First, we don't need to return to manufacturing, or any other specific industry, we need to be stronger in the global marketplace, grow our economy, and raise the wages and standard of living for the middle class.
Start with a good trade balance. If we collect tariffs and then have to subsidize the industries we export, like agriculture, it doesn't work out as a net gain. We need hard negotiating, not hard lines that tie our negotiators' hands or force them to fight battles they can't win.
There are areas where we can and do excel against China, here are some of the industries where we export billions to China each year.
Rely on what they need from us to make sure they back off flooding the markets on things we CAN make, and stop worrying about industries where we can't complete. A lot of the children of steelworkers will need to train for another career. The days of getting out of High School and getting a union job because your Dad works at the factory are over. Has been for 40 years.
Stop pretending it's the 1950s and local manufacturing in all industries will work. We live in a global economy where you can buy a $5 item on Amazon that will ship from China to your door and be profitable for the vendor. American companies, to be competitive, have to source raw materials and finished goods at the best price. America will never compete in manufacturing for items like shoes, clothes, microwaves, and toasters. Our labor is too high and regulations/law suites keep our workers away from toxic chemicals and unsafe practices. We don't want to strip apart old batteries for raw materials or be around some industrial chemicals common overseas, let Asia do that.
What America is more than anything else is the market for goods sold. - we need to strengthen that! So fight corporate greed, much of the inflation for food over the past years was caused by food manufacturers increasing prices and making record-high profits. We need policies that force companies to take care of their workers and not just the stockholders and Executives at bonus time.
In the 1950's Executives made 5x-20x more than the average worker, now it is hundreds or thousands of times more. If Elon Musk couldn't get a 50 billion bonus without an equal share to his workers we wouldn't have such a divide between the ultra-rich and middle class. The ultra-rich hoard money, most of the upper and middle class spend most of what they take in and the poor spend everything they get. Catering to the world's richest people is dumb, putting 14 billionaires in the cabinet is a formula for richer billionaires and poorer middle-class workers.
Make it so workers get a fair share of the profits they help their companies generate and it will grow the economy and increase quality of life standards because they will spend money stimulating economic growth. That keeps us the destination for the most capable people in the world and gives us negotiating power, as the manufacturing countries need a place to sell to.
Our economy is more about tech jobs, developers, architects, engineers, and tech support than ironworkers and shoemakers. Make sure we assemble the cars, make the machines that do so, write the code that runs them, service the machines when they break, and remain the creative force in the world with great ideas and innovation. With those high-paying jobs, they will support the middle-class local jobs, and we will be stronger.
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