation did to a two-shift assembly line at one of my company's divisions: I saw this. As a stockholder, it warmed my heart. As a citizen, it scared me. All the people we sent home may have gone onto other assembly jobs, somewhere. Maybe. For a while. They used to have health insurance and they used to be able to live. Not richly, but they payed for their rent, groceries, and taxes.
Every 70 seconds, another PC Board comes off the pick&Place machine, through the reflow solderer, and into a pile, while the assemblers give up looking for jobs.
The Bottom Line is great. The machines rarely get sick and when they do, they are fixed. They come in Mondays and Fridays, and do not have hangovers. They do not run Union Campaigns.
Nevertheless, this is not going to end well.
From this piece it sounds like the nobama/biden recovery is going along well. Merry Christmas!
The cotton gin destroyed the south and it never recovered. Ditto the steam shovel to Irish pick and shovel gangs.
I understand what you are saying regarding the people sent home by robotics. On the other hand, there is no doubt that 100 years ago those same people’s great grandfathers were looking for a job coming off the farm, due to the mechanization of agriculture and the fact that farmers didn’t need nearly as many farm hands. Somehow it all worked out.