America Cannot Bring Home Manufacturing Anytime Soon, Maybe Never
Americans can be Racist and Poor, but They will Never be Racist and Rich
Current Democratic & Republican Policies Will Continue to Help China Surpass America as the World's Primary Superpower, Economically and Militarily (see Appendix I, for explanation of the Bipartisan policy failures; these have only been accelerated by Trump/Republicans since January 20, 2025).
To be clear, we cannot have a strong military without a strong economy! As America’s economy rapidly declines and China & India’s rise, America’s military will also rapidly decline. As America’s military declines, this will accelerate our economic decline.
Is the US economy in rapid decline? This article covers the how, why and when from wide angle view.
To start, America is ethnically or “racially” diverse. This diversity has and is being used by Billionaires, both domestic and foreign, to divide and conquer America’s middle and working class. In fact, the greatest achievement of the Super Rich has been to divide and conquer the lower classes (see the description of each class in Appendix II, at end of article). On top of the divide-and-conquer propaganda that relies heavily on anti-immigration and transphobic assaults, they also lie to their voters, making false promises of economic gain and government efficiency. However, a close look at their 2025 budget clearly shows their true intentions: tax cuts, subsidies, and lucrative contracts for Billionaires and steep cuts and higher taxes for everyone else.
The American economy isn’t collapsing in a spectacular, cinematic fashion. There is no sudden crash, no single triggering event. Instead, we are experiencing something quieter, more insidious: a slow-motion economic unraveling that threatens to permanently erode our national strength. If left unaddressed, the next 5 to 10 years could bring a generational reversal of prosperity, stability, and global influence.
Most Americans don’t see it happening. Why? Because the signs of decay are subtle but cumulative, scattered across labor markets, public institutions, technological disruption, and capital flows. They all point to one urgent truth: Only big, well-resourced, visionary government can pull us back from the brink.
In the wake of rising geopolitical tensions and calls for economic self-reliance, many American leaders and citizens have urged a return to domestic manufacturing. However, despite growing pressure to bring jobs back home, the harsh reality remains: the United States currently lacks the workforce, infrastructure, and educational ecosystem necessary to support high-tech, large-scale manufacturing operations like those found in China. This gap is particularly evident in precision manufacturing and tooling engineering, critical fields for the production of advanced electronics such as iPhones and computers.
The Myths of Cheap Labor and Simple Solutions A common misconception is that manufacturing left the U.S. purely due to cheaper labor abroad. While labor costs have historically been a factor, today's global manufacturing leaders offer something far more valuable: concentrated ecosystems of skilled labor and tooling expertise. As Apple CEO Tim Cook has stated, the decision to manufacture in China is less about wages and more about access to highly skilled workers and a robust network of suppliers and engineers.
The Tooling Engineer Shortage One of the most glaring bottlenecks in any effort to re-shore manufacturing is the severe shortage of tooling engineers in the United States. These professionals design and build the custom tools, dies, jigs, and fixtures that make high-volume, precision manufacturing possible. In China, entire regions are home to thousands of such engineers. In contrast, the U.S. has only a small and aging cohort of tooling experts, and few new engineers are entering the field.
The Educational Void. Our tooling engineer shortage is directly tied to a lack of emphasis on manufacturing education in the U.S. Over the past several decades, American education policy and culture have prioritized software and business over the industrial arts. Today, high schools rarely offer shop classes, and community colleges have seen declining enrollment in precision machining and manufacturing programs. Tooling Engineers often require a Bachelor’s degree, but in the US, Gen Z has been discouraged from going to college by Libertarians since that ignoramus, Milton Freidman felt college should not be publicly funded (Freidman’s idol, Ayn Rand who hated public investment, later took Medicare and Social Security; good me not for thee mentality of the sociopaths who now run the Republican party. One of Rand’s most popular books is, The Virtue of Selfishness, and one of her books protagonists was based on a serial killer).
