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I'm sure we all are hearing People saying this . or something like ( ONLY BUY AMERICAN ) do you feel this is even possible lets say 5 or 10 years from now . we have become so dependent on other countries . I know the cheap goods that we buy from china .a lot of it we don't even have the tooling here to manufacture . even if we did the assembly cost would make people stop buying these goods . also trying to find people willing to invest in such low profit items to make them . then there the environmental aspect of making some of these products . we don't want that in are back yard . but its ok if its in china or some other countries . ?

No, it's not OK, but as long as people insist on cheap things, it will happen. Soon as folk think about others, then it might change, but most wont change their viewpoint until it affects them in a obvious way. Even then, denial is strong and frankly, a lot of people are just not self aware enough.

As long as people put price over quality or even our our nation's security, then we'll still be relying on cheap labor overseas.

As for the tooling, the companies can do what they did last time. Pick up and move. We manufactured here and had all the equipment here. They simply picked up and moved their operations overseas, taking the equipment with them. It's cheaper to move existing equipment in most cases.

Well, there's the group of people that aren't great with managing money and they can't see that replacing something every 2-3 years is a waste of money vs something that could last 10+ years. Then there's the people earning minimum wage that don't really have much of a choice, they still need to have access to something cheap for them. It's almost a never ending cycle for them. Factory workers don't want to make minimum wage either. The fact is a lot of the goods Made in America aren't cheap. I can't say if that was always the case, but right now you will definitely pay for it if you want Made in America. Maybe that will change. How many of those 30 million unemployed earn minimum wage? Maybe it's time for a new career, especially if their employee closed for good. If it costs more to hedge our country against supply chains issues or even political issues with a foreign country, then I think it's worth the sacrifice if you can afford it, there's plenty of other places to save money. Like other's have said, as far as the equipment, they can move it back here as easily as they did when they left. But at this point, I feel as a country we would need to provide real protections from China to companies manufacturing in the US.

We are already starting to see more manufacturing in India, including medical supplies and equipment as well with pharmaceuticals. In fact, on Tuesday, I have to train ~15-20 folks in India on calibration since I will be retiring on May 29. I've been with Abbott for almost 34 years, and when I retire on May 29, they will not be replacing my position.

It's virtually impossible to "buy American" because of supply chains. Even if it's assembled in the US, many of the parts or raw materials come from another country. A few years ago, I was buying wheels for my Charger and wanted something made in the US. At that time, I found two, Weld and Eagle (plus their subsidiaries). Everything else is made in China, even American Racing. Almost all brake rotors are cast in China. I believe the most American car these days is Toyota. There are no televisions made in the US and even though Intel is a US based company, I think their processors are made in Malaysia. One of the few places I know where there are American made products is home audio. Grado headphones and turntable cartridges are made in the US. My turntable is a VPI who use US sources materials. There are speaker manufactures as well but I can't think of them off the top of my head. They aren't cheap though but they are quality. The platter on my turntable is an 11 lb piece of aluminum. The thing is a tank.

The only way to partially bring manufacturing back to the US is to raise the standard of living in other countries so the workers are getting the same wages and benefits as US workers.