We understand that China's (and other countries) low wages and high population lead to the US losing large portions of its manufacturing base, starting in the early 2000s.
But with robotics and engineering expertise, which the US definitely has, or can afford to have, why isn't more 'reshoring' happening via industrial robotics? Shouldn't this be our way "back into the game" vis-a-vis manufacturing? How is China outpacing us so much? Do we not care, are there technical barriers, lack of skilled workers in automation, too much of a head start with our competitors?
Curious to hear your thoughts.
ai_critic•8h ago
It might be helpful to start at the endpoint and ask: "Okay, we have fully automated factories and power and resources for them, all under US control...how do you turn a profit? What do we even do with that much surplus capacity?"
Not that I think this is a bad thing, mind you!
(I'll also point out that the assumption is that we don't have a lot of domestic industrial capacity which is...not accurate. Wasteful, overpriced, and in that weird slump of tech where we used to have really good tech and coasted for too long, sure: but, I'd double-check that the reality on the ground matches what everybody's claiming on social media.)