Your next phone may very well be made in the USA

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Quite so.

The one hurdle I stumble over is how do you make a Western country competitive with the likes of the PRC, without causing a massive price-hike and without outsourcing employment laws to Beijing?

Yeah I've had similar thoughts in the past. We've dug a big massive hole for ourselves. I think the only way we'd be able to pull ourselves out of it is through a massive social effort with blatant nationalistic overtones to pluck peoples patriotic heart strings. I'm talking, major league campaigning akin to WW2 bond drives and what not, to get people to buy domestic products even though they are more expensive then the foreign counterparts. I think it would eventually run a full circle with the infusion of cash into our own industry. People buy domestic products, those manufacturers can afford to make more product, hire more people at the desired wages, and a not so vicious cycle repeats itself throughout the economy. (yeah i know, i'm just a regular armchair economist)

The trouble is, people either a.) Can't afford to pay more for domestic products or b.) will not pay more when they can go to wallmart.
Furthermore, the odds of a major social effort that is successful to persuade people is zero to none. So I really don't think its possible for us to recover, unless another world war erupts and we experience a full scale national mobalization akin to ww2; which isn't likely to happen, and nor should anyone wish another world war.

So in summary, we're screwed.

edit: As an aside, It took WW2 to completely remove the effects of the great depression, and bring the country back on the upswing. This (ww2 recovery) i think set the tone for the US economy, world status, and sense of self until the last few decades. Although our sense of self hasn't changed, which puts some people at odds with the reality of this new era in which we live.