

But they’re not going to increase wages to account for us having to spend 55 dollars on something that used to cost 5. So the end result is just that people end up with less overall. I’m cool with limiting consumerism, but this isn’t the way to do it imo. And it’s not going to make us “richer” as a nation.
Of course it works out if you throw any numbers in that you want. Minimum hourly wage in the US is 7.25-ish in Alabama and the rest of the decrepit South, to 16-ish in California. I googled minimum wage in China and its roughly 3.40-ish at its highest. At the worst, China is half as expensive, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the disparity between the actual industrial areas of China and Califonia/Colorado for example might be 8x.
Whats happening here is that the poorly educated South is wanting me to subsidize their lack of marketable job skills by making me pay extra for American goods instead of Chinese goods.
And don’t forget that the extra money these Americans earn will be partially consumed by the extra cost of living anyways. Not to mention the years or decades of investment it will take to get factories set here anyways, all for low-skill, physically demanding, and mentally unengaging employment.
Manufacturing should be automated anyways because nobody should have to sit at a conveyor belt all day and toil their lives away assembling dumb trinkets.