How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

Americans need to get over their view of “Asia” as being about making shoes. When I was working in engineering in the early aughts, we mocked the Chinese as being able only to copy American technology. Today, China is competitive with or ahead of America in key technology areas, including nuclear power, AI, EVs, and batteries.

We need to anticipate a future where China is equal to America on a per capita basis, but four times bigger. Is that a world where “Designed by Apple in California, Made in China” still makes sense? What will be America’s competitive edge in that scenario?

What seems most likely to me in the future is that the US will find itself in the same position the UK is in now. Dominating finance and services won’t mean anything when both the IP and the physical products are being produced somewhere else.

The US was going down the "let dominate IP/technology" angle for awhile, but we only accomplished it with imported labor (look at any SWE shop). China is obviously developing the talent to do the same, and they are rapidly automating manufacture work as they approach a demographic cliff. They are basically making all the right investments for the future while we try to go back to the 1950s. It is extremely frustrating.

Back to coal mines.

it really seems like there's a push to de-skill Americans. like Bessent's remark that the laid-off civil servants could become factory workers as we bring back domestic manufacturing, and the recent corporate push towards vibe coding and integrating AI everywhere, and the purge of seasonal and unskilled migrant workers while keeping the H1B program.

it almost seems like we're trying to clear immigrants out of the chicken plants to make room for laid-off graphic designers.