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America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

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842 points putzdown | 3 comments | 15 Apr 25 13:50 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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jghn ◴[15 Apr 25 14:27 UTC] No.43693238[source]▶
The other day I saw the results of a poll [1] where 80% of Americans thought the *country* would be better off if more Americans worked in factories. However, only 20% of Americans thought that *they* would be better off if more Americans worked in factories. It was surprisingly bipartisan.

In other words, people like the idea of this, but no one actually wants this.

[1] https://www.ft.com/content/845917ed-41a5-449f-946f-70263adba...

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toomuchtodo ◴[15 Apr 25 14:32 UTC] No.43693320[source]▶
Americans are cosplaying (voting their belief system, not what they'll do, the "revealed preference"), as they do as farmers [1] [2] [3] [4], as they do as "rural Americans" [5]. It is an identity crisis for tens of millions of people [6]. Their crisis is our shared political turmoil. Happiness is reality minus expectations.

From the piece: "The people most excited about this new tariff policy tend to be those who’ve never actually made anything, because if you have, you’d know how hard the work is."

[1] https://www.agriculturedive.com/news/agriculture-shifts-farm...

[2] https://www.terrainag.com/insights/examining-the-economic-cr...

[3] https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor

[4] https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/agriculture/our-insights...

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q_BE5KPp18

[6] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/11/there-are-a-...

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1. snarf21 ◴[16 Apr 25 14:05 UTC] No.43705761[source]▶
Agreed and the same people do a lot of their shopping at Amazon/Dollar General/Wal-Mart where low price goods are only possible because they are made off shore for much much lower wages. Bringing that manufacturing back here would destroy their buying power.

I do find it interesting that a lot of these same people are against raising the minimum wage because "it will bankrupt all the businesses" but somehow think that bringing manufacturing for the goods they buy back to the US won't do the same. At best, going from off-shore labor costs of say $15/day to $15/hour (minimum for US workers) is an 8x multiplier and will somehow magically work but a 1.5 multiplier on minimum wage is just untenable for any business.

Honestly, it is mostly an emotional response around "fairness". They don't want others getting a "raise" when they don't "deserve it". However, everything they get is 1000% deserved. The greatest trick the rich ever pulled was convincing the middle class that all their woes are the fault of the poor. The political comic of "That foreigner wants your cookie!" captures it pretty well (imo).

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2. mjevans ◴[16 Apr 25 15:53 UTC] No.43706946[source]▶
Offhand, I believe that trick started with tribalism (generally, the 'other' is the most obvious scape goat), became racism in various forms (they look different / go to a different church it's /their/ fault), and has shifted to classism with thinly veiled racism included.

It's not much different than how a young child will blame anyone else for something that's gone wrong / they got caught doing. Maybe our society should do a better job promoting responsibility and allowing parents to offer oppertunities for children to be responsible; instead of infantalizing everyone entirely until some magical number has passed and suddenly they're an adult who was never previously empowered to be responsible.

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3. snarf21 ◴[17 Apr 25 13:03 UTC] No.43716215[source]▶
Othering has driven a lot of the hate and derisiveness of the 21st century. A lot of the political messaging and advertising tends to specifically focus on othering.