I’m familiar with both. I’m just not sure I care if trade relations with China sour. Not sure if what that might not be for the best as it doesn’t seem like our relationship with them is going so well for most of us. I never agreed with NAFTA or PMF/NTR status for China. They were two of Bill Clinton’s biggest mistakes imo.
Unfortunately, with union labor, if we made everything in the U.S. things would cost 2x to 4x what they do now. Cheap manufacturing overseas makes a lot of great stuff available to us at low cost. The downside, of course, if the loss of all the good manufacturing jobs. We just cannot make that up with service jobs in the US. Unions have kept wages unrealistically high in this global economy.
A global trade war and the collapse of trade is about the last thing we need now, IMHO. I think that would really send all global economies into a tailspin.
Unfortunately, US wages are going to have to adjust downward closer to parity with global levels. I think that is inescapable. This is happening in tech — all of my colleagues and friends are at salaries about the same as they were 10 years ago. When you account for 3% to 4% inflation per year, our real wages have declined 40% or more. These are not easy times.