"There is NO easy answer. Everyone will have to understand that US products, even those made by labors making minimum wage, will be more expensive that products made in china. I don't see that happening."
Most of the posts I read here would tell you the WalMart effect is a good thing. The mere invocation of the name WalMart will generate posts.
I would agree, there are no easy, and few good answers. The cost of energy could be a blessing in disguise. The cost of those widgets goes up when it costs twice as much to ship them from China to here.
Unfortunately, we have too many liberals here who haven't lost their jobs yet. Until they do, they won't tolerate relaxing some of the stupid regulations of the workplace and over the top EPA stuff.
I guess we're going to have to take the pain, and see if we have the guts to grow. Otherwise, look at England, that will be our future.
I agree with your assessment but we should go further with what is under our control.
We need to rigourously inspect all cargo coming into the country, for security purposes. This would not only provide better port security ... it would increase lead times and, thus, cost, for anything manufactured overseas. And the cost of the additional inspectors should be borne by the exporter/importer and NOT paid for by you and me.
This wouldn't be overtly protectionist but it would have a similar effect and maybe, just maybe, we'd make a few more things here.