"Badly need"? We are #2 in the world in manufacturing.
$3.6 T - China
$3.0 T - USA
$1.6 T - Japan
$0.9 T - Germany
$0.7 T - Russia
$0.6 T - Brazil
$0.5 T - Canada
We still top Japan, Germany, and Canada (#s 3, 4, and 7) combined.
China has 19% of the world;s population, and makes 17% of the world's manufacturing. About as one might expect.
We have 4.6% of the population, and still make 15% of the world's goods. Not what we once were, but still a global powerhouse and model of efficiency.
Japan is the only major player that can boast a better population-to-manufacturing ratio than ours (1.7% and 7.3%).
(And China has used 3+ decades of double-digit growth, plus four times our population, plus very low wages in the manufacturing sector just to catch up, even though they have the same land mass / resource base that we have.)
(Ooh! My apologies to Canada! 1/9th our population, but 1/6th our industry! They beat us too! Unexpected, eh?)
Like I said.
We badly need to return manufacturing to America.