Would the USA be able to compete again, fairly against China?

 Would the USA be able to compete again, fairly against China? Not when the USA already hollowed itself out and lost its industrial base, lost the control of raw materials, late in the training of skilled workers and most of all losing the Chinese market as well.

If both are starting from the same baseline, and building up the necessary logistics, there may still be a sliver of a chance. But then the first element of labor cost in the USA is already at a disadvantage compared to China. Steve Jobs already realized the highly disadvantages position that the USA was in and moved his production base to China decades ago, to take advantage of the cheaper and more skillful labor cost. And so does many other USA and European companies.

USA companies moving back to the USA is a no brainer today. Labor costs are even much higher than in the days of Steve Jobs. It is the same in every country, which is also why Chinese companies themselves are shifting production to South-East Asia and South America. USA companies leaving China are not moving back to the USA. On the contrary, they are moving to South America, South and South-East Asia. Attracting USA companies back to the USA is one thing but providing them with a competitive edge is another. The cost of production in the USA is much more expensive than anywhere else in the world. Who is going to buy 'Made in USA' when they can buy a much cheaper product made in China?

This works in the same way that investors in manufacturing looks for the cheapest destination for making their products while consumers look for the cheapest goods that they can buy. Too bad, USA consumers are not going to have such a choice and have to pay an arm and a leg going forward.

Anonymous