I am older so I do remember what the US looked like pre NAFTA and China being allowed into the WTO. You can drive across this nation now date the last major capital investments in most towns to when this started.
Yes, not everyone wants to be a factory worker, but factories and manufacturing are the hub to most of the ecosystem. The factory has to be designed and built, the workers fed and housed, power, transportation, raw materials, and on and on.
The other big issue is that innovation follows the manufacturing. When this started, one of the ways it was sold was that the US (and West) would continue to lead in development and engineering, just the low skill factory work would offshore. Now this is being lost as well. Apple may have already been surpassed in phone technology and chip design and manufacturing is next.
Yes, not everyone wants to be a factory worker, but factories and manufacturing are the hub to most of the ecosystem. The factory has to be designed and built, the workers fed and housed, power, transportation, raw materials, and on and on.
The other big issue is that innovation follows the manufacturing. When this started, one of the ways it was sold was that the US (and West) would continue to lead in development and engineering, just the low skill factory work would offshore. Now this is being lost as well. Apple may have already been surpassed in phone technology and chip design and manufacturing is next.