Damn straight. Link: http://www.northcrane.com/2016/11/1...-in-talks-of-moving-manufacturing-to-the-usa/
Technology and supply lines have changed. Anyone think they use the same number of people to build a product now as in 2009?
Said it in 2012. Interested to see how much they really try to bring back from their slave labor camps.
They'll automate the hell out of it. But it would be good to bring back onshore, even if the workforce is heavily robotic.
Yes, it would. One major factory can significantly and positively impact not only cities, but entire regions, as auto plants in Alabama, South Carolina and a host of other areas can attest. And while manufacturing continues to be increasingly automated, can we stop acting like it is already and fully automated? Of course we know that you don't move and re-build fully automated - or even predominantly automated - factories from the US to areas of the globe which offer large populations of significantly cheap labor, for nothing. And you can love or hate Trump all day, but it's obvious that his vision to actively encourage factories back to the US, and to raise the possibility of penalizing them when they refuse, words merely spoken during his campaign and before even being sworn in, is responsible for these very early and positive indications that such is entirely possible to achieve. So much so as to make me wonder what Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama have been doing, idly watching as these jobs ebbed away to other countries.
My comment on automation was not meant to be a Debbie Downer. I like the idea of bringing work back onshore, and agree there are benefits beyond the net jobs. Maybe I've had too many conversations about this and I'm focusing too much on personal experience when it comes to automation decisions, but I feel it's worth mention. I believe there are three primary reasons the offshore work is not currently automated more: 1) Nature of job not conducive for automation. / Technology not available. 2) Labor costs are currently <= the cost to automate + ongoing maintenance/support. The cost/benefit ratio is not yet strong enough. 3) Politics.
