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America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

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842 points putzdown | 2 comments | 15 Apr 25 13:50 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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ChrisMarshallNY ◴[15 Apr 25 14:13 UTC] No.43692996[source]▶
This pretty much mirrors what a friend of mine said (he is a recently-retired Co-CEO of a medium-sized manufacturing business).

He's been telling me this, for years. It's not a secret. The information has been out there, for ages. I'm surprised that the administration didn't understand this.

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npiano ◴[15 Apr 25 14:21 UTC] No.43693160[source]▶
A genuine question, presuming no correct answer: what is to be done about it? China is reportedly on track to run more than 50% of global manufacturing by 2030, if the World Bank is correct. What would you do to act against this? Is doing nothing acceptable?
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ChrisMarshallNY ◴[15 Apr 25 14:24 UTC] No.43693207[source]▶
Yeah, there's no painless answer. China is not a democracy. They can force millions of people to endure terrible working conditions, pollution, corruption, and abuse, and take a very long view. The US can't do this.
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1. themaninthedark ◴[16 Apr 25 17:04 UTC] No.43707745[source]▶
Why do the working conditions need to be terrible?

Why does there need to be corruption and abuse?

Why do they have to expose their workers to pollution?

As far as I know, none of those things are required for manufacturing.

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2. ChrisMarshallNY ◴[17 Apr 25 12:40 UTC] No.43715947[source]▶
No, but like so much in life, doing it correctly is always more difficult and expensive, so people that “shortcut” the process, often win.

That’s why strong regulations are actually important (not something that businesses want to hear -until a “shortcutter” starts to eat their lunch).