The short answer for why it's cheaper is that the west industrializing first is basically a historical accident. From of the perspective of a "make things and g

The short answer for why it's cheaper is that the west industrializing first is basically a historical accident. From of the perspective of a "make things and give them to people" optimizer, if you don't have a better reason to put things places, you'll want to put manufacturing close to people to cut down on transport waste. So, it's cheaper in Asia because prices convey information, and the information is "more things should be built in Asia because Asia has much more population than thing-making". Another angle is asking why people are willing to spend so much money to put manufacturing in the US. Skilled workers is part of it. Another is having a low-corruption society, and all the advantages that social capital in general brings. Yet another is having convenient access to the other capital that your company needs to do business with in order to function. Like, if all the sub-components are built in the US, and your sub-component is being sold to US manufacturers, moving your facility offshore means a lot of shipping costs and delays.