“They are no longer low cost producer of anything.“
What? Go to Walmart pick up 100 low cost items and see where they’re from. My wife is maniacal about not buying stuff from China. You have no idea how hard and EXPENSIVE it is to follow through on that commitment.
Why we need an across the board import tariff.
The think the point is that China’s labor cost has gone up faster than that of any country in history. The reason we still buy stuff from China is the sunk cost of the industrial base. That isn’t trivial. But that base, the buildings, the equipment, and the training and supply train is being constructed in Mexico, Columbia, Vietnam, India and other places. It’s like turning an aircraft carrier. That won’t happen in a minute. We’re years away from getting off the China addiction. And, we are looking at significant inflation as the cost of stuff was subsidized by the CCP in order to eliminate the competition. But they can’t do that anymore.
You might say, why not build it all here? Well, having had employees in the US I can attest the government at all levels makes it ridiculously hard and expensive and dangerous to employ Americans. Along with all the (essentially taxes) imposed at all levels, the government will help certain aggrieved minorities sue you into oblivion for a host of things you may, may not or might in the future do. Once you’ve navigated all that an EPA inspector from the federal, state, county or city level can come in and shut you down over a puddle of rusty water that leaked out of your fire suppression system. The friendly people in the government really don’t want you here. If you do set up here, you’ll pay a premium for the right. Then, along comes the organizer from the union, or a lawyer from the ALCU or a bunch of protestors because your paint is used on the hull of a Japanese whaler. None of that will happen in Vietnam or Mexico.
I agree. It is damn near impossible. To follow through on that requires real work, time, intellectual ability and in the end, compromise.
Compromise if not in cost, in actual capability.
I purchased a 3-D printer about three years ago, and I was determined not to buy one made in China. I purchased one from an American company that has some nice features, and I was very happy with the support I received on it, but it was a compromise with cost.
But there are some things that simply cannot be found. For example, try getting one of those small toolkits for computer work that have 80 obscure screw head types. You can only get those from China, and they all seem to be cheesy variations of each other. Usable, but cheesy.
I would pay twice the money to get an American made set, but...they cannot be found. I could buy a German set, but those are even more expensive. More well made, too, I imagine.
But there are a lot of things like that.