To reverse this trend, the U.S. must invest heavily in education at all levels. High school curricula should reintroduce technical and vocational training, while community colleges and universities need to expand and modernize programs in mechanical engineering, manufacturing engineering, and industrial design. Crucially, more students must be encouraged to pursue bachelor’s degrees in these fields, which provide the theoretical and practical foundation necessary for high-skill manufacturing roles.
The Political Contradiction There is a glaring contradiction in some conservative political rhetoric: advocating for a revival of American manufacturing while simultaneously supporting policies that undermine the very education system needed to make it possible. Funding cuts to public education, stricter and more burdensome student loan policies, and tax cuts for the wealthy have drained resources from the public systems required to train the next generation of skilled workers.
Moreover, certain right-wing media and influential billionaires have actively discouraged American men from attending college, framing higher education as elitist or unnecessary. As a result, male college attendance has dropped sharply, especially in the technical and engineering disciplines critical to modern manufacturing. This cultural shift further widens the skills gap and delays any potential manufacturing resurgence.
Worse yet, broader societal divisions and prejudices often cloud collective economic judgment. Many Americans resist policies like free college or increased educational investment because they perceive these benefits as disproportionately aiding poor, Black, or female citizens. This resistance, rooted in racism, classism, and sexism, directly undermines the very workforce development needed to achieve national economic goals. In essence, the country is allowing cultural grievances to derail pragmatic solutions.
The Infrastructure and Ecosystem Gap Beyond the workforce, the U.S. lacks the integrated manufacturing ecosystems found in places like Shenzhen. These ecosystems include not only skilled labor but also local suppliers, machine shops, and logistics networks that allow rapid prototyping and mass production. Rebuilding such infrastructure in the U.S. would require massive, coordinated investment, public and private, over a period of decades.
American Workers are Unqualified or Disappearing
Our workforce is deteriorating. College enrollment has dropped by over 15% in just the last decade. At the same time, skilled immigration, the backbone of our tech, healthcare, and academic institutions, has plummeted due to restrictive visa policies and toxic rhetoric.
Meanwhile, AI is replacing mid-skill and even high-skill jobs at a pace that has no historical precedent. Unlike the factory automation of the 20th century, AI does not generate parallel waves of job creation. It replaces cognitive labor in white-collar sectors without offering meaningful paths to reintegration. There is no retraining program, no new sector absorbing these displaced workers. The result is chronic underemployment, growing poverty, and a generation of workers locked out of the future.
Dollars are Leaving the America
Corporations are flush with profits, yet they are choosing not to invest in America. In 2023, U.S. companies spent more than $1.3 trillion on stock buybacks. This practice inflates share prices and executive compensation while doing nothing for innovation, job growth, or wages.
Meanwhile, billionaires are sending their money abroad, funding "Freedom Cities" like the one in Honduras, buying survival compounds in Hawaii and New Zealand, and investing in foreign real estate and tech. The message is clear: they no longer believe America is a good investment. Capital isn’t just accumulating, it’s fleeing, and when capital leaves a country, so does the future.
Government by Austerity
While the private sector hoards and evacuates capital, the public sector is being gutted. The national debt has soared past $34 trillion, used as a pretext not to tax the rich, but to slash programs essential to national well-being: Medicare, Medicaid, public education, the CDC, the FAA, even the USPS. Trump contributed about 7 Trillion to our national debt and the Republican 2025 budget will add another 4-5 Trillion, if not more.
Yet these institutions (CDC, the FAA, even the USPS) are not wasteful appendages. They are the scaffolding of American life. When they fail, we all fall. But unlike the rich, most Americans don’t have a bunker in Hawaii or a backup passport.
Crucially, public investment acts as a stabilizer during economic downturns. In the 2008 financial crisis, it was federal spending, on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, and public sector jobs, that kept the economy from slipping into a full-scale depression. These programs not only supported individuals, but also kept money circulating in the economy when private investment dried up.
