The "system" is by and large designed by economical and political elites, and the public discourse they push is shaping what "we want". There is no conspiracy,

The "system" is by and large designed by economical and political elites, and the public discourse they push is shaping what "we want". There is no conspiracy, just a convergence of personal interests. For a while it was to offshore as much as possible to boost short term profits, or artificially increase spending power of the masses before the next election. Now that doesn't work anymore... It's not just step 4 that failed. Most of the companies I was referring to went bankrupt in the past 30 years or are now empty brands belonging to foreign corps. Their leaders were either delusional to think they could compete on design only, or they didn't care about long term consequences. In all cases they put themselves in a position of not being able to lobby politicians for moves against imported goods. Not everyone was this shortsighted though, and the ones who resisted the calls for offshoring and survived until now are finally reaping the benefits of their decision.