The YouTube channel SmarterEveryDay just uploaded a video where the channel owner talks about wanting to create a product that's manufactured 100% in the United States, and the enormous problems that he has faced in attempting to do so, the main reason being that almost nothing is manufactured anymore in the country.
If you ask any random person why they think that, for example, Apple cellphones are manufactured in China rather than the United States, everybody will answer that it's because it's cheaper there and Apple wants to make them for as cheap as possible.
The actual answer is actually a bit scarier than that (as is shown in the video): In actuality the fundamental reason why iPhones are manufactured in China is because it's not possible to manufacture them in the United States! The country just doesn't have the capability. There are no businesses in the United States, no companies, no factories, that would have the technology, the workers and the know-how to do that. Even if Apple wanted to manufacture iPhones in the United States, they literally cannot. There is no manufacturing infrastructure in the country to do that!
It's actually scary when you think about it: 50 years ago almost everything was manufactured in the country, but nowadays not only is almost nothing manufactured there, but there isn't even any existing infrastructure nor the knowhow to do that in the first place!
He tells a rather poignant example of this: He needed some molds to manufacture his product, and he searched high and low for a company that would manufacture those molds, and would do so in the United States. He found one that claimed to do so, but when he called, the owner of that company explained to him that actually they just designed the templates for the molds, and then commissioned the actual molds from... you guessed it, China.
And, of course, the United States is not the only country that has ended up like this.
In the video he touches the subject of the potential problems that can be caused by the very fact that the country no longer has the technological nor logistical capability of manufacturing almost any product, all the way from extremely high-text smartphones to simple molds (and which is why he has become an advocate of returning manufacturing to the country.)
However, while he touches the subject, I don't think he goes far enough in the implications (although I perfectly understand why not, as it's not really the main point of the video, nor his style.)
The main problem is that because the vast, vast majority of manufacturing technology, infrastructure and knowhow is in China and almost nowhere else, that means that China has the rest of the world by the balls, to put it crassly.
What happens if the Chinese government suddenly starts extorting the rest of the world?
"You know all that technology and products that you are manufacturing here? Well, we will double the price. Heck, we'll quadruple the price. On second thought, we'll make the price ten times higher. What are you going to do about it? Have all your industry collapse because you don't have the manufacturing capability?"
If, and most probably when, China does that, the rest of the world will be royally fucked. And that's because we allowed our own countries to forget how to manufacture and produce anything. We have become too reliant on China to do that for us, and we have just let it all slip away. Now we don't have the capability to manufacture almost anything. Even a simple screw, we don't know how to efficiently manufacture; if at all. Much less all those computers and smartphones that our society is so dependent on.
Yeah, sure, western countries design their products in the country using local engineers and experts, to the utmost detail. They might even build prototypes. But manufacturing the product en masse? It's always China, pretty much without exception. Ask any local company that produces and manufactures stuff, no matter what it is, whether it's high-end electronics or just simple home products, it's always the same: While the product might have been designed by the company in your country, 99.9% of the time the mass production will be delegated to China. Almost without exception. And why? Because it's cheaper? That's one part of it, but not the main reason. Which is, as mentioned: The company simply does not have the capability of manufacturing the product en masse in the country, and there is no other local company that will do that either. In most cases China is literally their only option. It's either manufacturing in China, or not producing the product at all. Those are the only two choices.
Which is really scary, when you think about it.
I fully agree with SmarterEveryDay: This is not how it should be.
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