The GE move was the most widely publicized/covered one that I can recall off the top of my head, but the Atlantic article is more detailed than just GE. Also,

The GE move was the most widely publicized/covered one that I can recall off the top of my head, but the Atlantic article is more detailed than just GE. Also, the Forbes title is literally: > Why Apple Is Bringing Manufacturing Back To The United States I highly recommend reading some of the articles linked since they do explore some of the harder to quantify metrics (such as the maintenance tail of products manufactured in the US vs China) and how they affected GEs choice to move manufacturing. So while I think in general your observation: > That's how they've calculated margins and filed a 10-K for the past 50 years. holds true, I think there is some gray area where harder to quantify and measure metrics are becoming more observable. And it's this "new" information that is potentially having substantial influence on these larger corporations decisions resulting in moving manufacturing back to the US. I, with my light familiarity with the most basic concepts of Economics, was particularly intrigued by the assertion that GE may have exhibited more long-term thinking since it's widely accepted that businesses operate and make decisions in the short-term. This short-term thinking leading to many sub-optimal market results...but that was just the interesting thing I took away in passing. A choice quote from the Atlantic piece sort of illustrating this: > Harry Moser, an MIT-trained engineer, spent decades running a business that made machine tools. After retiring, he started an organization called the Reshoring Initiative in 2010, to help companies assess where to make their products. “The way we see it,” says Moser, “about 60 percent of the companies that offshored manufacturing didn’t really do the math. They looked only at the labor rate—they didn’t look at the hidden costs.” Your question about a fully automated economy is interesting, but I don't have good references off the top of my head to point you toward...sorry :)