And who cares?
If it was made here, no one could afford these products, or the companies would have to cut their profits and/or quality, like GM/Chrysler/ford.
That’s a free market, welcome to America.
Well, first the labor market, then the remaining tax payers who pay their unemployment and support, then the tax payer after he realizes he is carrying not jut him but probably two others then... the people who took over the manufacturing because they now have the money the people who used to buy their stuff had and they aren’t buying anymore.
Everybody has to produce something to be useful on the ship or they can’t be on the ship. There is no room for passengers.
The free market isn’t free.
Consider the story told attributed to Dell, really doesn’t matter if it was Dell or not because any American company that once made stuff would do just as well... a Taiwan company came to them and offered to make chips for a good price... it improved Dell’s profit for the next quarters so they said OK.
Time went on and things went well, the Tai company came back and said things are working well, we can make your mother boards as well. It will improve your profit for the next quarters and making chips and mother boards are not your core business. Dell said OK.
Time went on and things went well, the Tai company came back and said things are working well, we can make your and package your computers as well. It will improve your profit for the next quarters and making chips and mother boards and assembling and packaging computers are not your core business. The labor market and business climate in the U.S. was getting harder and harder to manage what with all the mandated benefits, taxes, environmental regulation, constant OSHA inspections. Just a general pain in the neck to make things in the U.S. All they were doing now was packaging an shipping and it just wasn’t worth the trouble any more. Getting rid of this liability felt good. Dell said OK.
Later, when Dell went to the big box retailers for the next year’s contracts there was price pressure. Dell went to their supplier in Taiwan to see what could be done. No, the Tai company told Dell, there is no way we can reduce prices and they also told Dell that they had alternatives that were more profitable than making Dell computers. Dell wondered what to do since they no longer made computers and didn’t have a good handle on what the true cost structure was. They had also dismantled all their manufacturing capability.... something they were once good at and something that took a long time for them to build. It would cost a lot of money to recover the ability to make things
Meanwhile, a new computer started showing up on the shelves of the big box store Dell once sold to. It was well made and looked a lot like a Dell computer but it was less expensive.
Guess who is making the profit margin now? Guess what Dell share holders are thinking about now? The stock holders bought shares because the company made a profit and because they expected it to grow and continue to be a going concern... outsourcing gone to far is a going out of business model.
Who care? That’s a free market, welcome to America. Welcome to capitalism.