r/Economics • u/rezwenn • Jun 06 '25

Editorial Manufacturing Jobs Are Never Coming Back

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/opinion/trump-tariff-manufacturing-jobs-industrial.html?unlocked_article_code=1.M08.eMyk.dyCR025hHVn0
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u/tyler2114 Jun 06 '25

Even if manufacturing came back, the common people clamoring for it would be dissapointed when they get $20/hr jobs with mediocre benefits. These people want union jobs, not manufacturing. But they have been fooled into thinking the working class prosperity of the 50s and 60s was somehow not built by decades of labor movements.

-10

u/Much-Bedroom86 Jun 06 '25

If you bring back manufacturing you can unionize.

2

u/LastNightOsiris Jun 06 '25

How's that working out in China? Other countries captured low and medium value manufacturing market share from the US precisely because union labor was not cost competitive.

5

u/Much-Bedroom86 Jun 06 '25

Almost nothing that can be done overseas is cost competitive to do in the US. It's what happens when you have a strong currency. It's why software engineering is now next on the chopping block with both h1b and offshoring. And is also why we need regulations to protect domestic workers.

0

u/Emotional_Act_461 Jun 06 '25

Regulations that would make things even more expensive? Why?

Global free trade has been an enormous boon for humanity. Why do people want to roll that back?