A very relevant recent story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43692677, the top comment especially.

I'm not American, I'm from the UK, but it's the same in regard to putting value in to people.

A worthwhile video on the topic of making a product in the US - although the purpose of the video is overall commercial (to sell the grill scrubber they designed).

Somewhat painful to watch:

* he suspects he's been had by a supplier reshipping from China. But fortunately honest about it in video

* has a sort of amateur feel - perhaps lack of experience developing a product. But great if you're an amateur.

* it isn't clear whether the scrubber would work very well

Favorite part: the 3D printed mold prototyping system

It's neat finding out that his earlier video on stamping sheet metal and bending it into shapes was actually him doing research for the handle of this scrubber.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDzBE6vz5r0

I think his video makes it clear how hard it is to make something made-in-america--even this product isn't. On the product front alone, people would be making a decision to spend ~5-10x something made-in-notamerica. gains from trade is a fundamental idea that has proven to be mostly beneficial to the masses. suddenly claiming self-reliance yields freedom seems very politically aligned.