We manufacture more now than we ever have; we just don't use very many workers to do so. Labor-intensive manufacturing of low-tech, inexpensive products has to be done where labor is cheaply available. Anyone who bemoans the loss of, for example, textile-industry jobs in the U.S. never had one.
Yeah, it's better to have them on some sort of welfare…./s
As a consumer of textiles for quilting and home decor, I wish it had never left. The fabric for sale is either highly overpriced or just crap. The prints on the textiles that used to be characteristic of America such as calico look like they were designed in a Chinese kindergarten. You can drive a truck between strands of the weave in the affordable broadcloth or muslin. Traditional fabrics like batiste or cotton voile have been adulterated with fillers and polyester. There's no love there anymore; it's just how cheaply can we make it, and how fast?