> you need cheap shoes for millions of people to wear every day, and not a lot of those are made in US.
You don't get cheap products in a country where workers aren't cheap.
This isn't an issue of "the US cannot manufacture their own shoes", it's an issue of "the US customers have gotten used to paying prices that are too low to be achievable in humane conditions".
Shoes would become more expensive once you have to pay the workers, but there will still be enough shoes for everyone.
> Even kids want to be influencers, not assembly line workers (and we have to import those too).
Not every kid who wants to be an astronaut becomes an astronaut.
> we used to be a former socialist country that produced everything, from cars to computers, tvs, etc....
The west can and will easily reenter these markets once it becomes profitable or necessary to do so.
Of course this process would be costly and would require quite a few people to change careers, but its far from infeasible
You don't get cheap products in a country where workers aren't cheap.
This isn't an issue of "the US cannot manufacture their own shoes", it's an issue of "the US customers have gotten used to paying prices that are too low to be achievable in humane conditions".
Shoes would become more expensive once you have to pay the workers, but there will still be enough shoes for everyone.
> Even kids want to be influencers, not assembly line workers (and we have to import those too).
Not every kid who wants to be an astronaut becomes an astronaut.
> we used to be a former socialist country that produced everything, from cars to computers, tvs, etc....
The west can and will easily reenter these markets once it becomes profitable or necessary to do so.
Of course this process would be costly and would require quite a few people to change careers, but its far from infeasible