>> In many cases, I would gladly pay a few percent more to have jobs back in the US. That reminds me of the idea that climate change can be ameliorated by a fe

>> In many cases, I would gladly pay a few percent more to have jobs back in the US. That reminds me of the idea that climate change can be ameliorated by a few people volunteering to recycle or ride bicycles in lieu of structural changes. TL;DR: these fixes don't work without scale. I remember a big push around retaining manufacturing jobs in the '80s. Everything from clothes to cars to appliances was touted as being Made in America. By my recollection, the cross-industry marketing spend must have been fairly significant given its prevalence. But it apparently didn't work, and now these products are in general not made in America. My assumption is that industry tried getting people to buy stuff based on place of manufacture and it turned out that given a choice between "Made in USA" or a few dollars off, most people chose the cost savings. Most people weren't in a position to spend more of their limited funds to save a stranger's job. If this was indeed what happened, I suspect this effort is doomed again.