I found the most frightening thing in the article to be that no one can just wave a magic wand and “bring manufacturing back”, because there is no infrastructure and no supply chain here for manufacturing anymore; there also no reasonably educated working class willing (or even competent) to get its hands dirty here. The only things that are “protected” in the US are things of too low of a value per pound to be shipped, plain and simple.
The end result is that there will be less wealth for the US in the future, and no politician or party of politicians can fix this in four years. A statesman could put the wheels in motion to repair the damage in a generation or two, but we don’t have any statesmen anymore, either.
Yes, there are obstacles and difficulties.
But they can be overcome, by a willingness to do the right things. For ex. China had nothing along the lines of a modern economy. Their economy 40 years ago, in many ways was the same economy from 1,000 years ago. But the Chinese government started doing the right things, economically speaking and now they have all the technological companies. Because China has gone too cheap, it will probably come back to haunt them at some point, due to a degraded environment and such.
Things can get turned around in the States as well, but the first step is to get government out of the way.
An expose in the New York Times Magazine (Nov. 2, 2008) revealed that there are no major generic aspirin manufacturers in Europe or the U.S. Most aspirin is now made in China.
Many over-the-counter medications as well as prescription drugs now come from manufacturers in China, India or other parts of Asia. If country of origin labeling is important for clothing and food, why wouldn’t it be even more critical for medicine?