The same will be true in future downturns. If we strip away public investment in higher education, healthcare, infrastructure, and scientific research, we remove the very tools that can cushion the blow when private markets falter. Without that backstop, the next recession could be far deeper and more destructive.
The Collapse of the Middle Class
In 1971, the middle class made up 61% of American adults. By 2021, that number had dropped to 50%. On our current trajectory, we could see it fall below 25% by 2033. Meanwhile, the lower-income population is rising rapidly. Already 60% of Americans report living paycheck to paycheck. Homeownership is out of reach for many. Rent, healthcare, and education costs keep climbing. This is not just inequality. This is disintegration (this depends upon how you define “middle” class; in my scenario in Appendix II, our Middle class is much smaller due to cost of living).
Social Fallout: Homelessness, Suicide, Crime
In 2024, homelessness in the U.S. reached a record 770,000 people in a single night. Youth suicide rates are up 60% since 2011. Economic despair is now a public health crisis. Crime, already increasing in economically fragile areas, will only escalate as inequality deepens and opportunity dries up. What we’re witnessing is not moral decline. It is material abandonment (what I mean is systemic neglect: the economic, structural, and policy failures that have left Americans without jobs, healthcare, education, housing, or opportunity).
Meanwhile, the rest of World Moves Forward. While the U.S. dismantles its own foundations, other countries are investing in theirs. China, India, and the EU are putting public money into green energy, AI, infrastructure, universal healthcare, and education. Foreign capital is flowing to places with strong governments and strategic vision. If we continue down this road, the U.S. won’t just fall behind, we’ll disintegrate.
Why We Need Big Government. Republicans since Reagan have been complaining about “Big Government.” They have done this for one simple reason, Greed. They don’t want to pay taxes. Libertarian scholar, Murray Rothbard said at an annual meeting of the John Randolph Club in 1992: “We shall break the clock of the Great Society. We shall break the clock of the welfare state. We shall break the clock of the New Deal. We shall repeal the 20th century.” Rothbard was an influential libertarian activist, but has had more success since his death. Trump and his MAGA ideologues have taken up Rothbard’s call by “moving fast and breaking things,” as they seek to destroy the America created in the 20th century.
The truth is that Big Government is what made America its greatest, and the erosion of FDR’s policies and public investment is what is destroying America’s economy. We don’t need smaller government. We need better, bolder, bigger government. One that:
Invests in universal healthcare, education, and childcare
Invests in scientific research and public health programs
Rebuilds the middle class through wage protections and labor rights
Nationally funds retraining for AI-disrupted sectors
Heavily taxes stock buybacks and offshore capital flight
Reinforces institutions like the CDC, FAA, USPS, and NSF
Maintains robust public services like a post office, FAA, NASA and others
We need a government that doesn’t fear size, but uses scale as a tool of equity and resilience. The signs are here. The numbers are real. And the trajectory is steep.
Watch my videos about Big Government Here:
America’s quiet collapse is underway. The only way out is not through deregulation, privatization, or austerity. It’s through big, decisive public investment—the kind only a strong federal government can provide. History won’t be kind to a nation that had the resources to save itself and chose not to.
That’s why we need big government. Not someday. Now.
Reshoring manufacturing is a noble and necessary goal for economic security and technological leadership. But achieving it will not be quick or easy. It will require a national commitment to rebuilding the foundations of industrial capability: education, infrastructure, and workforce development. Until then, America remains years, if not decades, away from reclaiming its place as a global manufacturing powerhouse.
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APPENDIX I
How U.S. Policy Gridlock Is Helping China Surpass America in the Green Energy Race
The United States remains a global powerhouse in innovation, military strength, and technological leadership, but it is quickly falling behind in the most strategic sector of the 21st-century economy: green energy. While China builds a state-led industrial future, the U.S. remains tangled in policy gridlock and short-term thinking. The result is has been a slow but steady erosion of America's economic and geopolitical dominance.
