100%. Ultimately cost of labor alone isn't going to be the deciding factor, and when I say "plenty of cheap labor in Latin America" I'm not suggesting that we

100%. Ultimately cost of labor alone isn't going to be the deciding factor, and when I say "plenty of cheap labor in Latin America" I'm not suggesting that we can save money in the short term by moving our factories there. I'm suggesting an affordable alternative, geographically closer to home, in a set of countries that (when compared to China) are smaller, more defensible, and culturally more similar to us. We have seen evidence that China's manufacturing sector includes slave labor. You can't compete with slave labor! This is why the "it's just business, save a penny where you can" mentality totally misses the point. We have to spend some money to get out of this mess. For a major corporation, this would mean spending less on buybacks in order to build new manufacturing facilities elsewhere. For our government, this would mean coordinating with our companies and foreign ally governments to manage a concerted effort at creating new manufacturing ecosystems in mutually-agreed-upon regions that offer logistical and tax advantages. With respect to your point about efficient, short and well integrated supply chains: large corporations have to be the first movers. They are the only ones who can begin to cultivate the seedlings of regional manufacturing ecosystems developed around the production of a particular type of product. There are large negative externalities to cross-pacific shipping, and these externalities have to be considered when we answer the question, "how much money do we save by getting our stuff from China?". One such externality is the cost of US-taxpayer-subsidized shipping from China. Another is that both sides suffer from invasive species that affect billions of dollars of revenue in tangential industries. The spotted lanternfly was introduced to Berks County, Pennsylvania, in a shipment of stone from China a few years ago. It now threatens billions of dollars of economic productivity from the hardwood, fruit, hops, and wine industries in that state alone. This is but one example of a greater phenomenon. If you source closer to home, some of the invasive species risk gets mitigated.