Losing our industrial base makes America more vulnerable too. Just think, just in this industry, our medicines, and stents, clamps, bandages, blood tests, surgical gloves, bed pans...whatever, are being made or will be made in foreign countries.
The US was one of the last free markets for medical devices and pharmaceuticals. Most other countries imposed cost controls through socialized care on those industries years ago.
Pharmaceutical companies do not charge less in Canada because they like Canadians more. They charge less because the Canadian government regulates the price. This is why seniors still flock to Canada for pharmaceuticals.
The costs are higher in the US because we pay for the research costs while the rest of the world pays the production cost.
The same is true of medical devices.
Once price controls are in place, there is no mechanism to recoup research costs. Therefore, the only way to make increasing profits (the goal of every company) is to reduce manufacturing costs.
Still, the price of labor is not the difference here.
Pharmaceutical production is highly automated (like most manufacturing). Therefore, companies do not flee higher wages (unless they are union) instead, companies flee higher taxes, regulations, compliance issues, etc.
Those are the REAL drivers of our manufacturing exodus.