To start with, China has won the Green Energy race. China currently dominates global clean energy manufacturing:
Over 80% of the world's solar panels
More than 75% of battery cell production
Near-monopoly on rare earth elements essential for wind turbines, EVs, and defense tech
More high speed rail than all other countries combined, 48,000 miles v. ~15,000 miles.
More EV taxis and cars than all other countries combined (~50 million compared to ~10 million in the US, ~20 million in the EU).
According to Bloomberg, China is projected to control over 50% of the global lithium-ion battery supply chain through at least 2030. This isn’t accidental. It’s the result of decades of centralized, strategic planning. While the US was spent 2-Trillion occupying Afghanistan, China was building massive supply systems for Lithium and other materials. While the US was protecting Middle East Oil supplies and subsidizing Exxon, China as growing its Green Energy economy which is where the future is regardless of what ignoramus F-150 truck drivers believe in Alabama, Kansas or Missouri.
US Bipartisan Congress: Ambitious goals but Incompetent Execution
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed under Democratic leadership, includes historic investments in green energy. However, much of the supply chain it aims to scale still depends on Chinese materials, and Oil Companies maintain far too much influence on the policies. Implementation has been slow due to lack of skilled labor, and poor cooperation or resistance at the State level.
On the other side of the aisle, Republicans frequently oppose climate-focused investments, dismissing them as wasteful or "woke." Many Republican-led states resist infrastructure projects needed to support a green transition. The Trump administration has been catering to Exxon and other petroleum companies, even Coal, which is like throwing money into a graveyard for cleaning tombstones; there’s no future there.
Despite some bipartisan support for reshoring manufacturing, there is no coordinated national effort to rival China's long-term strategy. Basically, America lacks a comprehensive, coordinated, stable long-term national economic plan. The fact that Exxon or Koch Industries can buy influence, and Green Energies cannot, means that America’s policies are decided by the walking dead.
State Capitalism vs. Market Fragmentation
China leverages state capitalism to strategically dominate key sectors. The U.S. relies on a mix of market-driven investment and local governance. We have a system that, while democratic, is increasingly disjointed, where rapid industrial transformation simply cannot occur.
Because Republicans and most Democrats accept what essentially amount to bribes from Exxon, Chevron, Occidental, Koch, and other petroleum corporations, we have no federal climate authority with the power to centrally direct investment, labor development, and infrastructure buildout. As a result, even when legislation is passed in D.C. that provides even small amounts of money, projects stall in red-state courts from contrived zoning battles. When projects are able to move ahead legally, they are slowed due to lack of skilled workers because we have not invested in workforce education; in fact, Republicans have been fighting to defund education and billionaires have been spreading propaganda to Gen Z to avoid college.
National Security Implications
Green energy is not just an economic concern, it’s a security one as well.
Batteries, solar tech, and rare earths are essential to modern warfare
Electrification is key to next-generation military systems
Supply chain dependency makes the U.S. vulnerable to geopolitical leverage
China has already signaled its willingness to weaponize its rare earths dominance. Without a robust domestic supply chain, the U.S. risks exposure not just economically but militarily.
Strategic Discord and Capital Flight
The U.S. is experiencing capital flight in green tech; in other words, we’re running out of cash investments. Despite tax credits and incentives, companies are offshoring clean energy manufacturing to Asia due to cheaper costs, the need for skilled labor and existing infrastructure, and more predictable, stable policies. American billionaires, meanwhile, are investing abroad in "freedom cities," for god’s sakes, survival bunkers, and foreign ventures, but not in American industrial renewal. Elon Musk is a prime example of this bizarre non-sense. Listen up America, we are not going to colonize Mars and we certainly should not be giving Elon Musk’s corporations to do that. We don’t need Starlink and Tesla is a failed auto company that launders tax credits for polluters.
Neither party has created a coherent system to link green energy investment with labor, education, and infrastructure in a way that mirrors China's incredibly effective and successful industrial playbook.
If America wants to compete, we must elect Congressman who genuinely fight for policies such as these (in my Substack, I have started listing actual Bills that you could send to your Congress person; I will continue to do this):
Create a long-term, national Green Energy strategy with centralized coordination
Treat clean tech like Cold War defense spending—a matter of existential national interest
Fund massive vocational and STEM training programs (get back to college and learn something useful)
Accelerate permitting and infrastructure development
Tax capital flight and reinvest in domestic manufacturing
Raise taxes on the Super Rich and large corporations so that the Middle and Lower Class pay zero in federal taxes stabilizing our the Consumer / Service economy
Eliminate tariffs and affirm our free-trade agreements with the rest of the world to stabilize supply chains and America’s global economic relationships
Establish a fair and necessary immigration policy and stop bashing immigrants with lies and propaganda
Democrat ambition and Republican obstruction are failing to meet the moment. Without urgent, united, and large-scale public investment, the U.S. will continue to cede economic, technological, and military leadership to China. The future won't be lost in a dramatic collapse. It will be forfeited, slowly and quietly, by a nation that once led the world—but refused to adapt when it mattered most.
APPENDIX II
Socioeconomic Definitions of Income Classes in the United States (household incomes, average household size 2.5; median household income is $75,000).
Lower Class (Working Poor & “Underclass”)
Income: Bottom 80% of earners; anywhere from $0 to $124,000, often below the poverty line or near it (32.3% of U.S. households earned less than $50,000 per year; 15.8% of U.S. households earned less than $25,000 per year; 8.35% of U.S. households earned less than $15,000 per year; about .2% of Americans are homeless, that’s about 1/2 the number who have HIV or are legally blind, for comparison).
Occupation: Low-skill or unstable jobs (e.g., retail, food service, day labor); high unemployment or underemployment.
Education: Typically high school diploma or less.
Wealth: Little to no assets; may have debt exceeding assets.
Living Conditions: Limited access to quality healthcare, education, or stable housing.
Cultural Capital: Limited exposure to elite social norms or institutions.
Savings rate: negative or 0% up to 6% annually.
Social Mobility: Very restricted; high vulnerability to economic shocks.
Middle Class (Lower-Middle and Upper-Middle)
Income: Roughly 167% to 332% of the U.S. median household income. In the U.S., this may range from $125,000–$249,000/year (household).
Occupation: Skilled trades, technicians, clerical roles, teachers, nurses, small business owners, mid-level professionals.
Education: High school diploma and postsecondary credentials; many hold college degrees.
Wealth: Own homes, retirement savings, moderate investments, but not extensive.
Living Conditions: Stable housing, decent healthcare, educational opportunities.
Cultural Capital: Familiar with mainstream norms, values upward mobility, education, and career advancement.
Social Mobility: Moderate; upward and downward shifts are common.
Lower-Middle & Upper-Middle
Lower-Middle Class: Blue-collar, Gray Collar, routine white-collar jobs; may struggle with cost of living (savings rate, negative up to 4 or 5%)
Upper-Middle Class: Professionals (e.g., engineers, doctors, lawyers), often with graduate degrees, higher savings, cultural influence (savings rate, between 6-10%)
Upper Class (Affluent & Elite)
Income: Top 10%, especially top 1% or 0.1%. Often $250,000+ annually (U.S. context).
Occupation: Executives, business owners, elite professionals, celebrities, or those living off capital/inheritance.
Education: Often graduates of elite institutions; postgraduate degrees common.
Wealth: Significant investments, property, and financial assets; multigenerational wealth.
Living Conditions: Luxury homes, access to best healthcare and education, financial security.
Cultural Capital: Deep understanding and influence over elite tastes, norms, and institutions.
Savings rate: 10% or more.
Social Mobility: High intergenerational stability; typically reproduce class position.